FRIDAY NIGHT 2/13

Hillel Dinner this Friday Night will be in the Assembly Hall on the 2nd floor of the Campus Center. That’s the room with the very unusual and unique 3D mural on the back wall made up of eclectic and random objects all painted white. Actually, in years past, Hillel dinners were held there quite often before the move upstairs to Room 375.

They say it will be exceptionally cold out the entire weekend but especially at nighttime. So be sure to dress the part. Layers, hats, scarves whatever it takes to come out and celebrate Shabbat as a campus community.

SHABBOS DAY 2/14

Raizy is away at her conference, but yes – we will be having Shabbos Day Minyan and Lunch at Shabbos House. Special guests this week are Rabbi Avraham Laber and his boys, as his wife and girls are also away in Brooklyn for this mega Chabad Womens Conference. Rabbi Laber is a colleague and friend, both from Capital Region Chabad and from our yeshiva days, and our children are close friends as well. He is both scholarly and hands-on, with special expertise in bee-keeping and gardening and in genealogical research using gravestones.

Minyan may be a little tighter than usual, since a bunch of regulars will be away this weekend leading up to UAlbany and Shabbos House alumni Ben and Stephanie’s wedding, and for other plans. But we should be OK, come if you can, when you can.

This week we read Parsha Mishpatim, which deals with many civil laws such as financial disputes and property damages. There’s lots of Talmudic Civil Law based on specific words and phrases in this week’s Torah portion. We also read an additional reading, the first of four special readings this season (see this coming week’s TorahTuesday class on this) called “Shekalim”. We bless the new month of Adar, in which Purim is celebrated… don’t forget that #Purim2015iscoming! (not to early to think about costume to wear or what carnival booth you might like to run…)

Yes, we do read Mishpatim and Shekalim and bless the month of Adar, but no doubt February 14th is on many people’s minds, too, so we’ll try to work that in, too, as a Dvar Torah life-message.

SUNDAY 2/15

We’re cancelling Minyan Brunch this Sunday because of Ben and Steph’s wedding but we will be back on next week! We have Tefillin to wear and some Talmud to learn… let’s keep it going strong!