Temple Aliyah

Weekday Evening and Sunday Morning Minyan | Monday morning Minyan | Shabbat Services | Holidays |
Summer Services and Minyan

All of our services are designed to be warm and participatory. We encourage everyone to come, to pray, to participate, to learn, and to lead. Anyone interested in learning more about how they can participate should contact either Ritual Committee chair Dick Schoeller or Vice President of Jewish Life David Lintz.

Weekday Evening and Sunday Morning Minyan:
Maariv services are held in the Chapel at 7:30 PM in the evening every Monday through Thursday, from September through June. The services last approximately 15 minutes and are led by volunteer members of the Congregation.

Shaharit services, which last approximately 40 minutes, are held every Sunday morning from September through June at 9:00 AM . We encourage all to attend these services, especially those parents who are dropping off their children for the 9:00 AM session of religious school or those planning to attend an Adult Ed or Men's Club breakfast afterward. Men and women are encouraged to wear tefillin. Help and instructions are available before the service starts for those who are not familiar with performing this mitzvah. Extra sets of tefillin (for left-handed as well as right-handed congregants) are available at the service. Instruction and tapes are also available for those who want to learn how to lead this service.

We view it as the responsibility of every family to provide a family member to attend at least four of these services each year. As a community, we have undertaken a commitment to have a minyan of at least 10 adults at each of these services so that those members saying Kaddish may do so. These days are assigned in advance. A group of Temple volunteers who have agreed to serve as minyan captains will call those assigned a few days ahead of time to remind them. Families who cannot provide a family member to attend on a designated minyan are expected to find a substitute.

For a set of lists of assigned minyan responsibilities for 5746 (2005-6), please click here.

We encourage our members to learn how to daven all or a portion of the weekday evening and Sunday morning Minyan services. Tapes as well as personal instruction are available for anyone wishing to learn.

Monday morning Minyan:
Shaharit services are held every Monday morning at 6:45 AM, lasting about 45 minutes. The services include a short Torah service, with members volunteering to prepare all or a portion of the weekly Torah reading. Coffee and bagels (and sometimes Danish) are served afterward. A small but dedicated and growing group of enthusiastic members has found this to be an inspiring way to begin the work week. We also encourage families with a Bar or Bat Mitzvah coming up that shabbat to join us and to read Torah with us.

Shabbat Services:
Shabbat at Temple Aliyah offers an opportunity for prayer, study, rest, and nourishment, for both body and soul, for adults and children of all ages and levels of Jewish knowledge.

Shabbat morning services are held in the Sanctuary throughout the year beginning at 9:15 AM. The services are led by Rabbi Perkins and Cantor Gelman, with much participation by congregants in leading the preliminary service and reading the Torah. The service is highlighted by the study of the Torah led by Rabbi Perkins, sometimes as a formal sermon but more often as an interactive discussion in which many congregants and guests participate.

On many weeks we celebrate the Bar or Bat mitzvah of children coming of age in the congregation, who read from the Torah and haftarah and give a short dvar torah (word of Torah). We also celebrate other simchas, such as baby namings, aufrufs (upcoming weddings), and upcoming trips to Israel, by honoring the celebrants with an aliyah.

Throughout the year we celebrate many special Shabbatot, such as Sisterhood Shabbat and Men's Club Shabbat, with the entire service led by members of the respective groups, as well as Shabbatot honoring achievements by grades in the religious school. We also have an annual Shabbaton weekend, during which we have a guest scholar in residence who leads the Torah discussion. Finally, one weekend each year, usually the weekend before Labor Day, we hold a Shabbat retreat at Camp Yavneh in New Hampshire. We arrive before sundown on Friday and stay through lunch on Sunday. The weekend provides an opportunity to spend time in study, prayer, shmoozing and recreation with family and friends away from the commitments of home. Please check the calendar for these special days. Anyone wishing to prepare a Torah reading or otherwise participate in the service should contact Ritual Chairman Dick Schoeller.

In addition to the “regular” adult service, we periodically have a Learners’ Service, which is led by Rabbi Leslie Gordon. This is a service that we used to have in the past, but we plan to have it again “from time to time.” This Service is held in the Library and goes from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. This serves as an introduction to those who are unfamiliar with the structure and individual prayers of the service. Afterwards, members join the congregation in the Sanctuary for the beginning of the Torah service.

We also have a full line of services for children. These include three different services by age group for children of religious school age, led by our teachers and other professional leaders. We also have services for families with younger children: Shabbat Yeladim, for families with preschool age children, meets
on the first, third, and fifth Shabbat of the month, and Shabbat K’tanim, for families with infants and tots 3-years-old and younger, meets on the second and fourth Shabbat. All of these programs begin at 11:00 a.m. Please check the Calendar to see if these are offered on any given Shabbat.

Following services, there is always a kiddush held in one of the social halls, where congregants and guests can meet, eat, schmooze, and linger. We also run a fairly regular program of Shabbat lunch study for anyone who wants to join in, studying a section from Pirke Avot (Sayings of the Fathers).

There are certain Friday evenings throughout the year when we have Kabbalat Shabbat services. These are usually associated with a specific event, often with an optional dinner or special oneg shabbat following the service. Check the Calendar for specific dates.

Holidays:
Evening and morning services are held for the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), the three festival holidays (Passover, Sukkot, Shavuot), Shemini Atzerit and Simchat Torah. Check the calendar for dates and times. For Purim we have a festive megillah reading in both the evening and the morning services We also have the reading of Eicha on the evening of Tisha B’Av, and this year we have begun also to chant Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) on Sukkot, Ruth on Shavuot, and Shir Ha-shirim (Song of Songs) on Passover. Congregants are encouraged to learn to chant all of these special megillot. Instructions and tapes are available for all who are interested.

Summer Services and Minyan:
During the summer, Shabbat services are held as usually every Saturday morning, beginning at 9:00 (instead of the usual 9:15), in the Chapel.
Our Monday morning minyans are held as usual, beginning at 6:45.
Evening minyans are held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays only, beginning at 7:30, and include both mincha and maariv services.
Sunday morning minyans are not held during the summer.
Additional minyanim are available at neighboring Temples; please click here for more information.
In addition, maariv services are held on Tisha B'Av, including reading of Aicha, together with a special program.