Worship Committee

Worship Committee

The main function of the Worship Committee is to provide lay leaders for Shabbat services and other events in the absence of a Rabbi. Members of this Committee will lead services or arrange for qualified lay leaders to do so. Other functions include installing a mezuzah on the doorpost of a new house to leading services for life cycle events such as memorial services, either at the Temple or at members' homes.

The largest undertaking of the Worship Committee is to coordinate participants for High Holy Days every year. The majority of the members of Ner Tamid are involved in this activity, from opening the Ark to reading from the Torah. This Committee coordinates lay participation with the Rabbi and Cantor so the services will run smoothly.

For information, contact: Patti Turner

TORAH STUDY

On Jully 21st Ner Tamid began a Torah Study session. Lead by Cantor Patti Turner, we took a segment of the weekly Torah portion, read and discussed it for just over an hour. We plan on continuing this study every Saturday morning at 10:00AM. Please join us. Below are some comments from those in attendance.

"This morning I spent a very enjoyable, enlightening and challenging hour at Ner Tamid studying Torah and engaging in fellowship. It is an experience I hope will be repeated frequently. I think it is a lovely way to spend Shabbat morning. Please thank Cantor Patti Turner for her enthusiasm and leadership."

"The Torah study session that Patti led us in this morning was enjoyable, enlightening, entertaining, and . . . well, I ran out of "en" words. But you get the point. There are segments of the Torah that I always think, "Oh - that's not really very interesting," but then a knowledgeable person starts talking about that segment and I learn that I've really got a lot to learn! What's sad to me is that the pace of life today is such that there simply isn't time to do everything that we have to do, not to mention do things that we'd really like to do. Fairly often what gets pushed to one side are the "electives," and unfortunately Torah study frequently falls into the "elective" category. (So does attendance at services, but that's a subject for another day!) One very specific thing I've learned is the importance of having an annotated text to read from - there are so many cross-references from one book of Torah to another. The differences between, for instance, the Numbers version and the Deuteronomy version of a specific reading so often give such an in-depth understanding of the meaning of the words. Of course, those same differences give rise to more and more questions! But that's what we've got Patti, and Rabbi Leynor, and Cantor Bruce, and lots of other knowledgeable teachers for, and I for one am grateful for all their attempts to drum some extra knowledge and understanding into my hard little head. Thanks, Patti!"

"Thank you for a very enjoyable and enlightening hour of Torah Study this morning! The time seemed to have flown right by and I am eagerly looking forward to next week's session!!"