Category: Blessings

Video on How to Have an Aliyah

7/16/2019

Members of Netivot Shalom in Berkeley created a video showing you how to have an aliyah at their shul. It is primarily for the use of their members. But it is very useful to anyone wondering about how an aliyah works.

Please remember that this video includes elements that are unique to the Conservative movement and even some that are unique to Netivot Shalom. In general however, this is how an aliyah is performed in a synagogue. Women are not called to the Torah in Orthodox synagogues. Women don't always wear kippot (or yarmulkes) in Reform synagogues. The chanted blessings are the same in all synagogues.

View the video here.
Thank you to Robin Braverman and her fellow members for making this video!

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The Torah's Happy Endings

11/10/2015

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This week Beth Sholom in San Francisco shared this bit of information in their weekly email.

If you've attended shul on Shabbat more than a handful of times, you're probably aware of the fact that the weekly Torah portion, or parsha, is divided into seven sections. These sections correspond with the number of aliyot meaning "calling up." For each aliyah, a reader is called to the bimah to recite a blessing for the gift of Torah.

So, sure, you know all that...but have you ever noticed that each reading ends on a positive note, even those in the midst of a dismal parsha? This is no accident.

As this recent article in J Weekly explains, the Shulchan Aruch, our most widely consulted halachic code, cautions that "one should aim to always begin reading [each aliyah] on a good note and end reading it on a good note as well."

Rabbi Yonaton Cohen, the author of the J Weekly article, believes that the rabbis elected to break up each parsha this way to demonstrate what might be described as the power of positive thinking. "Time and time again," he writes, "those who divided the Torah chose blessings over curses, life over death, hope over despair."

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Going to the Mikvah: My Experience, by DL

10/28/2010

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Before I went to the mikvah my rabbi emailed instructions to me. Here’s what I was told by my rabbi:

The mikvah is at Congregation Beth Jacob on Park Blvd (in Oakland). You ring the front door, and I will meet you in the lobby. The first step is meeting with the three rabbis for the beit din. You need to bring a $50 check made out to Congregation Beth Jacob to pay for use of the mikvah.

At the Beit Din, the three rabbis ask you questions. These are not fact-based questions but questions about what you like about Judaism, what you are doing currently in terms of Jewish observance, what Jewish holiday is meaningful to you, what Jewish books you are reading, connection to Israel. These are some examples, but they can ask you whatever they want. Often they ask you about things you wrote in your personal statement. This takes 10-15 minutes.

After your interview, and acceptance (I am 99.9% sure you will be accepted)*, you go into the mikvah. Wear no jewelry or makeup. You undress in the mikvah room, and the rabbis are in the next room. When you're ready to go in the water, you go in and call out "ready." For men a male rabbi will go in, and for women a female rabbi will go into the mikvah to supervise the immersion. The other rabbis from the beit din will wait outside within hearing range.

Here is the actual procedure inside the mikvah:

You go under the water three times. Go all the way, so the water covers your entire body, and recite the following blessing. If you don't have it memorized you can repeat after us.

Go under the first time and this is the blessing.

Baruch Ata Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha'olam asher kideshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu al hatevila.

You then dunk a second time and recite the following blessing.

Baruch Ata Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha'olam shehecheyanu vekiamanu vehigianu lazman hazeh.

You then dunk a third time and recite the Shema.

Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad.

The final part of your conversion comes at synagogue, where we do a ceremony where you hold the Torah and we "name" you publicly.

*Of course, no one can guarantee you will be accepted but your rabbi will not take you before a beit din if he or she is not confident that you are ready.

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Video on How to Have an Aliyah

The Torah's Happy Endings

Going to the Mikvah: My Experience, by DL

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