It has been a long time since I have made regular postings to this list, but that is about to change. You should receive the first of a series of installments shortly after this message lands in your inbox.

I hope you have a chance to join us for services on Friday evening at 6:30, our new regular time. The service is very musical, as Kabbalat Shabbat should be, and lasts less than an hour. Instead of a full-blown sermon, I speak for about five minutes just before Ma'ariv. My goal is to build a vocabulary of the prayerbook to give us each more fluency in worship and to illustrate some common ground for our collective effort.

Usually, I will speak about one word. If you stick with me through the summer (and perhaps beyond), you will have the vocabulary to recognize much of the Hebrew. Relatively few Hebrew words account for the vast majority of prayers and hymns in the siddur. (Biblical passages are another story...)

Sometime during the week following, I will post the jist of my remarks to this list. That way, if you want to review my presentation, or if you miss an occasional Friday night, you can keep up with us.

I have set the context for the first dozen or so of these talks with a brief presentation on the brakha. You probably translate "brakha" as "blessing," but I am leaving it untranslated this week. As the summer progresses, we'll work our way through each word of the brakha before turning attention to the different ways brakhot conclude.

Please let me remind you again not to respond to this email address. I check this email very infrequently (it exists to give me access to this Yahoo listserv). I welcome reactions and comments at jmoline@usa.com.

Welcome back!

Jack