Berkshire Jewish News (Beha'alotecha 5776)

SOCIAL
 
The Berkshire Women’s Rosh Chodesh group will be meeting again at 8pm on Wednesday 6 July at the home of Hannah Rudenski.   Hadassah will lead.  Topic:  Independence Day! US style.  
 Thanks to everyone who attended our Lag Ba’Omer Barbeque and to the JC for including such a lovely picture.  http://www.thejc.com/galleries/out-and-about/out-and-about-june-2016?img=10#gallery

Oxford Jewish Community will be holding its Kaytana camp again this summer for children aged 5-13.  For details see http://www.ojc-online.org/index.php/social-cultural/annual-events/kaytana

JCoB Shul
 
Thanks to everyone who helped to make our first anniversary Shavuot so special.  WE promise that the nachos sauce feast will now be an annual event in Reading!
 
Friday night services continue to be held each week at 7:30pm.
 
We will hold a formal Shabbat morning services again on Saturdays 2 July and 23 July.  On all other weeks, you are also welcome to join us for JCoB-I, a chance to daven more informally including reading and discussing the weekly parshah.
Thanks to a generous donation, there is currently no charge for children, students or low income adults attending meals at JCoB Central.  
For working adults, standard donations are: Dinners £15 Fancy lunches £10.  Light lunches £5.
We welcome your sponsorship so that we can continue to offer hospitality.
 
KOSHER FOOD NEWS
 
Just Kosher (justkosher.co.ouk) will be delivering food to Reading on Sundays 3 and 17 July.  Please let Rebbetzin Shira know if you require only a small number of items. 
 
Blessings (on Shabbat Naso 5776)
 
We hear it regularly in Shul, more frequently if we were Sephardi, and daily if we are living in Israel. It is a part not only of Jewish but also of Christian worship. 
 
The priestly blessing, in this week's Torah portion Naso, is a progression of primes, both mathematically and spiritually satisfying. The flow of words, conveyed through millennia of tradition, channelled through the fingers of the cohanim spread under their tallitot, take us back to the very beginning of Jewish worship in the Temple. When the Torah tells us that this is how we are to bless the children of Israel, this roots the tradition of the priesthood blessing some 3500 years ago. In fact, the oldest Jewish text artefact is a silver amulet discovered in a grave in Ketef Himnom in Israel with the priestly blessing engraved upon it. 
 
It is no accident that the words of three, five and seven. The progressive increase in the number of words implies an ever increasing and fuller blessing. Prime numbers have a magical aura, and starting at three (the male number) move through five (the divine number) to seven (the number of creation).  
 
The Priestly Blessing was delivered at the end of the Temple Service. This is why it was picked up by Christianity, whose ritual grew after the development of a separate church.  Christians use it at the end of the service in imitation of its Temple use. 
 
Today we Jews conclude our Amidah prayer and our grace after meals with the blessing. We also use this formula in our Shabbat rituals at home as a blessing for children, as well as at weddings. 
 
If you do one Jewish thing in your life as a parent, blessing your children is the deepest most connected thing you could do. If your Shabbat ritual does not yet include the blessing of your children you are missing out on a rare treat, which links you with the Jewish past and the oldest elements of our ritual and ties you through your children to the future. 
 
Shabbat Shalom,
 
Rabbi Zvi
 
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen’s article on the Devil and the Jews can be found on http://jeremyrosen.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-devil-and-jews.html