Help Mission Minyan Scribe Their First Torah

SF’s Mission Minyan has been using loaner Torah’s for their Shabbat services, Simchat Torah, etc. They’ve decided it’s time to scribe their own. They’ve done all the leg work to pick the perfect sofer for them in Israel. Now you come in, make this a personal Torah by sponsoring a word to a whole book. I’ll let the Minyan give you all the details:

What is a minyan without its own Torah?We’ve decided to get our very own. It is being scribed RIGHT NOW in Israel. This is a new Torah, written in a gorgeous hand by a scholar whom we selected after a long process of looking at calligraphy for beauty and legibility.

You’re invited to help out on this once-in-a-lifetime project for the Minyan.

Saturday is Jews’ Next Dor Shabbat

Spend Shabbat with the CBD community, as Jews’ Next Dor, Congregation Beth David’s Young Adult Group leads Shabbat morning services, and sponsors lunch this week. Come support Jews’ Next Dor, and schmooze over lunch. It’s our first ever Jews’ Next Dor Shabbat. All Congregation Beth David Shabbat services are open to all. Congregation Beth David is a Conservatice Synagogue associated with USCJ.

Facebook event

2 Minute Torah Podcast

Have you wanted to learn Torah but don’t have the time?

Our friends at KOACH (The College Outreach Group of the Conservative Movement) have come up with the 2 Minute Torah Podcast for us always on the run, no time to spare types. Actually it’s great for everyone to get a parasah preview. Each week a different guest teacher from throughout the Conservative Movement will share a few words of Torah. You can also read transcripts of each audio online. We’ve added their RSS feed to our right side column, under the Calendar of Events. You can also subscribe to their podcast via iTunes

Learn about this weeks parasah, Vayera, from Rabbi Jerome Epstein, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Feeling Lucky: Sergey Brin at my Silicon Valley Synagogue

A googley-eyed Oyster spots Sergey Brin & Anne Wojcicki at his shul.

Cross-posted from Oy Bay!

The Shabbat before last, I found myself walking into shul (minding my own bidness). I noticed that the parking lot was fuller than usual, and my suspicions of some sort of b’nai mizvah was confirmed when I saw that the sanctuary was full. Having danced my pants off with the Torah just a day before with the Mission Minyan, I was sure that the khagim had finally come to a close. So that wasn’t it. It was the friends and family of the b’nai mitzvah kid. Whomever it was.

As I whipped out my chumash and started following along the Torah reading, I soon figured out that it was a Bat Mitzvah. I didn’t happen to know the girl or her family. I was expecting some friends of mine to show up, so I started periodically looking back from my second-row perch towards the back corner of the sanctuary, where a late-arriving guest or two might sit down.

In the threshold of the doorway to the back corner, I saw a young couple standing. Both were dressed nicely for the occasion, with the guy wearing a suit (or at least a blazer). He had close-cropped brown hair on his head, and a goatee. The lady had brown-blonde hair, shoulder length, and smart stylish glasses.

I did a double-take. I recognized that woman! She looks just like Anne Wojcicki…

Am I looking at Anne & Sergey Brin?!?

Rejoice We Finished the Scroll–Again

Here’s a little amusing video on obeying the Torah or not; excuse the Yiddish.

Finishing anything is always cause to celebrate. Reading the end of the Torah scroll is no exception, and a great reason for a big Jewish Party every year. Even if you haven’t been striving to live a life of Torah, and reading a bit each week you can still celebrate Simchat Torah with the rest of us. Here’s a little video with a reason why.

We only get a short celebration, so come make it a great one, as we start reading The Book (Torah) over again before the holiday is through. (Is that how we know it’s a “Good Book?”)

Come get your Jew Groove on with CBD for Simhat Torah. For those that can take off work or don’t have class. I totally recommend coming for the morning service, when CBD unrolls the entire Holocaust Torah. You can see the whole thing up close and personal, and everyone gets an aliyah.

Congregation Beth David (CBD) invites you to join them for

Thursday, October 4
9:30am Shemini Atzeret
Hallel; Yizkor
7:30pm Erev Simhat Torah Service
Presentations to new Religious School students
Dancing with the Torah scrolls — join the celebration!!

Friday, October 5
9:30am Simhat Torah services
Dancing with the Torah scrolls – join the celebration!!
Unroll the entire Scroll!! –If you have haven’t seen a whole scroll unrolled at once, it’s quit a site
Finish reading D’varim, start reading B’reishit

CBD is located at 19700 Prospect Rd, Saratoga, Ca

And to get you in the Simhat Torah Spirit here’s another video, from our friends at Chabad.