| Purim is this Saturday Night and Sunday! | Davening & Megillah Reading Schedule As Purim falls on Saturday Night (Feb. 23) we'll be holding an adult-oriented (& child-welcome!) Erev Purim at Shul at 7:15pm. Sunday Morning minyan, which will also include Megillah Reading will take place at 9:30am. |
| Come to the PURIM CARNIVAL on Sunday, February 24 at 11:00 am ! |
| (Sunday, Feb. 24, 11-2:00) featuring carnival booths and games; the Shushan Salon featuring goofy hairdos, tattoos, and face painting; the "Morning After" Café offering great food for lunch/brunch, hamentaschen and strong coffee; fortune telling; make your own sundaes featuring Vashti vanilla ice cream; and Queen Esther's jumpy castle! Kid's Megillah Readings during the Purim Carnvial at 11:30 am for 3rd graders on up and 12:15 pm for kids Preschool to 2nd grader...and their families of course! |
| A Purim Poem! | Authored by Rena Dorph
illustrated by the Children of Netivot Shalom Preschool
Purim is one of the most fun holidays on the Jewish calendar! Rena Dorph wrote this rhyming book at her daughter's request so that they could share the story of Purim with her Kindergarten class at Rosa Parks Elementary School in Berkeley. | | Join Our List |  | | | | | | Dear Chevreh,
You might see me sporting a blue beard this Sunday at the Purim Carnival. ( It all depends on some spontaneous festive fundraising, but don't worry - I've already bought the beard-dye!) 
Purim at shul is going to be amazing. From davening to megillah to kids' megillah readings to the carnival, it's going to be awesome.
And we could use some " serious silliness", as Reba Connell put it recently. Lots of stuff in the air these last weeks that nudge us to remember the value of joy and gladness, costumes, excess, and silliness. You might hear some fake presidential announcements and papal humor Saturday night. You'll just have to be there to find out!
My colleague Rabbi Nicole Guzik shared a beautiful Purim teaching recently, in which she points to a famous phrase in the Megillah, "v'nahafoch hu / and it reversed", a message about the Megillah's plot. But, deeper than that, Rabbi Guzik teaches that Purim is about: turning things about, seeing the opposite, or watching something unravel and turn backwards. ...But while the holiday of Purim is meant to be joyous and cheerful, there is more meaning to the celebration than meets the eye. What does it mean to engage in a day that throws all order, structure, and planned endings out the window? The story of Purim reminds us that no matter how settled we are in our routines or secure we are in our lives, with a blink of an eye, everything can turn upside down. ...[And so,] the question is not whether or not these kinds of days exist; the question is, when we experience v'nahafoch hu, what tools do we have to hang on? Chevreh, the world we live in can be quite topsy turvy. These last weeks have held many heavy moments for many members of Netivot Shalom. I'm so deeply proud of all we do as a community to support each other in moments of need. They certainly do come often sometimes. So, what I guess I'm saying is: I'm really looking forward to my blue beard. I hope you'll show up to Megillah and Minyan and Carnival and be really, really silly.
I wish us all a silly, upside-down Purim, one that will turn our sadness right into gladness. Ease your troubles, that's what it'll do! (I believe that's a quote from the Talmud, but,  then again, it might be Rod Stewart...) Shabbat Shalom, and Chag Purim Sameach! Rabbi Creditor
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