Dear Temple B’nai Abraham family,

These past few months, living in this different and challenging world, we

have worked diligently to determine how we best can share the High Holy Day season together in the midst of this pandemic, striving to balance our deep desire to come together after so long with the need to keep everyone safe and healthy. We would love nothing more than to return together to our sanctuary for the grandeur, beauty, and connection of the Days of Awe after months of being physically distant (though spiritually close!).

Our Temple leadership, lay and professional, including our COVID-19 Task Force, has come to the difficult decision that it is not yet time to return to our physical home for services. Health and safety remain our utmost concern, and we hold high the Jewish values of pikuach Nefesh, saving a life, sakanat n’fashot, not endangering lives, and kol yisrael arevim ze l’ze, each of us is responsible for each other.

Our plans for TBA’s High Holy Day season are dynamic and ambitious. Though we will not be together physically, we will be together as one, partaking in the worship, reflection, and spiritual growth of the High Holy Days.

The services we know and love will be produced professionally, accessible in your homes, and presented in a way that provides a meaningful and satisfying experience which can be adapted for you and your family’s needs. They will follow the same timeline to which we’re all accustomed, with the same musical and ritual traditions of our main sanctuary services. There will be plenty of services and programs for people of all ages, led by our clergy team. We will have additional online offerings designed to address this year’s unique circumstances that will provide means for sharing with our fellow community members in soul searching, reflection, and connection.

For the first time, all members of our clergy team will be delivering a holy day message. We will be asking for messages and participation from you as well, in the weeks to come. And, every family will have the opportunity during the High Holy Day period to perform tashlikh  on the Temple grounds.

We know that our members come to TBA to be with family and friends, and we know that many of us have been sheltering in place with our families. Where it is safe to do so and according to best COVID-19 practices, we encourage you to gather as families to participate in services together. Sing, pray, reflect, and connect as you always do. You’ll be able to share greetings in the comments section of the service streams. You’ll have access to a machzor and yizkor book in digital form, and physical copies will be available as well for loan.

It is essential, particularly this year, that everyone has a spiritual place to be for these Days of Awe. Therefore, our services will be open to all and we will not be requiring tickets for access to the 2020 Temple B’nai Abraham High Holy Day season. Please share access with your family and friends, in towns and far away, so that we can all be together, even if from a distance, in these meaningful days of reflection, renewal, and rejuvenation.

We’ll be sharing more details and making a few requests over the coming weeks. Please keep a close eye on your inbox. Meanwhile, let us prepare ourselves for a unique, memorable, and meaningful High Holy Days together with our extended Temple B’nai Abraham family.

L’shalom,
Rabbi David Z. Vaisberg
Cantor Jessica Epstein
Max Edwards, Rabbinical Assistant
Jeffrey A. Klein, President
Gail Milchman, Executive Director

For pastoral emergencies please call 973-348-5211. For other communications, the staff can be reached by email.

We are a congregation that is more than 165 years old that works together to define our own independent path. We strive daily to be faithful to the teachings of the Torah, dedicated to the acquisition of Jewish knowledge, and committed to the well-being of the Jewish people in America, Israel and around the world.

We would love to meet you.

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Live streaming will be available when Shabbat services are onsite.

Service Siddurs

-Friday evening: Kabbalat Shabbat, Siddur Hadash PDF

–Saturday morning: Shabbat Shaharit, Siddur Hadash PDF

-Saturday afternoon Shabbat Mincha: Siddur Hadash PDF

-Evening: Havdalah PDF

-Minyan of Comfort Ma’ariv service PDF

Join Rabbi Vaisberg, Cantor Epstein and Max  Edwards, Rabbinical Assistant for Shabbat Services on Facebook Live on the TBA Facebook page

Friday, August 14
6:30 PM Erev Shabbat Services on Facebook Live
Please note for those seeking to say kaddish, a virtual minyan counts when one cannot be present.

Saturday, August 15
9:00 AM  Parashat Hashavua: Re’eh via Zoom  
10:00 AM Shabbat Services via Facebook Live.
Benjamin Rosenbaum, son of Lori and Peter Rosenbaum, will become a Bar Mitzvah
9:00 PM Havdallah Service via Facebook Live

Zoom Tutorials 

Dear Temple B’nai Abraham Family,

This week we mark the end of Tisha B’av and the beginning of the seven weeks of consolation. These seven weeks, culminating in our celebration of Rosh HaShanah, are weeks which our Jewish calendar has designed for self-reflection, yet also in the TBA spirit, for social action.

In this way, we are excited to announce that TBA is taking part in an exciting initiative through the NJ Religious Action Center. The initiative is entitled “Every Voice, Every Vote.” It is a non-partisan, postcarding campaign devoted to combating voter suppression and disenfranchisement in primaries around the country, and later on in the generals.

We have set a deadline of Friday, August 14 for sign-ups from our congregation, and our goal is to have 100 members participate. It’s a big number, but I know we are up for the challenge.

How it Works:

Along with many synagogues throughout the country, TBA has become a “postcard collective,” marking us as a participating congregation. If you wish to participate, you will fill out this form. In filling out the form, it will ask you if you are a member of a URJ congregation – select no. It will then ask you if you are a member of a postcard collective – select yes. Then look for TBA in the list and select it.

Members who opt in will receive a bundle of 30 postcards delivered to your door, a script to write, and pre-printed address labels for sending. There is also a short, seven minute YouTube video on the initiative that we ask you to watch before writing your postcards. After that, all you have to do is write the postcard and supply the stamp!

The postcards are sent to people who are at risk of being removed from the voter rolls to inform them as such. The campaign is rolling – which is to say right now they’re working on getting postcards to notify voters in North Carolina, though in a few weeks that might change to a different state with upcoming elections and at-risk voters.

In today’s distanced world, this is a worthy opportunity to participate in meaningful action without leaving the safety of our home, and also a great project for kids and families with young children to take on together.

As we begin the process of lifting up our voices over the next seven weeks, culminating in the cry of the shofar, may we simultaneously work toward lifting up the voices of others.

L’Shalom,

Rabbi David Z. Vaisberg, Senior Rabbi

Max Edwards, Rabbinical Assistant

Janet Penn, Social Action Committee Co-Chair

Ruth Ross, Social Action Committee Co-Chair