2610 Pioneer Avenue
Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001
(307) 634 - 3052
[email protected]
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Mt. Sinai Cookbooks - Click Here.
Photos Courtesy of Louis Davidson, Synagogues360.org
Shabbat Services
Please join us for Shabbat services every Friday evening at 7 PM. Shabbat Services are also held on select Saturdays at 10 AM. Friday night and scheduled Saturday morning services are announced on our website, Facebook page, and our weekly newsletter. Our services are in person and online through Zoom. At the conclusion of services, enjoy our Oneg Shabbat.
Shabbat Services are led by lay leaders and visiting Rabbis. Mt. Sinai is currently conducting a search for a new Rabbi.
Coming Up
Tuesday, February 10 – 12 noon – Torah Tuesday led by Jason Bloomberg. Bring your lunch, learn, and discuss..Friday, February 13 – 7 PM – Scholar in Residence Weekend! Erev Shabbat Service led by Rabbi Evette Lutman, in person and via Zoom. We’ll open the Zoom meeting at 6:30 so people can chat. Services begin at 7:00. Please email [email protected] to receive the Zoom link..Saturday, January 14 – 10 AM – Shabbat Morning Service with Torah Service (if minyan present – please help us “make minyan”) followed by a luncheon in honor of Rabbi Lutman being our Scholar In Residence. We’ll open the Zoom meeting at 9:30 so people can chat. Services begin at 10. Please email [email protected] to receive the Zoom link..Saturday, January 14 – 4:30 PM – Adult Education presentation by Rabbi Lutman on the topic of Beginning Mussar. The Practice of Mussar is a Jewish approach to living and behaving ethically via character improvement..Saturday, January 14 – 6 PM – Havdalah service with Rabbi Lutman..Saturday, January 14 – 6:15 – 8:30 PM – Dinner and Movie followed by discussion with Rabbi Lutman. Bring a meatless pizza to share, or enjoy what others have brought as we chew on more than our food with a film that explores being LGBTQ and an Orthodox Jew on this weekend where love is celebrated. We will be showing “Trembling Before G-D” a documentary from 2001..Sunday, February 15 – 12 noon – Sisterhood meeting..Sunday, February 15 – 3 PM – Israeli Dancing will be on break..Monday, February 16 – 5:30 PM – Bibles and Beer in person at Uncle Charlie’s and via Zoom. Jason Bloomberg is the moderator. Please email [email protected] if you want to be added to the list of those sent the Zoom link each week..Tuesday, February 17 – 12 noon – Torah Tuesday led by Jeff Weinstein. Bring your lunch, learn, and discuss..Wednesday, February 18 – 6:30 PM – Board Meeting via Zoom..Friday, February 20 – 7 PM – Erev Shabbat service in person and via Zoom. We’ll open the Zoom meeting at 6:30 so people can chat. Services begin at 7:00. Please email [email protected] to receive the Zoom link..Sunday, February 22 – 3 PM – Israeli Dancing returns – come join us!.Monday, February 23 – 5:30 PM – Bibles and Beer in person at Uncle Charlie’s and via Zoom. Jason Bloomberg is the moderator. Please email [email protected] if you want to be added to the list of those sent the Zoom link each week..Tuesday, February 24 – 12 noon – Torah Tuesday led by Jeff Weinstein. Bring your lunch, learn, and discuss.SAVE THE DATE!.Our next Hadassah book group read will be the newly-released “Heart of a Stranger” by Angela Buchdahl. We will meet in person on Sunday, February 22nd at 4:00 p.m. at Wendy Berelson’s residence. If you cannot make it in person here is the Zoom link: https://uwyo.zoom.us/j/97577056507Amazon writes: “Angela Buchdahl was born in Seoul, the daughter of a Korean Buddhist mother and Jewish American father. Profoundly spiritual from a young age, by sixteen she felt the first stirrings to become a rabbi. Despite the naysayers and periods of self-doubt—Would a mixed-race woman ever be seen as authentically Jewish or chosen to lead a congregation?—she stayed the course, which took her first to Yale, then to rabbinical school, and finally to the pulpit one of the largest, most influential congregations in the world.
Today, Angela Buchdahl inspires Jews and non-Jews alike with her invigorating, joyful approach to worship and her belief in the power of faith, gratitude, and responsibility for one another, regardless of religion. She does not shy away from difficult topics, from racism within the Jewish community and the sexism she confronted when she aspired to the top job to rising antisemitism today. Buchdahl teaches how these challenges, which can make one feel like a stranger, can ultimately be the source of our greatest empathy and strength.
Angela Buchdahl has gone from outsider to officiant, from feeling estranged to feeling embraced—and she’s emerged with a deep conviction that we are all bound to a larger whole and mission. She has written a book that is both memoir and spiritual guide for everyday living, which is exactly what so many of us crave right now.
Weekly Message from the Board President
Next weekend, we will have another Scholar in Residence visiting Mt. Sinai. She is Rabbi Evette Lutman. She will be leading services Friday night and Saturday morning (yes, we will have services Saturday morning.) She is not a candidate for our Religious Leader position. She will also teach a class Saturday afternoon, and she sent us a description of what she will be talking about:
Beginning Mussar Teacher: Rabbi Evette Lutman
The Practice of Mussar is a Jewish approach to living and behaving ethically via character improvement. We use accessible tools, called middot – character traits by which we measure our growth. By studying these traits and the suggestions of the Mussar masters, we come to a better understanding of why we sometimes behave in a manner out-of-synch with who we believe ourselves to be.
Our animal drives often step into the ring with our higher selves and fight it out. Mussar helps us prepare for the battle and grow from the outcome.
We’ll use an excerpt on Humility from Everyday Holiness, the Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar, by Alan Morinis, as our discussion prompter. We’ll also make use of modern scientific theory such as Cognitive Dissonance, to further our understanding of why we make the choices we do.
While Mussar is a Jewish approach, its study/practice is not exclusively Jewish. People of diverse spiritual paths can learn and participate together. So bring a friend!
Rabbi Lutman’s class will run from 4:30 to 5:30, and it will be followed by a Havdalah service.
Then the plan is to show a movie in the Synagogue. Jason Bloomberg sent us a description:
Bring a meatless pizza to share or enjoy what others have brought as we chew on more than our food with a film that explores being LGBTQ and an Orthodox Jew on this weekend where love is celebrated. While our community is “egalitarian” and non-discriminatory, that is not true of all Jewish communities as well as many other Non-Jewish communities. We have had LGBTQ members and even offered a job or taken applications from LGBTQ Rabbis. Ultimately, they have turned us down, not because of our community, but because of perceptions of intolerance concerning Wyoming or even Cheyenne based upon the murder of Matthew Shepard and annual legislative bills which negatively impact LGBTQ people. As the only synagogue in Cheyenne, we have to navigate being welcoming to all Jews without being overtly political in a manner which divides our community. We do this as best as we have been able, but is there anything more we should be doing? This will be part of our discussion after the film we will be showing “Trembling Before G-D” a documentary from 2001. We are extremely fortunate to have Rabbi Evette Lutman to be part of this discussion as she can share her experiences and insights of being a woman, lesbian, Reconstructionist Rabbi who is married and had to think about this type of question when looking for work and being at pulpit over the course of her career.
Advisement for parents – the film and discussion afterward will discuss aspects of human sexuality you will need to decide whether or not is age appropriate for your children to be present for.
A couple of other quick reminders – our Mt. Sinai Library has decided it to no longer needs some desks as part of its reorganization. So we’re giving them away for free. They are full sized desks, suitable for home or office. If you’d like to get a free desk, please contact the Synagogue office. You’ll have to pick them up – we can’t deliver them.
If no one wants the desks, we’ll donate them to a local charity.
The library has also set aside several dozen books it would like to give away. They are books that are either duplicates or don’t fit with the plans for the new library. They’re also free, and if no one wants them, we’ll also donate them.
Contact the Synagogue office for either the books or the desks.
Here’s our Yiddish Phrase of the Week:
Az men ken nit baysn zol men di tseyn nit vayzn.
If you can’t bite, don’t show your teeth.
Shalom,
Dave Lerner
President
Mt. Sinai Board of Directors
February Birthdays
3 Courtney Schlisserman
12 Susan Mervis
15 Sherri Means
Steve Weinstein
14 Rayette Reece
19 Jonathan Savelle
23 Liam Linn
23 Dovi Mendelsohn
27 Judy Brown
29 Ian Fromme
29 Emily Price