Shabbat Services

We meet for Shabbat every Friday night. If you’d like, we are happy to make matches between folks looking for home hospitality and those with extra seats at their meals every Friday. Just get in touch with Yonatan if you’d like a bit of hospitality.

Friday night services occur in two parts: Kabbalat Shabbat is a series of psalms sung to beautiful melodies – you can learn them here. This is followed by Maariv, the more formal evening service. Maariv contains some call and response prayer, a sung liturgy, and a silent prayer called the Amidah.

Most of the service is conducted in Hebrew. We have a Siddur (prayer book) that contains Hebrew, transliterated Hebrew, and an English translation. You can follow along however you feel most comfortable. Don’t worry, page numbers are called out from time to time in case you get lost.

Before davening (prayer) we have some light snacks, courtesy of the Faye and Simmy Davis Kabbalat Shabbat Fund.

Saturday morning services are fairly traditional. The different parts of the service – psukei d’zimrah, shacharit, and the Torah service – are led by volunteers or members of our clergy. Many different members of the community read from the Torah – if you’d like to participate as a leader, contact rabbi@kenesethisrael.com. If you have questions about logistics, Kiddush lunch, or anything else, contact Yonatan at yyussman@kenesethisrael.com.

After services, we have a communal Kiddush lunch (free of charge). You will find our services and the lunch afterwards to be a very warm and friendly atmosphere. We look forward to seeing you there!