Announcements: Va'etchanan
Akiva Gordon
THE ORTHODOX MINYAN AT HARVARD HILLEL
Shabbat Va’etchanan
Shabbat: August 8th-9th, 2025 | 17 Av, 5785
NO DAVENING WILL BE AT HILLEL THIS SHABBAT. Additionally, we will be maintain the 9:15 davening start time. See below for details. For all davenings everyone is encouraged to bring their own siddurim/chumashim as desired— many will be available but it will not be Hillel’s usual capacity. Shacharit will be at the Law School like last week. Mincha and maariv will be run jointly with Kehillat Lev Chochma at the home of Talia Weisberg and Evan Crane.
This will be our last shabbat at the law school! For August 16, 23, and 30 we will be at the Sheraton Commander.
Shabbat Shalom! In this week’s parsha, Moshe stands next to a river and thinks about how God has forbidden him from crossing it. If Moshe had wings or strong swimming abilities, perhaps he could have gotten to the other side of the Jordan on his own. Unfortunately, Moshe was not a Mallard duck.
Mallard ducks were my favorite bird as a child and what’s not to like? They have all the normal advantages of ducks (including cute ducklings, multimodal transport, and silly noises) and they also have fun splashes of bright colors (even on the females, which is rarer for birds) and are pretty common in New England.
Unfortunately for Maya, who suggested this topic as her Purim Raffle prize, ducks also play an important role in the history of food preservation. Prior to the advent of canning, the high fat content of duck [meat] enabled it to be prepared as a confit, which
has a considerably longer room-temperature shelf life than most meat products.
When making a confit (which need not be duck, though duck is well suited), marinated meat is slowly cooked at a relatively low temperature while completely coated in fat (duck or otherwise). Since bacteria struggle to grow in such high-fat environments, the confit theoretically does not need to be refrigerated or canned.
Shabbat Times
Mincha: 7:00pm at Kehillat Lev Chochma (Contact Evan Crane for address)
Candle Lighting: 7:36pm
K”S and Maariv: Following mincha
Shacharit: 9:15am at Harvard Law, Wasserstein Hall, enter via the South entrance
Tot Shabbat: 10:30am – if a volunteer is able to lead it – please contact me
Latest Sh’ma: 9:17am
Mincha: 7:25pm at Kehillat Lev Chochma (Contact Evan Crane for address)
Maariv/Havdalah: 7:38pm
Sponsorships
Kiddush this week is sponsored by the minyan
Seudah Shlishit this week is sponsored by the minyan.
If you're interested in sponsoring in the future, please contact Adena (kiddush) or Catherine (seudah shlishit).
Upcoming Learning Opportunities
Write for the CanTab! Sign up here, or contact Ezra or Mike for more information.
Community-led mishmar!
Thursdays, after Maariv
Join us for community-led shiurim on a wide range of topics. We often order pizza, and there is always interesting discussion. For more details, please contact
Daniel Seligson or
Drew Gottlieb.
Discussion of Chaim Saiman’s Halacha: The Rabbinic Idea of Law, Monday evenings at 8:15pm. For more information or to request the Zoom link, please contact Mike or Ezra.
We are looking for more shiurim! If you are interested in teaching (whether once or regularly), please reach out to Ezra and Mike.
Announcements
New to the community? If you’re new to the community, please share your information here to connect with fellow newcomers and receive invitations from community members eager to host.
https://tinyurl.com/new-community-member
Sign up to help with kiddush! Having a robust kiddush committee is key to having the wonderful kiddush each week we've become accustomed to. Please fill out this form to volunteer to help with kiddush in the future!
Camberville Eruv: The Camberville Eruv is in need of new checkers! The eruv is divided into 3 sections, with checkers specializing in one of the sections. Currently, one section is understaffed. It is covered by only two teams of checkers, which means these volunteers have to check every other week! Are you able to help out and volunteer to check the eruv? Typically, the commitment is to check once every 3-4 weeks, but there is some flexibility with this. Please let the eruv leadership team know if you are interested or have any questions by emailing Amy Robert at info...@nceruv.org
Please familiarize yourself with Harvard Hillel's exits in case of emergency. In addition to the main staircase, there are exits through the door behind the men's section and through the door to the left of the elevator. I understand that this section is of minimal relevance right now, but I don't want to forget it once we're back. If you're reading this and disagree, let me know! No one wrote to me about this section, so I’m going to just keep expanding it slightly every week until someone notices. One person wrote to me that they noticed, but explicitly requested that I continue expanding this section, so here we are. We’re back at HLS this week, so the primary exits are once again the doors you came in. On the topic of exits, here’s a hot tip: We may be exiting the law school for the month of August. That’s right, I put real information in this block of text that no one reads. Our likely venue for August 16, 23, and 30 is the Sheraton Commander. After the 30th, we’ll hopefully be back in Hillel. Also another person noticed, so we’re at two people reading this whole email right now. Many more people have told me they read this section, which is good – it means I feel less need to paste in the entire bee movie script when I resign in three weeks. If you’re engaged enough with the minyan to read the emails thoroughly, maybe you’re interested in a board position— let me know! Did you know my thesis defense is in one week? It’ll be at 9am on August 14th at MIT – I will send more information in the whatsapp soon.
The ZA'AKAH Peer-Support Hotline is available as a resource to our community for those who feel they need to talk to someone on Shabbat. It is not a substitute for professional crisis intervention. Call, text, or WhatsApp 1-888-4-ZAAKAH (1-888-492-2524).
Minyan Times
(Services are held only if the status is listed as "ON" on the signup sheet)
Shacharit (M-F at Hillel)
Monday/Thursday: 7:15am
Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday: 7:25am
Mincha/Maariv (Location TBA)
Sunday-Wednesday: pending signups
Thursday: Preceding/Following Mishmar
Please check the signup sheet/whatsapp group for daily information.
Akiva Gordon
Please find the Cantab attached!
Please also
sign up to help us set up our last shabbat at the law school!
And we still need two more for mincha:
tiny.cc/fridaymincha
Shabbat shalom,
Akiva
Akiva Gordon
… and havdalah is at 8:38, not the incorrect time originally sent out.
Akiva
Maariv/Havdalah: 8:38pm
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