Announcements: Ekev
Akiva Gordon
THE ORTHODOX MINYAN AT HARVARD HILLEL
Shabbat Va’etchanan
Shabbat: August 15th-16th, 2025 | 24 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 SHERATON COMMANDER. Mincha and maariv will be run jointly with Kehillat Lev Chochma at the home of Talia Weisberg and Evan Crane.
We are not at our previous location! For August 16, 23, and 30 we will be at the Sheraton Commander.
Shabbat Shalom! In this week’s parsha, Moshe recounts how God chose to share a ton of commandments with him, but, of course, the community turned away from the law, so he had to go back and share a ton more commandments. Of course, you can’t spell “Sheraton Commander” (where we’ll be having davening this week, don’t forget – not the old location) without “can,” which is ironic since hotels are one of the few places where cans are really irrelevant.
When you go on a long journey, such as the trek from Harvard Hillel to the Sheraton Commander, which requires one to go past the yard, along Garden St to the far side of the common where you can find our davening location this week, it’s important to bring enough food with you, but not all canned foods last similar amounts of time.
As we’ve discussed previously, canning different kinds of food requires different techniques to adequately eradicate botulism, but once properly canned, they still won’t last forever. While some meats (due to high fat and protein content) can last decades canned, vegetables and legumes last only about five years, and fruit can expire even more quickly (due to the botulism spores only being impeded but not destroyed by the acid and water-bath canning process).
Of course, while these kinds of considerations are very important for a 38-year-long desert trek, they’re somewhat less important for a sub-hour walk to our latest davening location at the Sheraton Commander.
Shabbat Times
Mincha: 7:00pm at Kehillat Lev Chochma (Contact Evan Crane for address)
Candle Lighting: 7:26pm
K”S and Maariv: Following mincha
Shacharit: 9:15am
at the Sheraton Commander
Tot Shabbat: 10:30am – if a volunteer is able to lead it – please contact me
Latest Sh’ma: 9:21am
Mincha: 7:15pm at Kehillat Lev Chochma (Contact Evan Crane for address)
Maariv/Havdalah: 8:28pm
Sponsorships
Kiddush this week is co-sponsored by Alison and Moshe Gordon in honor of Akiva defending his thesis and by Harvard Hillel in honor of the construction hopefully ending very soon
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
Ezra.
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. According to all known laws
of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care
what humans think is impossible. Okay, I’m not actually going to do the whole script, since it’s really long. I will, however, include this link for anyone who really wanted to see the whole thing, as well as this link for anyone who really wants to read a different 13000-word document with minimal relevance to the minyan. Here’s also a third link for anyone who was upset that it wasn’t either of the previous links. This will most-likely be my last email as I will be resigning effective 8/18 at our board meeting in which a replacement chair will hopefully be selected. It’s been an honor to serve and I will miss you all.
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
Shabbat shalom, please find the cantab attached.
Akiva
From: Akiva Gordon
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2025 8:10 PM
To: or-m...@googlegroups.com; Harvard Hillel Orthodox Minyan Misc. <or-miny...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Announcements: Ekev
THE ORTHODOX MINYAN AT HARVARD HILLEL
Shabbat Ekev