Lehem Mishneh (Communitarian tea)

It is the tea meal served on Friday for those who do not have the financial resources or would like to be accompanied to start Shabat with a full stomach and their heart also filled with company and biblical words.

Meshartim (Community servers)

They are in charge of the organization of cultural events aimed at rescuing our people's heritage and providing our Jewish singularity to the building of the society we live in.


Ahat Esreh

It is our weekly magazine. Its name is also a project: being part of a vision where the Jewish component defines the field of n experience of plural manifestations. The editorial team assumes three main guidelines in their work,

Tefilot

Shaharit: Sundays 8am. Monday to Friday. 7:30 am. Minja and Arvit: everyday (even Shabat) 7:30 pm. It is modified according to the stars rise.

Courses

Adults: Mekor Haim (Jewish life). Thursdays 8pm. Parashat ha-Shavua Shabat 11:30 am. Mishnah. Shabat 7:45 pm.

Maagal ha Haim (Jewish Life Cycle)

The community walks along those who wish to give a spiritual meaning to their turning points in life and seek for being committed with a life where important events and celebrations are the starting point of the relationship with the community.

Brit Milah Simhat Bat Bar and Bat Mitzvah Huppah Guiur (Conversion to Judaism)

The life cycle

Most peoples in the world remember the different stages that their members go through in life: birth, teen age, madurity and death, as parts of the life cycle that, like all the stages in it, men remember and celebrate: rather on the turning point than during the stage itself.

In all cases, this is achieved by a passing over rite, a symbolic mark that establishes a before and after in the spiritual frame of those who go thorugh that imaginary border that accounts for our evolution and development as human beings, where body and soul are brought together in an only being.

Jewish tradition has made from these points, shared by the whole humanity, a sacred moment. Worshipping time, shared growth, getting closer to divinity. And this is done by specific rites; Judaism celebrates the step from thorough dependance to birth through Simhat Bat (for girls) and Brit Milah (for boys): the step from childhood to teen age through Bar or Bat Mitzvah; from teen age to adulty by Huppá; and finally the cycle is continued and completed through rites related to death, trascendental entrance to the eternal continuity of the poeple's life.


Brit mila

As social creatures, we give thanks for fatherhood-motherhood as a gift, present from God, who gathers and tie people together as the result of love. God gathers people at an instance for celebrating trascendence in love. By this celebration, a Jewish boy is officially brought into the Community, the inmediate environment that will allow his future development. He does so through the Mitzvah that the Torah prescribes. The latter consists of cutting the foreskin or prepuce and leave the mark that defines belonging to the Jewish people for its reproduction. As in many other examples of communitarian life, belonging to the spirit has a physycal brand of manifestation of the spirit, our sense of belonging to the Jewish people.

The ceremony consists of a serie of blessings where it is recognized the boy's entry to the pact that will link him with the whole Community and, by this, to the society itself. It implies thanking God, by naming the boy - a central formality, the way he will be named/recognized- name he will carry for others: and also thanks expressed by parents for being able to reach this sacred moment.



Simhat Bat

However less popular than Brit Milah, this joy that ties us up to life, giving birth to a human being, naming the daughter within our cultural environment is just an excuse to gather those beloved and dear for us. It is at the same time a trascendent act, as naming is provding a place, an identity, a personality. God changed the name of Avram for the one of Abraham in order to point out that our father will be father of many nations, and that change had a big impact on his future actions, not only at a personal level, but knowing that his behaviour will be reference for the future generations in the Israeli people. This is the trascendence of his name that sets one aspect of his soul. In the same way than Shlomo, a king of peace just like its root -Shalom- its names provides this meaning; its not a matter of arbitrariety, but somehow the result of a choice for a name to hold the eternity of the soul.

In our communitarian house, the ceremony takes place during Shabat -in the morninig or afternoon- bringing together the corresponding Tefilah. It is a very sensitive ceremony where, along with the aliot to Bible where parents thank God for making them attend that moment (the blessing Sheejeianu), grandparents and other relatives take part in it and, along with the parents, bless the little baby holding a Huppá.



What is Bar/Bat Mitzvah?

In the Bar/Bat Mitzvá we celebrate the passage of a boy/girl of our people from childhood to teen age. Asuming new tasks that will open in front of him new horizons of independence and autonomy, and that will transform the familiar environment in which s/he is raised. It brings growth among parents´ love, who gave birth to children as a result of their love, therefore learning to grow and co-operate in different tasks, together. Some as sons and daughters, others as perents. That´s why this is a fmiliar celebration and not individual.

Preparation in this communitarian house intends to link the specific values that the whole familiar group holds to accompany the children along this path turned into celebration; not only for the date of the celebration, but also for the on-coming days.

Therefore, we encourage the active participation of children and their families in this celebration. The intention is to turn Tefilah, not only aesthetically looked after by a litugical team, but also having a personal component from each Bar/Bat that makes something unique from the ceremony.

We also know that there is a deep belief about the values of our people as a Community. Building the Community is the richest ambition, although not the most explicit of the Jewish people, and specially for the families that approach our space.

We remember that Bar/Bat Mitzvah is sometimes the reason and excuse why many families get closer to the Synagogue, but our real task starts when the celebration comes to its end. When the enthusiasm for the ceremony fades out, and we see the size of our goal of communitarian building is cristalized. This happens when these people settle down in our house as an everyday reference, be it for celebrations or sad moments in our life, be it for helping us in some of our programs.