Services and Ritual Life

Shabbat services are held each week on Saturday morning; in addition, on one Friday evening each month we have a family-friendly Kabbalat Shabbat.

Check the calendar for the dates and times of the Friday Kabbalat Shabbat service. This service is especially well attended by families with younger children and begins with children lighting the Sabbath candles. Friday services last for about one hour. The services use the Reconstructionist prayer book, Kol Haneshamah. An oneg Shabbat follows the service; pot-luck dinners and other special events are sometimes held immediately following the service.

The Saturday Shabbat service begins at 10:00 a.m. and includes the Torah service. It lasts approximately two hours and we alternate using Kol Haneshamah and the Conservative prayer book Sim Shalom. A kiddush lunch is held after the service, and that is followed by adult learning on some Saturdays.

Families mark the occasion of bat and bar mitzvah at our Shabbat morning service. Other lifecycle events and simchas may also be honored.

Services are held for all major and minor holidays, sometimes in conjunction with members of Congregation Shaarey Zedek, the Reform synagogue in East Lansing.

Holidays are observed not only with services but also with community celebrations, tzedakah activities and big events like our yearly Purim spiel.

Congregational Policies on Religious Observance

In the Sanctuary

• Men are expected to wear kippot
• Men are expected to wear tallit when called for an aliyah
• Women are encouraged to wear tallit for an aliyah
• Writing is not permitted on Shabbat
• Photography is not permitted during religious services on Shabbat
• Sound recording is not permitted during religious services on Shabbat

In the Kitchen

• The kitchen is a kosher dairy kitchen
• Absolutely no meat products may be brought into the building for consumption in the Social Hall or classrooms. Fish is permitted.
• People bringing food into the kitchen are responsible for ensuring that the ingredients contain no animal products except butter, milk or other dairy items.
• Any package marked with a Kashrut hechsher identifying the contents as “Pareve” or “Dairy” is acceptable.
• If no hechsher is present a careful examination of the label must be performed to ensure there is no non-dairy animal component in the product (e.g., chicken broth, lard, animal fat, etc.)

In the Social Hall, classrooms, library, and offices

Writing is permitted on Shabbat in these locations for educational purposes. See Writing on Shabbat for details.