Havurat Shalom

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Havurat Shalom Havurat Shalom is an independent Jewish community which uses egalitarian liturgy and welcomes folks o We welcome people who are exploring Judaism.

Havurat Shalom is a small, pioneering, egalitarian Jewish community founded in 1968. We are a lay-led congregation where people come to pray, celebrate, and grapple with Jewish texts and traditions and work for social justice. We welcome and include among our members people of all genders and sexualities. Our community has singles and families of different configurations, including interfaith families. Our building has an access ramp and we work to be accessible to people with disabilities.

10/08/2026

The word for this week begins with the letter “Vav” (ו). Here it is: וִלוֹן. It means “curtain”. In all honesty, this word is not a word that I'd (Aliza) consider essential for Jewish study and prayer like the other words. The problem is that it begins with a letter that comes at the beginning of very few words. As a matter of fact, in all my searches for appropriate words I have only one more word that starts with this letter. After that, we will have to skip this letter! There are a few occurrences of this word in the Talmud and it's used to denote a screen or a barrier. I'll be presenting two of these occurrences during our service. Think about whether a barrier is more often a positive thing or a negative thing. What are its purposes? When is it useful and when is it problematic?

If you want to talk about this more, join us for the Shabbat B'Ivrit service Friday at 6:30 on Zoom. Email [email protected] to get the Zoom link.

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10/01/2026

The word for this week begins with the letter “Hay” (ה). Here it is: הַלָכָה. It means “the rules of the religion”. It comes from the word הוֹלֵךְ which means "walk". How does a word related to walking come to mean "the rules of the religion"? Different people have different ideas about the importance of following the הַלָכָה and about how much of it to follow. What are your feelings about this?

If you want to talk about this more, join us forשַׁבָּת בְּעִבְרִית at 6:30 Friday on Zoom. Email [email protected] to get the Zoom link.

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See this month's blog post, in which Lori appreciates what it takes to make the High Holidays happen at the Havurah:
10/01/2026

See this month's blog post, in which Lori appreciates what it takes to make the High Holidays happen at the Havurah:

by Lori Meltzer

See the October newsletter:
10/01/2026

See the October newsletter:

Sad but true: sometimes old liturgical materials need to be sent to the g'niza. Thanks to Agudath Achim in Taunton for l...
09/29/2026

Sad but true: sometimes old liturgical materials need to be sent to the g'niza. Thanks to Agudath Achim in Taunton for letting us put some things in their g'niza.

Many thanks to Beverly Schwartz and Mark Neidergang for cleaning up trash from the Mystic for Reverse Tashlich this year...
09/23/2026

Many thanks to Beverly Schwartz and Mark Neidergang for cleaning up trash from the Mystic for Reverse Tashlich this year.

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113 College Avenue
Somerville, MA
02144

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+16176233376

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