This Day – Family Service 16 May 2020
Our online Shabbat morning service this week was led by our Beiteinu students. Since the lockdown started in March, the students of our Beiteinu school have continued to meet online every week for their studies – even during the school holidays! For the first time this week, however, they have led the Shabbat service which was expertly co-ordinated by Beiteinu headteacher, Carolynne Farrer.
Opening the service with Mah Tovu (How Lovely), our guitarist, Vince Daly, updated the presentation he had given two weeks ago to include many images of our Beiteinu students from recent years which were shown as he sang the prayer. Introducing the presentation he said “the song is from Torah, and tells of how amazing the tents in the desert looked. But that was a long time ago, and I wanted it to be a song about how amazing KLS is”:
The students then took charge of the service, sharing the reading of the prayers between them. One of our students, Noah, is preparing for his Bar Mitzvah later this year so took the opportunity to practice his Torah reading:
The service concluded with an energetic, and somewhat chaoatic, rendition of “Yom Zeh” (This Day) led by Rabb René but accompanied by the students and other service leaders for the refrain. You can watch in this clip, (which also features the community singing Happy Birthday to student Ollie, and the Kaddish):
Speaking after the service, Rabbi René said, “Weren’t all the students wonderful? They’ve been so brilliant throughout this difficult time, coming together online every Shabbat morning for their learning and to see their friends, but it was fantastic to have them so involved in this morning’s service. So much energy, I’m so proud of all of them!”