On a very stormy Shabbat, with weather warnings all round the UK, a small, intimate but very active congregation were treated to a lovely service led by Rabbi Barry Baron who is the Chaplain at Colgate University in New York State. On the Friday evening before, he had led the service for the JSoc at the Penryn campus in Falmouth
For his dvar torah, Rabbi Barry took us on an historical tour of the week’s parsha, Chayei Sara, which happened to be his barmitzvah sedrah. We discovered when, how and why vowels were introduced under (and also, originally, over) Hebrew letters; how mention of Abraham meeting with the Hittites places the moment at a particular and identifiable time in history; that it is the first time a prayer appears in the Torah and, significantly, it is a prayer for someone else; and that the story of Rebecca’s veil gives us the tradition of ‘bedecking’ at Jewish weddings.
At the kiddush following the service, Rabbi Barry was presented with a Kehillat Kernow kiddush cup in recognition for his support for our small community.