Our prayer life at Shelter Rock is one of the pillars on which the community stands. All are always welcome. We are particularly proud of our daily minyan, which provides morning and evening services in our small chapel every weekday of the year. The religious services held in our magnificent sanctuary on Shabbat and on every festival day are also a large part of what we do at Shelter Rock. There are always people ready to help newcomers find their place and to get themselves organized.
We use our own prayerbook at Shelter Rock. Called Siddur Tzur Yisrael, after the Hebrew name of the congregation, the prayerbook was published in 2006 in two volumes, one for weekday use and one for Shabbat and festivals. The prayerbook provides detailed instructions for participation in the service, as well as English translations of all the prayers we recite at Shelter Rock and a wide-range of extensive study texts designed to provide breadth and depth to the worship experience.
Our Shabbat worship at Shelter Rock features a full reading of the weekly Torah portion. Individuals able to read from the scroll are welcome to sign up for specific aliyot; people eager to read and untrained in the specific skill of reading Torah and Haftarah are welcome to learn. Over the years, many of our best Torah readers began with very small sections and then went on to tackle longer, more complicated portions.
We are an egalitarian synagogue. While our prayer service at Shelter Rock is traditional we endeavor to make everyone feel at home and welcome. One of the hallmarks of worship at Shelter Rock, in fact, is our commitment to inclusivity; we endeavor never for No one feels as an outsider because of age, gender, background, level of observance, or education. In keeping with the prophet’s ancient words, we wish for our house to function as a house of prayer for all people.
The schedule of services and links to livestream our Daily and Shabbat services are posted HERE.