Todah Rabbah to three synagogue households who have lovingly enhanced the quality, sanctity and comfort of our morning minyan.

Len Wanetik, our immediate past president, has recently completed his Guide to the Daily Morning Service, and this gem of a text is now available for your use in our morning minyan. Len has gone through the entire morning service, page by page, prayer by prayer, and brought clarity to what for many is a mysterious 30 minutes.

How many of you have come to participate in the daily Shacharit, happy to help make the minyan, but have felt truly unfamiliar with the large number of unexplained practices? We stand, we sit, we bow, we lean, we walk backward and forward, we hold the tzitzit, we kiss the tzitzit, we drop the tzitzit, we sing aloud, we pray silently, etc, etc. Len Wanetik has provided clearly written instruction and explanations and his guide will make your experience at the service more meaningful.

Nancy and Mike Kaplan have generously donated to our synagogue many copies of The Kaddish Minyan, edited by Rabbi Herbert Yoskowitz of our neighboring congregation, Adat Shalom. The Kaddish Minyan is a short, yet eloquent description of the Mourners Kaddish, and all that its recitation can mean to the mourner who attends the minyan. Thanks to the generosity of the Kaplan family, The Kaddish Minyan can now be found in our daily minyan room, and can help both the mourner and non-mourner to better appreciate the mystery of the Kaddish.

The Weiner family -- Dan, Lisa, Jason and Adam -- have generously donated five new sets of tefillin for use at our daily service. Tefillin are the black leather boxes, containing scrolls of Torah text that are worn at every morning service, except on Shabbat and major holidays. The computers in the minyan room already contain an instructional video regarding the wearing of tefillin. Just follow the directions to "boot up" the computers and the rest is easy!

Tefillin are required for Jewish adult men. Women are permitted to assume the practice of wearing tefillin, and pre-Bar Mitzvah boys must learn to wear tefillin prior to turning 13. While each appropriate individual should own tefillin, it is nonetheless practical and helpful for there to be extra sets at the synagogue for public use, and we are grateful to the Weiners for upgrading our supply.