Home > Blog > Shabbat Services > Saturday Services to Start Earlier
The pandemic has touched nearly every aspect of our lives. Families who were planning life cycle events found themselves rescheduling or postponing their simchas (sometimes multiple times) as health and safety recommendations and regulations evolved.
Now that Washington Hebrew Congregation has entered the recovery phase, families whose original dates have passed are eager to celebrate their life cycle events, and those whose simchas are upcoming are excited to gather together again with family and friends.
There is no such thing as too much joy, and our clergy are so very committed to the WHC community and partnering with families in these joyous times. To enable our clergy to lead services and officiate life cycle events during this time when our simcha cups runneth over, we are making minor adjustments to the start times of Saturday services and Early Torah for the next year.
Early Torah Study, Shabbat Morning, and Afternoon & Havdalah Service will each start one-half hour earlier.
Early Torah Study Join us at 8:00 am to read the weekly parsha (in English) as a community. Our clergy-led discussion will begin at 8:30 am.
Saturday Morning Services Shabbat morning services will start at 10:00 am and end at 11:30 am.
Afternoon Service & Havdalah When we have a b’nei mitzvah and hold and Afternoon Service & Havdalah, it will start at 5:00 pm and end at 6:30 pm.
Friday Evening Shabbat services are not affected. They will still begin at 6:00 pm.
Even small changes can be hard. We appreciate your flexibility and understanding as we start to navigate our “new normal” during the recovery phase of the pandemic. As always, we will welcome your feedback. And as the year progresses, we will determine if these new times are in the long-term interest of our entire WHC community.
If you have any questions, we invite you to contact Beth Donaldson at bdonaldson@whctemple.org or 202-895-6309.
