BEIT TORAH JEWISH CONGREGATION -

an Unaffiliated Jewish Community serving the Tri-city area of Prescott, Prescott Valley, and Chino Valley & surrounding areas.

Kabbalat Shabbat zoom 4 pm MST/ PDT, 5 pm MDT, 7 pm EDT during Daylight Savings Time Time every Friday eve unless otherwise noted here! please email ansheitorah@gmail.com to request link.

Parashah summary below at end.

Greet every person with a pleasant face.

Receive every person in a cheerful manner.- Ethics of the Fathers 1:15; 3:16"

Look deep into Nature, and then you will understand everything better." Albert Einstein

"We have not inherited the earth from our ancestors --- we have borrowed it from our children." - ancient proverb.

The pandemic is now endemic epidemic and continuing with the omicron variants! and then there are the flu and other respiratory challenges...Get vaccinated and boostered! Use masks when prudent. BE SAFE!

NEW!!! 5786 Free Calendars now available!

Please call if you want one. Anyone needing a visit or meal, please call to arrange.

ALSO: FREE 100% COTTON FACE MASKS AVAILABLE FOR PICK UP COURTESY OF THE COUNTY.

all email is answered. if you do not get a prompt response, please write again... the gremlins may have been eating the mail...RSVP 928-227-0582 or Beit Torah 237-0390 or ansheitorah@gmail.com

We exist thanks to the donations of our members and other interested parties. We are all volunteers and have no paid staff. If you would like to give a donation to help us continue our good works and pay for our overhead, please send your donations to:

Beit Torah c/o, 2004 Shoshone Dr., Chino Valley, AZ 86323

At present, we have weekly zoom Friday evening Kabbalat Shabbat service. Please contact for zoom access information. There is no Saturday morning service at the moment although Rabbi Adele has an open house policy for Torah Study all day of Shabbat - just let her know when you want to come.

Please contact Beit Torah 237-0390 for info or to arrange for special requests.

Our goal is to provide a safe place for people to go for spiritual enrichment and good company, in short a respite away from everyday concerns during the Sabbath and the Holy Days.

Also: Please be respectful of people with allergies and medical sensitivities by helping us make all activities free of fragranced products and other adverse odors such as tobacco smoke/residues, paint solvents, bug spray, etc.

Please note that we are meeting in private homes. Anyone willing to volunteer their home or with other ideas on where we can meet, please call 237-0390 or write ansheitorah@gmail.com -

Although we are led by Rabbi Adele, we welcome topic suggestions for these events as well as volunteers to help conduct the services and programs. We offer the opportunity for you to practice being a Jewish Lay Leader with hands-on experience!

Bar/Bat Mitzvah training as well as Hebrew lessons can be arranged on an individual basis. Topics to be covered will be based on requests. Conversational Hebrew, Basic Hebrew reading and prayers may be taught if requested. Call Beit Torah to arrange. For further information or directions to specific events, please call Beit Torah at (928)237-0390 or write ansheitorah@gmail.com

Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Iyar Shalom! Parashot Tazria/Metzorah 4/17/26 eve and 4/18. Yom HaShoah vHaGevurah [4/14]; Israeli Memorial Day [4/21] and [4/22] Israeli Independence Day. Friday zoom service for Kabbalat Shabbat 7 pm EDT/ 5 pm MDT, but 4 pm PDT and MST-AZ Please email or call for link. We encourage all to be prudent, cautious, and safe!

The 5786 calendars are available- call to arrange to get a free one! Torah services/ study also can be arranged.

Call 928-237-0390!

We often have a double parasha, reading from the combined Parshiyot of Tazria and Metzora. These are perhaps, for many, the two most uncomfortable portions of the Torah, dealing with all kinds of issues related to ritual purity and impurity. We are told Ritual impurity, or tumah, has nothing to do with hygiene. Instead, it is a spiritual state which prevents a person from participating in the worship life of the community. One becomes impure through a variety of means, all of which are perfectly natural, such as illness, childbirth, physical discharges and contact with a corpse. Purity and impurity are not related to good or evil. However, impurity is considered to be a spiritual disability... a distraction to attaining spiritual purity if you will... For example, Tzara'at, the skin affliction which is discussed at length in this part of the Torah, is not the biological disease leprosy (as it is has historically been translated - it is probably something more like psoriasis or impetigo, which are common in the desert) but rather a state that the Torah understands as the physical manifestation of a spiritual or ritual [or allergic] problem. This is not a medical treatise, nor are the Cohanim serving as paramedics. However the belief of the time inextricably intertwined the spiritual and the physical. If tumah is solely a purely ritual concern, then as the ritual leaders of the community, it fell upon the priesthood to facilitate purification for those who find themselves in a state of impurity.