Members of Temple Israel of the Poconos congregational family brought their pets to the first ever Bark-Racha and Meow-Shebayrach Sunday, Oct. 29.
In honor of the Torah portion of Noah, Rabbi Mel Glazer blessed all of the family pets brought to the Temple grounds for the creatively designed ceremony.
There were a variety of dogs, an assortment of cats, a few stuffed animals including a pink flamingo, and a large, green, pet parrot.
The animals were treated to wholesome snacks during the blessing ceremony and the almost two dozen people handlers were provided hot chocolate and doughnuts.
Ellen Greenfield,a licensed social worker, and her therapy dog Annie spent time teaching all of those in attendance about the jobs and purposes of therapy dogs. She spoke about the value of having two or three pets to love and care for and how family pets assist each adult and child to be better people.
Temple Israel of the Poconos is located at Avenue A and Wallace Street in Stroudsburg.
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8 Responses
The worst part of this is that it is a takeoff of a Roman Catholic ceremony that is performed at some churches on one of their “saint’s days.”
What did he bless them with, that they should grow up to be ehrlicher chayos?
Just that they should not be vilde chayos is enough 🙂 🙂 :)!
How did they bring the pets….Ayyyyyyyyyyy….. Muktzah!!!
sorry, it was Sunday
V’ho-oifanim v’chayos hakodesh.
You must feel sorry for the neshomas of these people. they have a shefa of chesed and lieder found a foolish place to utilize it.
Congregational activities like this serve to make the youth search for more serious religious pursuits and bring about many Baalei T’shuvah. Great! Let them keep at it.
re:”family pets assist each adult and child to be better people”.
BTW, do they accord an equal amount of credit to Orthodox Jews they meet?
It’s a very silly and juvenile thing to do. One would think sensible adults wouldn’t go for this nonsense. Nebach