This Week
Shabbos Times
This Week
22 October 2026 -
11 Cheshvan 5787
Candle Lighting at 5:35 pm
Service Times
This Week
This week’s Sedra -
LECH-LECHA
ALL SERVICES AT IFS
FRIDAY - 23 OCTOBER
Shacharis 7:30 am
Mincha, Kabbalos Shabbos, Ma'ariv
and candle lighting 5:35 pm
SHABBOS - 24 OCTOBER
Shacharis 9:15 am
Mincha, Seuda and Ma'ariv 5:05 pm
Shabbos goes out 6:40 pm
SUNDAY - 25 OCTOBER
Shacharis 8:30 am
Mincha & Ma'ariv 4:30 pm
MONDAY - 26 OCTOBER
Shacharis 7:20 am
Mincha 1:30 pm
& Ma'ariv 7:30 pm
TUESDAY - 27 OCTOBER
Shacharis 7:30 am
Mincha 1:30 pm
& Ma'ariv 7:30 pm
WEDNESDAY - 28 OCTOBER
Shacharis 7:30 am
Mincha 1:30 pm
& Ma'ariv 7:30 pm
THURSDAY - 29 OCTOBER
Shacharis 7:20 am
Mincha 1:30 pm
& Ma'ariv 7:30 pm
FRIDAY - 30 OCTOBER
Shacharis 7:30 am
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COMMUNAL KIDDUSH
This week's Communal Kiddush is sponsored by
Frances Bookatz,
Deborah Hiller and
Ruti Roche on their birthdays
Susan Gordon -
on her mother's 91st birthday
Yvonne and Leslie Wajchendler on the
birth of a grandson, Jesse
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If you are celebrating a birthday, anniversary or
any other Simcha and would like to join in with the next
Communal Kiddush, please contact the Office.
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Forthcoming Stone Settings
(at Rainham unless specified)
25-Oct-26 - 11:00 am - Maurice Field
1-Nov-26 - 11:00 am - Ruth Drake (at Marlowe Road, East Ham)
8-Nov-26 - 11:00 am - Sylvia Kay
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
25 October
Monthly Arts & Crafts 2:30-4:00
Make your own greetings cards
with Tracy Abrahams
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15 November
Annual Shul Quiz
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22 November
Whisky Tasting Evening
and
Mitzvah Day
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29 November
Monthly Arts & Crafts 2:30-4:00
Diamond Painting Class
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6 November
Shul Chanukah Party
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13 December
Film NIght - details to follow
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PLEASE CALL THE SHUL OFFICE FOR DETAILS AND FOR BOOKING
Weekly Torah Portion
With our thanks to Aish
Lech Lecha, Genesis 12:1 - 17:27
The Almighty commands Abram (later renamed Abraham) to leave Haran and go to “the place that I will show you” (which turned out to be the land of Canaan – later renamed the Land of Israel). The Almighty then gives Abram an eternal message to the Jewish people and to the nations of the world, “I will bless those who bless you and he who curses you I will curse.” Finding a famine, Abram travels to Egypt asking Sarai (later renamed Sarah) to say she is his sister so they won’t kill him to marry her (the Egyptians were particular not to commit adultery...so they would kill the husband instead).
Pharaoh evicts Abram from Egypt after attempting to take Sarai for a wife. They settle in Hebron (also known as Kiryat Arba) and his nephew Lot settles in Sodom. Abram rescues Lot – who was taken captive – in the Battle of the Four Kings against the Five Kings.
Entering into a covenant with the Almighty (all covenants with the Almighty are eternal, never to be abrogated or replaced by new covenants), Abram is told that his descendants will be enslaved for 400 years and that his descendants (via Isaac not Ishmael, “through Isaac will offspring be considered yours” (Genesis 21:8)) will be given the land “from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”
Sarai, childless, gives her handmaid Hagar to Abram for a wife so that he will have children. Ishmael (the grandfather of our Arab cousins) is born. The covenant of brit mila, religious circumcision, is made (17:3-8), God changes their names to Abraham and Sarah and tells them that Sarah will give birth to Isaac (Yitzchak). Abraham circumcises all the males of his household
