Every week, Shabbat has consistent themes: respite from the quotidian, opportunity to connect with spirituality, tradition, sacred liturgy and text, with family, friends and community.

Some weeks, Shabbat is enriched by specific themes:

• Shabbat Shira (Shabbat of Song) marks the reading in Torah of the Exodus-episode Song at the Sea, the triumphal paean to God’s victory over Pharaoh.
• Shabbat Chazon precedes Tish’a b’Av, a fast day in memory of the destruction of our ancient Temples in Jerusalem. The haftara for this Shabbat includes the prophet Isaiah’s vision (chazon) of that destruction.
• The first Shabbat after Tish’a b’Av is Shabbat Nachamu (consolation), beginning a series of seven haftarot that transition from consolation to spiritual cleansing as we approach Rosh Hashana.
• On Shabbat Shuvah (returning or repentance), between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the haftara addresses themes of repentance and God’s mercy.

Anticipating the festival of Pesach (Passover) are four additional Shabbat Torah readings and haftarot with different themes:

1. Shabbat Shekalim commemorates the biblical requirement that every Israelite male contribute a half-shekel to support the priestly service. The coins also served as a means to conduct a census.
2. Preceding Purim, Shabbat Zachor (remember) reminds us to blot out the memory of Amalek who, in attacking the most vulnerable Israelites following the Exodus, is the archetype of those who assail Jews and Judaism.
3. Shabbat Parah (heifer) speaks to the ancient use of a sacrificed heifer’s ashes to effect ritual purification (more on this below).
4. Shabbat haChodesh (month) is effectively a “Holy Cow, Pesach is Coming!” wake-up call. On this Shabbat, the month of Nisan is announced; Pesach begins on the fourteenth of Nisan.

Preceding Pesach is Shabbat haGadol (great). Its theme is the biblical Pesach sacrifice (looking to the past nostalgically) and the advent of a messianic era (looking to the future hopefully). Historically, community rabbis gave lengthy sermons only twice a year, one of those times being Shabbat haGadol. (Those were the days, eh?)

This week is Shabbat Parah. The additional Torah reading describes the ritual of purification using the heifer’s ashes. The major connection to this time of year is that a person who was ritually impure (primarily from contact with or proximity to a corpse) was not eligible to partake in the Pesach sacrifice, one of the few major requirements for the festival.

We have some intense physical Pesach preparation coming up: cleaning, moving dishes, shopping, cooking….Shabbat Parah can remind us that, while there is much to do, we should not neglect spiritual preparation. It’s not ritual impurity, but our to-do lists and overwhelming anticipation could “contaminate” our appreciation of Pesach.

Let’s take some…let’s make some time to prepare our souls for Pesach: look through a new haggada, participate in a preparatory session (Shirat Hayam’s is March 23, 7 pm), attend the Women’s Seder on March 30, plan something new for your own seder. Enhance your connection with Pesach spirituality, tradition, sacred liturgy and text, with family, friends and community.