Shabbat Parah Aduma (פרה אדומה – Red heifer) Numbers 19:1-22
In the Mishnah (Megillah tractate of Mo’ed) it is written that on the third Shabbat of the month of Adar, the law of the red heifer is to be read. We learn there how to get rid of impurity, to enter the Temple and to make sacrifices there.
Parashat Shemini (שמיני – eighth) Leviticus 9:1–11:47
ט.א יהי, ביום השמיני, קרא מֹשה, לאהרן ולבניו–ולזקני, ישראל
9:1 When the eighth day came, Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel
ט:ד ושור ואיל לשלמים, לזבח לפני יי
9:4 and a bull and a ram for reward1, to be sacrificed before the Lord
Jewish families settled in Newport. And in 1677, they laid out the Jewish cemetery in Newport. In 1760, Rabbi Isaac Touro2 arrived in Newport to serve as cantor and spiritual leader. His sons Abraham and Judah would become great philanthropists3. Between 1760-1763, architect Peter Harrison built the synagogue. The Georgian-style exterior leads to a large hall with twelve Ionic columns symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel. It is the oldest synagogue in the United States. In 1780, although the community only had eight families, a school was created. Shortly before the end of the American War of Independence, the deeds and the Torah scrolls were transferred to the Spanish-Portuguese Shearith Israel synagogue in Nieuw Amsterdam (New York) and the community disappeared. For much of the 19th century, no Jews lived in Newport, and the building would not reopen until 1883.
Currently the congregation consists of about 175 families. Although most worshipers are Ashkenazim, they are constitutionally obligated to use Sephardic ritual in the synagogue.
1 The peace offering (שלמים – shelamim) or sacrifice of thanksgiving
2 Isaac Touro, born in Amsterdam in 1738, settled in Jamaica in 1758, died in Kingston, Jamaica in 1783 (Touro: bull in Portuguese)
3 Abraham Touro, born in Newport, in 1774, died in Boston in 1822 and Judah Touro born in 1775 in Newport, died in 1854 in New Orleans contributed financially to the upkeep of the cemetery and the synagogue and supported charities charitable.