Parashat Ekev
23 Av 5775 / 7-8 August 2015
Torah: Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25
Haftarah: Isaiah 49:14 - 51:3 (Second Haftarah of Consolation)
23 Av 5775 / 7-8 August 2015
Torah: Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25
Haftarah: Isaiah 49:14 - 51:3 (Second Haftarah of Consolation)
Dedications
and Calendar or Events follow. For more information about our community,
see: www.bethmeier.org
Don’t forget
the important Israel
Please feel
free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source
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ONE HUMBLE
MITZVAH
"And your heart will be haughty, and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the
There is an old joke that goes something like this: A noted scholar and philanthropist was being honored at a gala dinner. Speaker after speaker extolled his virtues - knowledge, wisdom, generosity, kindness, righteousness, etc. He reached up and tugged on the sleeve of one of the speakers, and said, "Don't forget my humility."
Commenting on the first part of our verse, the Ba'al Shem Tov says that there is nowhere in the Torah a commandment to be humble. If there were, there would be those who would attempt to fulfill it by reciting a statement of intent ("Behold, I am prepared to perform the mitzvah of humility ..."), then a blessing (".... and commanded us to be humble."), and then … commence to be humble? It would become a conceit – the belief that, in addition to fulfilling the other commandments, they were observing the commandment to be humble. Unlike any other mitzvah, one would fail to observe it merely by believing that one was attempting to fulfill it or had observed it. "I can say with all humility that I have been humble." It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?
Of course we know that a lack of humility can often be damaging to relationships. We tend to forget that neither we nor our accomplishments exist in a vacuum. Even praise for one’s humility can be a bit dangerous. Perhaps the only way to be truly humble is to run from any suggestion that one is humble.
Shabbat
Shalom!
Rabbi Richard
Flom
Congregation
Beth Meier
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Candlelighting:
7:30 pm
Friday: Shabbat Evening Service –
8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows
Saturday: Shabbat Morning Service –
10:00 am. Kiddush lunch follows.
Sunday: Informational meeting on Israel
Tuesday: Lunch and Learn – 12:00
noon.
Friday,
14 August:
Family Shabbat Evening Service – 7:30 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows
Saturday,
15 August:
Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00 am. Bat Mitzvah of Sarah Reiff. Mazal tov!
Kiddush lunch follows.
This
d’var torah is offered in honor of Stuart and Fran Zimmerman, who became
grandparents again. Mother and baby are well and the bris is on Friday. Mazal
tov!
This
d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Avi Shmuel Yosef Hakohen ben
Bella, Naomi bat Yorma, Miriam Minya bat Alisa Batya, Sarah bat Devorah, Sarah
Mindel bat Toby, Ken Bitticks, Elsbet Brosky, Jerry Daniels, Howard Ehrlich,
Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel),
Leonard Foint, Annabelle Flom (Chanah Bella bat Kreina), Gig Flom (Gittel Tobi
bat Blanca), Jerry Forman, Pamela Huddleston, Philip Kovac, Annie Rivera, and
Gil Robbins.
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forget to send in your membership forms and High Holiday ticket orders. It’s
later than you think!
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