SING A NEW SONG

Parashat B’shallach (Shabbat Shirah)
13 Shevat 5776 / 22-23 January 2016

Torah: Exodus 13:17 – 17:16

Haftarah: Judges 4:4 – 5:31

For a full calendar of events and other info about our community, check out www.bethmeier.org

Please feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source.

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Candlelighting: 4:55 pm

Friday: Shabbat Evening Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.

Saturday: Shabbat morning service – 10:00 am. Kiddush lunch follows.

Sunday: Religious School – 9:30 am. Adult Hebrew Class – 10:00. Tu Bish’vat Seder – 10:30 am. Everyone is invited!

Monday: Tu BiSh’vat

Tuesday: Lunch and Learn – 12:00 noon

Friday, 29 January: Shabbat Evening Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.

Saturday, 30 January: Shabbat morning service – 10:00 am. Kiddush lunch follows.

Sunday, 31 January: Religious School – 9:30 am. Adult Hebrew Class – 10:00.

Shabbat Across America is coming – Friday, March 4 – Learners’ Service and Shabbat Dinner – mark your calendar and check your mail for details. Cost - $5.00/person – RSVP MANDATORY

Next time you come to Beth Meier, please bring some non-perishable canned and packaged foods and personal items (no glass) for SOVA.

This d'var torah is offered in memory of Shirley Kronzek, whose first yahrzeit is this Wednesday, 17 Sh’vat. Y’hi zekherah liv’rakhah – May her memory be a blessing.

This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Avi Shmuel Yosef Hakohen ben Bella, Miriam Minya bat Alisa Batya, Sarah bat Devorah, Ken Bitticks, Elsbet Brosky, Jerry Daniels, Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel), Leonard Foint (Eliezer Moshe ben Esther), Jerry Forman, Pamela Huddleston, Stephanie Kane, Elaine Kleiger, Philip Kovac, and Marsha Meyers.

Please let me know if there is anyone you would like to add to this list or if there is anyone who may be removed from this list.

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SING A NEW SONG

"Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song ..." Exodus 15:1

"And Miriam chanted to them ..." Exodus 15:21

"And the women dancing with their timbrels, Followed Miriam as she sang her song" Miriam's Song by Debbie Friedman

The well-known Song at the Sea, Exodus 15:1-18, has become part of the daily liturgy. This Shabbat is known as Shabbat Shirah, the Shabbat of the Song, in honor of the song. But Miriam also sang a song, only one verse, according to the Torah, to which the women danced and played musical instruments.

Ellen Frankel, in her Torah commentary The Five Books of Miriam, notes that modern biblical scholars "believe that Miriam's song was censored or lost, due to a later generation's uneasiness with female leadership." Curiously, this week's haftarah includes the Song of Deborah and Barak (Judges 5:1-31). This is after Barak had told Deborah (at 4:8), "If you will go with me, I will go (to fight the Canaanites); if not, I will not go." Over the centuries, the idea of leadership by such charismatic women as Miriam and Deborah became lost. Whatever ritual rights and obligations may have existed became lost as well.

In the past generation, Jewish women have fought to regain their proper place on the bimah, as b'not mitzvah, and as rabbis, cantors, and synagogue leaders. Now, egalitarianism is a given in most non-Orthodox congregations. Sadly, it is also taken for granted.

If Jewish women wish to retain the rights they fought so hard to achieve, they must recapture their song, and like the men, sing it every day! Whether it be tallit, tefilin, or public reading of the Torah, those rights are meaningless if never exercised. And that goes for the men, too! If BEING Jewish is to have any meaning, you should be DOING Jewish! "Sing to the Lord a new song!" Psalms 96:1; 98:1

Shabbat Shalom U'vrakhah - A Shabbat of Peace and Blessing

Tu BiSh’vat Sameach!

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Congregation Beth Meier - Studio City, CA

www.bethmeier.org

Blogging at: http://rav-rich.blogspot.com

"From the place where we are absolutely right, flowers will never grow in the spring."

"מן המקום שבו אנו צודקים לא יצמחו לעולם פרחים באביב"

Yehuda Amichai

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