Thursday, October 27, 2016

FUTURE PERFECT

Parashat Bereishit
27 Tishrei 5777 / 28-29 October 2016
Torah Reading - Genesis 1:1 - 6:8
Haftarah - Isaiah 42:5 - 43:10 (Ashkenazim); Isaiah 42:5-21 (Sephardim)

Dedications and Calendar of Events follow.

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FUTURE PERFECT

"And the heavens and the earth and all their hosts were finished. And by the seventh day God finished all God's work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it God rested from all the work of creating that God had done." Genesis 2:1-3.

The above verses are chanted in the synagogue and at the Shabbat evening table as the lead-in to Kiddush. In their book, "Five Cities of Refuge", Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and playwright David Mamet point out that work and Shabbat observance go together – they are inseparable. Like God, we can truly bless our work only by refraining from it for a day, and reflecting on the work we have done.

They also point out that the chapter and verse structure of the Torah is a construct, which artificially separates Shabbat (Chapter 2) from the rest of Creation (Chapter 1). This is symbolic, they suggest, of our broken world. And it is a reason why we silently say the concluding words of Chapter 1, "and there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day", before chanting Kiddush.

I would note that the Jewish mystics have taught that a way to repair the world is through "yichidut", the Unification of God's Holy Name. One way we can “repair” Shabbat, then, is to reunify Shabbat with the rest of the week - not by working on Shabbat, or resting all week, but by realizing that our work, which is never done, can have meaning for us only if we take time off to contemplate that which we have not created - and understand that we play a role, however minor, in perfecting that Creation.

Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Congregation Beth Meier
Studio City, CA
Visit me on Facebook
Twitter: @DrahcirMolf
"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"
"Silence is consent.”
BT Yevamot 87b
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Candle lighting: 5:45 pm

Friday – Shabbat Evening Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.
Saturday – Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00 am. Kiddush lunch follows services
Sunday - Religious School – 9:30 am. If you have or know of any Jewish children ages 6-13 in need of a warm and welcoming Jewish education in a small setting, bring them on down! Or call Rabbi Flom or Elaine Kleiger at the synagogue office. Adult Hebrew Class – 10:00 am. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED to take down the sukkah – 10:00 am.
Tuesday – Lunch and Learn – 12:00 noon
Friday 11/4NO SHABBAT EVENING SERVICE
Saturday 11/5 – Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00 am. Kiddush lunch follows services.

This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Avi Shmuel Yosef Hakohen ben Bella, HaRav Yisrael Shimon ben Liebah Breina, Yaakov Rani Ben Margalit, Sarah bat Devorah, Zehavah B’rakhah bat Leah, Susan Arbetman, 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, Myra Goodman, Simon Hartman, Fouad Kay (Yehoshua ben Salima), Philip Kovac, Toni Linder, Deborah Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), Hedy Woolf, and Naomi Zimmermann (Naomi bat Yorma).

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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HOLY AFIKOMAN!

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