THIS IS A TEST …

Parashat Lekh L’kha

11 Cheshvan 5777 / 11-12 November 2016

Torah: Genesis 12:1 – 17:27

Haftarah: Isaiah 40:27 – 41:16

IMPORTANT NOTE: We tentatively scheduled an early (6:00 pm) Shabbat evening service followed by Shabbat dinner for November 18. However, we neglected to ask for reservations and payment. So, we are rescheduling to December 9 – you will receive complete notice via flyer and e-mail. Sorry for the mix-up!

Dedications and Calendar of Events follow.

For more info about our community, visit our website: http://bethmeier.org

Congregation Beth Meier has developed a GoFundMe page: Please visit the page and consider a donation. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

https://www.gofundme.com/saveourschul

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THIS IS A TEST …

"Then the Lord said to Abram, 'Get yourself from your land, from your community, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.' .... So Abram went as the Lord had told him..."  Genesis 12:1, 4

Rashi:  "Go for yourself" - For your own benefit and your own good.

According to Rashi, God was convincing Abram to go to Canaan because of the benefit he would receive - to become a great nation and to be blessed (v. 2). But Yehudah Aryeh Leib of Ger, the S'fat Emet (his nickname means “The Language of Truth”), disagrees with Rashi. He says that this was the first of ten tests of Abram (later Abraham). It wouldn't be much of a test if he received a benefit for listening to God. Rather, Abram went solely because he was commanded to, without thinking of any possible benefit. Thus, the act of going to Canaan was not contaminated by selfish motives.

We Americans are about to enter a new land with a new president and congress. Some of us are greatly looking forward to the new land. Some of us are nervous and tentative. Some of us are being dragged unwillingly, kicking and screaming. Some of us are indifferent. Nevertheless, we are all going.

In a sense, we are all commanded to go into this new land – as at some level we do, truth be told, every four years! Just as the Jewish system of Torah, halakhah and ethics commands Jews, and their religious and political leaders, to behave in a certain manner, so does the American system of Constitution and laws command its leaders and its citizens to make this transition.

Abraham is the very model of how one responds to the test, the challenge of the new and the unknown. He accepts the command and he behaves as best he can within the boundaries of the system. He is a model in another way, too. As we will see next week, when Abraham realizes that God is about to act in an unjust manner, by possibly destroying innocent lives in Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham challenges God – he speaks truth to power and demands justice. Similarly, much later in the Torah, the daughters of Tzeloph’chad challenge an unjust law of inheritance – they speak truth to power, and the law is changed. All of our prophets did this as well, some at the risk of their lives. The Torah-rabbinic system allows for challenges to and changes in the law when justice demands it.

In the United States, our system works in the same way. The political authorities have limits, and the people have the right and the power to challenge them when they act beyond those limits, as well as when their actions within those limits are nevertheless unjust.

We Jews know from experience what happens when governments act unjustly and abuse their power. We often refer to ourselves as the canaries in the mine. Therefore, we have another obligation, one that also comes from the Torah. And that is the mandatory duty to care for and attend to the needs of not only ourselves, but all of the vulnerable in our communities - the widows, the orphans, the poor, the sick, the disabled, all the strangers in our midst – all those Others - they too have rights that we must defend and enforce when the government fails to do so. Our sages teach us that silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent. That means speaking truth to power, for ourselves and for Others, and witnessing and acting upon that truth – even at risk and with no apparent personal benefit.

Can we be skeptical? Of course – the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot tells us to be wary of the authorities, even as it also says that without government, people would swallow each other alive.

This new land is a test – for our government and for us.

Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Congregation Beth Meier

Studio City, CA

http://bethmeier.org

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

Visit me on Facebook

Twitter: @DrahcirMolf

"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"

"Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”

BT Yevamot 87b

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Candle lighting: 4:33 pm

Friday – Family Shabbat Evening Service – 7:30 pm

Saturday – Sh’MA (Shabbat Morning Adventure) Service with Cantor Steve Pearlman – 10:00 am. A joyful, accessible guitar-accompanied (abbreviated) singalong Shabbat morning service. All religious school students and families must attend (please!). Kiddush lunch follows services.

Sunday - NO Religious School – that’s why we want the kids at services on Shabbat morning! NO Adult Hebrew class.

Tuesday – Lunch and Learn – 12:00 noon.

Friday 11/18 – Shabbat Evening Service – 8:00 pm.

Saturday 11/19 – Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00 am. Kiddush lunch follows services. 

Sunday 11/20 – 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.

This d'var torah is offered in memory of my zayde, Sam Flom, whose yahrzeit fell this week. Y’hi zikhro liv’rakhah – May his memory be a blessing.

This d'var torah is offered in memory of my uncle, Merwin Erenbaum, whose yahrzeit fell this week. Y’hi zikhro liv’rakhah – May his memory be a blessing.

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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