Parashat
Sh’mot
23
Tevet 5777 / 20-21 January 2017
Torah:
Exodus 1:1 - 6:1
Haftarah: (Ashkenazim) Isaiah 27:6 - 28:13; 29:22-23; (Sephardim) Jeremiah 1:1 - 2:3
Haftarah: (Ashkenazim) Isaiah 27:6 - 28:13; 29:22-23; (Sephardim) Jeremiah 1:1 - 2:3
This
Sunday - Congregational Meeting – 2:00 pm. All members asked to attend or provide a proxy to the Board of
Directors.
For
more info about our community, visit our website:
Congregation
Beth Meier has developed a GoFundMe page:
Please
visit the page and consider a donation. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!
Dedications
and Calendar of Events follow.
Please
feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source.
-----------------------------------------------------------
ONE
WHO SAVES A LIFE …
"But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, for they kept the male children alive." Exodus 1:17
Rashi - They would supply them with food and water.
Rabbi Nissan Puchinski - The implication is that had they not supplied them with food and water, they would be considered as murderers, because preventing someone from being saved is considered similar to murder.
Mishanah Sanhedrin 4:5 - "One who takes a single human life; it is as if he destroyed an entire world. One who saves a single human life; it is as if he saved an entire world."
In its classic form, the Kabbalistic concept of tzimtzum relates to God withdrawing or contracting in order to make room for the physical universe. However, according to Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, after the Shoah, tzimtzum was necessary in order for human beings, no longer willing or able to operate only as God's servants under an imposed mandatory covenant system, to instead become God's partners in a voluntary covenant. God has "self-limited", he says, "contracting divine power in order to empower humanity." Under this theory, every Jew is a "Jew by choice". The purpose of the partnership agreement is tikkun olam - the restoration of a shattered world.
God may have withdrawn from visibly active participation in the physical world, but God is still present in healing shattered hearts and comforting the suffering. God acts through us, as we are told in Isaiah 43:12, "You will be my witnesses." Witnessing is NOT merely watching; it means undertaking action to fulfill the terms of the partnership and improving the world to its ideal state. It is our empowerment with independent action which makes every human being truly "in the image of God".
"But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, for they kept the male children alive." Exodus 1:17
Rashi - They would supply them with food and water.
Rabbi Nissan Puchinski - The implication is that had they not supplied them with food and water, they would be considered as murderers, because preventing someone from being saved is considered similar to murder.
Mishanah Sanhedrin 4:5 - "One who takes a single human life; it is as if he destroyed an entire world. One who saves a single human life; it is as if he saved an entire world."
In its classic form, the Kabbalistic concept of tzimtzum relates to God withdrawing or contracting in order to make room for the physical universe. However, according to Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, after the Shoah, tzimtzum was necessary in order for human beings, no longer willing or able to operate only as God's servants under an imposed mandatory covenant system, to instead become God's partners in a voluntary covenant. God has "self-limited", he says, "contracting divine power in order to empower humanity." Under this theory, every Jew is a "Jew by choice". The purpose of the partnership agreement is tikkun olam - the restoration of a shattered world.
God may have withdrawn from visibly active participation in the physical world, but God is still present in healing shattered hearts and comforting the suffering. God acts through us, as we are told in Isaiah 43:12, "You will be my witnesses." Witnessing is NOT merely watching; it means undertaking action to fulfill the terms of the partnership and improving the world to its ideal state. It is our empowerment with independent action which makes every human being truly "in the image of God".
Please,
donate your time and/or money as generously as you can to organizations that
feed the hungry, house the homeless, provide medical care to the needy – you
get the idea. Now more than ever - join the partnership! Use your
power to save life.
Shabbat
Shalom!
Rabbi
Richard A. Flom
Congregation
Beth Meier
Studio
City, CA
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: 4:53 pm
Friday – Shabbat Evening Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat
follows.
Saturday – Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00 am. Kiddush
luncheon follows.
Sunday – Religious School – 9:30 am. Adult
Hebrew class – 10:00 am. Game Day is being rescheduled. Congregational Meeting – 2:00 pm. All
members asked to attend or provide a proxy to the Board of Directors.
Tuesday – Lunch and Learn – 12:00 noon.
Friday, 27 January – Shabbat Evening
Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.
Saturday, 28 January – Shabbat Morning Service –
10:00 am. Kiddush luncheon follows.
Sunday, 29 January – Religious School – 9:30
am. Adult Hebrew – 10:00 am.
This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Avi Shmuel
Yosef Hakohen ben Bella, Zehavah B’rakhah bat Leah, Yaakov Rani Ben Margalit,
Sarah bat Devorah, 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, Beth Goldstein, Myra
Goodman, Simon Hartman, Fouad Kay (Yehoshua ben Salima), Bonnie Kleiger, Philip
Kovac, Tonya Kronzek, Toni Linder, Roy Miller, Carol Rosen (Tsharna Aliza bat
Leah), Deborah Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya
Feiga bat Kreina), 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.
My
weekly divrei torah are available through free subscription to the Cyber
Torah e-mail list. No salesman will call!
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Torah list management:
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To dedicate a
Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah in memory of a loved one or for a refuah
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