Parashat Vayak’hel-Pekudei
27 Adar 5777 / 24-25 March
2017
Torah reading: Exodus 35:1 – 40:38
Torah reading: Exodus 35:1 – 40:38
Maftir: Exodus 12:1-20
(HaChodesh)
Haftarah: Ezekiel 45:16 –
45:18
The Rabbinical
Assembly’s Guide to Pesach is available for downloading and/or printing at:
IMPORTANT
CALENDAR UPDATE FOR THIS SUNDAY!
Candle
lighting: 6:49 pm
Friday – Shabbat Evening
Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.
Saturday – Shabbat Morning Service –
10:00 am. Kiddush luncheon follows.
Sunday – TOUR OF KOSHER MARKET CANCELED
– unfortunately, Ralphs kosher section will not be fully converted to KP until after
April 3. Religious
School
Tuesday – Lunch and Learn –
12:00 noon.
Thursday, 30
March – Deadline to
sign up for Beth Meier’s Community Second Seder on 11 April – contact
office for details and reservations.
Friday, 31
March – Shabbat
Evening Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.
Saturday, 1
April – Shabbat
Morning Service – 10:00 am. Kiddush luncheon follows.
Sunday, 2
April – Religious
School – 9:30 am. Adult Hebrew Class – 10:00 am
Tuesday, 4
April – Lunch and
Learn – 12:00 noon.
Friday, 7
April – Shabbat
Evening Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.
Saturday, 8
April – Sh’MA (Shabbat
Morning Adventure) Service – 10:00 am. Guitar-accompanied sing-along service
with Cantor Steve Pearlman. Kiddush luncheon follows.
Sunday, 9
April – Religious
School – 9:30 am. Adult Learning Program – “A Walk Through the Hagaddah” –
10:00 am
Monday, 10
April – Fast of the
First-born – Torah Study and Siyyum – 8:00 am. First Seder at sundown.
Tuesday, 11
April – Passover
Morning Service – 9:30 am at Temple
B’nai
Wednesday,
12 April - Passover
Morning Service – 10:00 am at Beth Meier.
This d'var torah
is offered in memory of my father-in-law, Abraham Kronzek, whose yahrzeit falls
on Tuesday, Nisan 1. Y’hi zikhro liv’rakhah – His memory is a blessing.
This d'var torah
is offered in honor of Melinda and Warren Trauman, celebrating their wedding
anniversary this Shabbat. Mazal tov!
This d'var torah
is offered for a refuah shleimah for Avi Shmuel Yosef Hakohen ben Bella, Yaakov
Rani Ben Margalit, Sarah bat Devorah, Susan Arbetman, Kyree
Beacham, Ken Bitticks, Elsbet Brosky (Serach bat Miriam), 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, Evan Kronzek, Philip
Kronzek (Pinchas Yosef ben Sarah), Tonya Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah Emanu),
Toni Linder, Roy Miller, Deborah Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen
Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), and Jerry Smith.
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.
Please feel free to pass
this on to a friend, and please cite the source.
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FINDING MEANING IN THE MUNDANE
“Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled upon it (alav); and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” Exodus 40:35
Etz Hayyim: It is unclear whether entry is literally blocked or is not permissible or that Moses dared not enter.
The writer David Mamet asks an interesting question. “But is there something in the notion that Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud rested on him?”(reading the word “alav” as “upon him” rather than “upon it” - the Hebrew is ambiguous) He goes on to suggest that when Moses was filled with the Holy Spirit, in direct communion with the Divine, he was thereby unable to act as a servant to either God or the Israelites.
There has lately been a quest by Jews and non-Jews alike for “spirituality”. These searchers want a connection with God that is uplifting, meaningful, emotional, etc. And often, they want it immediately - they want a moving personal experience when they want it. This is a difficult proposition for rabbis and cantors, clergy of all types, who cannot always deliver spirituality on demand. One also must wonder whether God takes orders in quite this way - or in any way at all!
FINDING MEANING IN THE MUNDANE
“Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled upon it (alav); and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” Exodus 40:35
Etz Hayyim: It is unclear whether entry is literally blocked or is not permissible or that Moses dared not enter.
The writer David Mamet asks an interesting question. “But is there something in the notion that Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud rested on him?”(reading the word “alav” as “upon him” rather than “upon it” - the Hebrew is ambiguous) He goes on to suggest that when Moses was filled with the Holy Spirit, in direct communion with the Divine, he was thereby unable to act as a servant to either God or the Israelites.
There has lately been a quest by Jews and non-Jews alike for “spirituality”. These searchers want a connection with God that is uplifting, meaningful, emotional, etc. And often, they want it immediately - they want a moving personal experience when they want it. This is a difficult proposition for rabbis and cantors, clergy of all types, who cannot always deliver spirituality on demand. One also must wonder whether God takes orders in quite this way - or in any way at all!
I am not in any way
denigrating the spiritual needs of people. I also desire that connection,
however ephemeral or short-lived it may be. But whenever I am having my
individual experience with the Divine in a way that is not through any physical
act, such as meditation or even singing, or when my spiritual moment is
divorced from the world around me (something that I do seek from time to time),
I am not then able to fulfill the Divine will. That is to say, we are
commanded to act in this world through gemilut chasadim (acts of loving
kindness), through tikkun olam (repairing this broken world), and
through tzedakah (justice or charity). One might argue these are
only ordinary acts. But I think they are extra-ordinary. We all know that
there can indeed be joy in performing these mitzvot, as well as joy in the
results. By acting as God’s servants, by feeding the hungry and burying
the dead and cleaning up the Earth and loving the stranger, we make the
spiritual connection that God wants, even if it is not necessarily the
connection we want when we want it.
If indeed God is Hamakom,
the One That Is In Every Place, then in a narrow sense, God is within us as
well. Although we may seldom if ever experience an ecstatic connection
with God, we can nevertheless have an emotionally satisfying connection
whenever we want - by finding meaning in the mundane; in ordinary, everyday
Jewish living. You want to find God? Go - perform an act of chesed
or tikkun or tzedakah and save the world! One small piece at
a time.
Shabbat Shalom v'Chodesh Tov! Nisan and Pesach are right around the corner!
Shabbat Shalom v'Chodesh Tov! Nisan and Pesach are right around the corner!
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Congregation Beth Meier
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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