FULL OF JOY

18 Elul 5777 / 8-9 September 2017
Parashat Ki Tavo
Torah: Deuteronomy 26:1 - 29:8
Haftarah: Isaiah 60:1-22 (Sixth Haftarah of Consolation)

All religious services and programs are at Temple B’nai Hayim, 4302 Van Nuys Blvd., corner of Benefit Street.

TBH Religious School commences this Sunday, September 10. TBH Pre-school has open enrollment. Enroll your children now! Contact the TBH office for information.

And be sure to tell your neighbors, friends, and relatives about our warm and welcoming community and our programs!

Rosh Hashanah is two (2!) weeks from now! Please submit your Membership/High Holy Day ticket forms ASAP!

We are looking for volunteers for the High Holy Days: chant Torah and Haftarah, daven, lead English readings, and, have aliyot and other Torah/bimah honors. Contact Rabbi Flom or Susan Burke by e-mail for details and to sign up!

We are now well into the month of Elul, the final run-up to Rosh Hashanah. Jewish tradition teaches that in Elul, we are to engage in “cheshbon hanefesh”, literally “an accounting of the soul” -self-evaluation. As I do every year, I have prepared a Cheshbon Hanefesh worksheet to prepare you for the High Holy Days. For this year’s edition, see: http://rav-rich.blogspot.com/2017/08/cheshbon-hanefesh-worksheet.html

Dedications and calendar follow below.

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

"And you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you. When you have made an end of tithing all the tithes of your increase the third year, the year of tithing, and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and they will be filled." Deuteronomy 26:11-12

Rabbi Barukh Brofman: This is a reference to Birkat Hamazon (Blessing after the Meal) - "Do not let us need the gifts of flesh and blood". For this we thank God. Specifically - "You shall rejoice in every good thing - which the Lord has given you."

Tiferet Shlomo: The Torah adds "and they will be filled" to teach us that one must give generously - otherwise there is no blessing in it.

Most of us do not rely upon charity (tzedakah) - and we SHOULD be thankful for that. But our thanks (through Birkat Hamazon) are empty ritual if we do not do what we can to help others be in a position of thanking God as well. As the first verse implies, God has given every good thing to everyone - so it's up to us that actually have those things to make sure that they are also distributed to those that do not yet have them. 

We learn on Yom Kippur in Unataneh Tokef that "tzedakah reduces the severe decree". (See also Proverbs 10:2 and BT Baba Batra 10a – “charity delivers from death”) It does not mean that our charity saves us – rather, our tzedakah reduces the severe decree that might otherwise be imposed on others, the recipients of our gifts.

Celebrate through giving - then you and they will be filled - with joy.

Shabbat Shalom! 

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

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: 6:51 pm

Friday – Shabbat Evening Service – 7:30 pm.

Saturday – Breakfast and Torah study - 8:45 am. Shabbat Morning Service – 9:30 am. Kiddush luncheon follows.

Sunday – Religious School – 9:30 am. Sign up the kids and bring ‘em on down!

Tuesday – Lunch and Learn – 12:00 Noon.

Friday, September 15 – Shabbat Evening Service – 7:30 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.

Saturday, September 16 – Light Breakfast and Torah Study – 8:45 am. Shabbat Morning Service - 9:30 am. Kiddush luncheon follows. Selichot Program and Service – 8:00 pm – havdalah, desserts, screen and discuss the film “The Quarrel” – 10:00 pm – Selichot service conducted by Rabbi Flom and Rabbi van Leeuwen.

Sunday, September 17 – Religious School – 9:30 am. Sisterhood Meeting – 11:00 am.

Check your postal mail and email for all information on High Holy Day services.

  

This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Avi Shmuel Yosef Hakohen ben Bella, Ze’ev ben Adeline, Yudit bat Hannah, Yaakov Rani Ben Margalit, Eilite bat Miryam, HaRav Tzvi Hersh ben Frimet, Sarah bat Devorah, Hiroe Andriola, Susan Arbetman, Stuart Barth, Ken Bitticks, Elsbet Brosky (Serach bat Miriam), Stana Cooper, Jerry Daniels, Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel), Leonard Foint (Eliezer Moshe ben Esther), Jerry Forman, Bernard Gavin, Myra Goodman, Simon Hartman, Brandon Joseph, Philip Kovac, Tonya Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah Emanu), Florence Levinson, Stuart Lytton, David Marks, David Pearlma, Deborah Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), Alexis Woolfson, Simon Woolfson, and Meagan Yudell.

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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