STANDING AT SINAI AGAIN – AND AGAIN

Parashat Va'etchanan - Shabbat Nachamu

16 Av 5778 / 27-28 July 2018

Torah: Deuteronomy 3:23 - 7:11
Haftarah: Isaiah 40:1-26 (First Haftarah of Consolation)

Calendar and dedications follow below. For a full calendar of events and other info about Temple B’nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier, check out:

www.bnaihayim.com

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------

STANDING AT SINAI AGAIN – AND AGAIN

This week's parashah is packed with some of the most familiar passages in the Torah. Among them are: the Ten Commandments (5:6-18 - a slight variant from Exodus 20); a verse which has been incorporated into the prayer Aleinu (4:39); the congregational statement when the first aliyah to the Torah is called up (4:4); and the first paragraph of the most important Jewish theological statement, the Shema (6:4-9).

Why has so much of this parashah been taught to us (more than from any other parashah), incorporated into our prayer services, recited morning and evening every day? It seems as if it has been permanently hardwired into the Jewish brain and soul. The answer, I believe, is found in other, less well-known verses from this parashah and from Parashat Nitzavim.

"The Lord our God sealed a covenant with us in Horeb (Sinai). Not with our ancestors did the Lord seal this covenant, but with us, us, who are here today, all of us living." Deuteronomy 5:2-3

Since the events of Sinai had occurred 38 years previously, Moses could not have meant that the younger, desert generation received the Torah at Sinai, could he? Well, yes, he did. Moreover, we learn that he means all of us, all of our ancestors and all our generations yet to come.

"Not with you alone do I seal this covenant and this oath; but with the one who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as the one not here with us today." Deuteronomy 29:13-14; see also Babylonian Talmud Sh'vuot (Oaths) 39a

Every time we study the Torah or hear it read, we are standing before God at Sinai, receiving the Torah anew, and reaffirming the covenant with God. God continually reveals Torah to us, even as we continually uncover new layers of meaning – that is why the blessing for each aliyah can be read as: Blessed are You, Lord, the One Who is giving the Torah. Each of us was there then, each of us is there now, and each of us will always be there. See you there!

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Temple B'nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier

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

"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"

Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”

BT Yevamot 88a

 -----------------------------------------------

Candle lighting: 7:39 pm

Friday: Shabbat Evening Service with Steve Pearlman – 7:30 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.

Saturday: Torah study/breakfast with Steve Pearlman – 8:45 am. Shabbat Morning Service with Steve Pearlman – 9:30 am. Kiddush lunch follows. 

Tuesday: NO Lunch and Learn while Rabbi Flom is away. Resumes August 7.

Next time you come to TBH/CBM, please bring some non-perishable canned and packaged foods and personal items (no glass) for SOVA.

This d'var torah is offered in honor of Steve Pearlman, in thanks for his commitment and service to our community – yasher koach!

This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Elisheva bat Malkah, Ze’ev ben Adeline, Eilite bat Miriam, Sarah bat Devorah, Hiroe Andreola, Susan Arbetman, Ken Bitticks, Jerry Daniels, Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel), Annabelle Flom (Channah Bella bat Kreina), Bernard Garvin, Leah Granat, Brandon Joseph, Gabor Klein, Philip Kovac, Tonya Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah Emanu), David Marks, Debra Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), Irwin Silon, and Jonathan Woolf.

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.

Cyber Torah list management (no salesman will call!):

To subscribe to Cyber Torah, send an e-mail with the subject heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah” to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net

Send requests for dedications of Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah, in memory of a loved one or for a refuah shleimah to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net

To unsubscribe from Cyber Torah, send an e-mail with the subject heading “Unsubscribe Cyber Torah” to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net

THE SHABBAT OF VISION

Parashat Devarim

Torah: Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22

Haftarah: Isaiah 1:1-27 (Shabbat Chazon)

9 Av 5778 / 20-21 July 2018

Tisha B’Av observance is delayed until Saturday night – Sunday

Calendar and dedications follow below. For a full calendar of events and other info about Temple B’nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier, check out:

www.bnaihayim.com

This week’s Cyber Torah was written by my colleague Rabbi Jason Van Leeuwen.

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Shabbat Chazon."

When I first heard this term at Camp Ramah, I didn't know what it meant, but I knew it had to be bad. When I learned "chazon" meant "vision," I was comforted. But then I realized how nice or bad a vision is depends on its quality and to whom its message is directed. If it is a lofty and positive vision, then bring it on! But what if the vision is that of disaster, and what if it is also a mirror?

This is exactly the message this week's haftarah, the 3rd of admonition preceding the "black fast" of Tisha B'Av, commemorating the destruction of the Holy Temple and Jerusalem, brings. “Chazon" is the first word of the book of Isaiah - a book that alternates between scolding and dreaming. The prophet hits hard: "Woe to a sinful nation, a people heavy with iniquity, evildoing seed, corrupt children. They forsook God; they provoked the Holy One of Israel...How (eicha) has she become a harlot, a faithful city; it was once full of justice, in which righteousness would lodge, but now it is a city of murderers." Yikes! We're doomed!

But Isaiah also provides a road map averting disaster: "Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the robbed, perform justice for the orphan, plead the case of the widow...Zion shall be redeemed through justice and her penitent through righteousness."

It is a simple message holding the mirror to the entire holy polity. Disaster greets those who inflict injustice on others. Victory greets those who work towards justice and act with righteousness.

It isn't difficult to imagine these words would be heard without objection. Nobody wants to be scolded. Everybody thinks they're a good person, and they're probably right. But what occurs when a society looks the other way while injustice and evil are being inflicted in their midst? Do we have the strength and courage to look in the mirror and see our role in allowing evil to be perpetuated? Hannah Arendt takes Holocaust-era Europe to task when she blasts the normal "paterfamilias," someone kind to his family and is law-abiding, but refusing to acknowledge the stench of burning flesh wafting from the crematoria. With this Arendt introduces us to the phrase: "the banality of evil."

It is in preparation for and observance of the "black fast" that we palpably experience the destruction of societies where the banal paterfamilias does not take personal responsibility for their polity. One cannot read Jeremiah's book of Lamentations (eicha) and not be stung by its graphic imagery. Yet it is in these moments that we wonder how we can rebuild Jerusalem. This idea swirls in our minds as we traverse the following two months leading to Yom Kippur, the "white fast," which calls us, the paterfamilias, to hold ourselves collectively accountable for the evil done by others in our midst. By taking seriously the white fast, we can build a world, one by one, act by act, in which no people on earth will have occasion to observe a black fast. Let us join and together begin the painful but redemptive work. Have a meaningful fast!

Reb Jason

Shabbat Shalom. Tisha B’Av Mashma’uti.

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Temple B'nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier

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

Visit me on Facebook

"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"

Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”

BT Yevamot 88a

 -----------------------------------------------

Candle lighting: 7:44 pm

The fast of Tisha B’av commences at 8:44 pm Saturday night.


Friday - 7:30 pm – Shabbat Evening Service followed by Oneg Shabbat

Saturday - 8:45 am – Breakfast and Torah study
                   9:30 am – Shabbat Morning Service
                                    Kiddush luncheon follows
                   9:00 pm – Tisha B'Av Service and Study Session

27 July (Friday) - 7:30 pm – Shabbat Services followed by Oneg Shabbat

28 July (Saturday) 8:45 am – Breakfast and Torah study
                                9:30 am – Shabbat Morning Service
                                                  Kiddush luncheon follows
NO Lunch and Learn while Rabbi Flom is away. Resumes August 7th. 

Next time you come to TBH/CBM, please bring some non-perishable canned and packaged foods and personal items (no glass) for SOVA.

This d'var torah is offered in memory of my grandmother, Sarah Flom, whose yahrzeit falls on Sunday, 10 Av. Her memory is a blessing.

This d'var torah is offered in memory of Lynn’s grandmother, Martha Stern, whose yahrzeit falls on Tuesday, 12 Av. Her memory is a blessing.

This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Elisheva bat Malkah, Ze’ev ben Adeline, Eilite bat Miriam, Sarah bat Devorah, Hiroe Andreola, Susan Arbetman, Ken Bitticks, Jerry Daniels, Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel), Annabelle Flom (Channah Bella bat Kreina), Bernard Garvin, Leah Granat, Brandon Joseph, Gabor Klein, Philip Kovac, Tonya Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah Emanu), David Marks, Debra Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), Irwin Silon, and Jonathan Woolf.

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.

Cyber Torah list management (no salesman will call!):

To subscribe to Cyber Torah, send an e-mail with the subject heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah” to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net

Send requests for dedications of Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah, in memory of a loved one or for a refuah shleimah to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net

To unsubscribe from Cyber Torah, send an e-mail with the subject heading “Unsubscribe Cyber Torah” to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net

A CITY OF REFUGE, SHINING ON A HILL?

Parashat Mattot-Mas’ei

Torah: Numbers 30:2 – 36:13 (Chazak!)

Haftarah: Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4 (Second Shabbat of Admonition)

2 Av 5778 / 13-14 July 2018

Calendar and dedications follow below. For a full calendar of events and other info about Temple B’nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier, check out:

www.bnaihayim.com

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A CITY OF REFUGE, SHINING ON A HILL?

“You shall provide yourselves with places to serve as cities of refuge to which a manslayer that has killed a person unintentionally may flee.” Numbers 35:11

According to the Torah, the purpose of a city of refuge (ir miklat) was to protect someone who was not guilty of intentional murder from the blood avengers of the victim’s family. For example, when an axe-head separated from the handle and struck another person, the one chopping wood was a manslayer, not a murderer, and was granted refuge.

In his farewell address to our nation, January 11, 1989, President Reagan said the following: “I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.”

I’ve always admired President Reagan’s vision, however unfulfilled it might be. Sadly, it seems to me that our country is further from that vision than we have been in many decades – we are letting it slip away. Today, we are refusing refuge to people who are actually fleeing real murder and mayhem and oppression. Rather than an ir miklat, a city of refuge, the United States has become an ir siruv, a city of refusal, a city of denial.

Next Shabbat is Shabbat Chazon, the Shabbat of the Vision of Isaiah – the last Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, the date commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem, the original Shining City on a Hill – lost because of the hypocrisy and hatred in the city. Isaiah 1:1-27 is worth reading now – don’t wait until next Shabbat. The prophet gives this instruction: “Learn to do good; devote yourselves to justice; aid those who have been wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow.” (1:17)

This is how we create a city of refuge – this is how we create an American shining city on a hill.

Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Temple B'nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier

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

Visit me on Facebook

"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"

Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”

BT Yevamot 88a

 -----------------------------------------------

Candle lighting: 7:48 pm

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

Saturday: Torah study/breakfast with Reb Jason – 8:45 am. Shabbat Morning Service – 9:30 am. Kiddush lunch follows. 

Tuesday: NO Lunch and Learn while Rabbi Flom is away. Resumes August 7.

Next time you come to TBH/CBM, please bring some non-perishable canned and packaged foods and personal items (no glass) for SOVA.

The congregation extends its condolences to our Rabbi Emeritus Sally Olins, whose husband Jay Olins passed away on July 4. Y’hi zikhro liv’rakhah – May his memory be a blessing.

This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Ze’ev ben Adeline, Eilite bat Miriam, Sarah bat Devorah, Hiroe Andreola, Susan Arbetman, Ken Bitticks, Jerry Daniels, Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel), Annabelle Flom (Channah Bella bat Kreina), Bernard Garvin, Leah Granat, Brandon Joseph, Gabor Klein, Philip Kovac, Tonya Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah Emanu), David Marks, Debra Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), Irwin Silon, and Jonathan Woolf.

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.

Cyber Torah list management (no salesman will call!):

To subscribe to Cyber Torah, send an e-mail with the subject heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah” to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net

Send requests for dedications of Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah, in memory of a loved one or for a refuah shleimah to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net

To unsubscribe from Cyber Torah, send an e-mail with the subject heading “Unsubscribe Cyber Torah” to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net

CAN WRONG BE RIGHT? AND, BASELESS LOVE IS WHAT WE NEED!

Shalom:

As I am on my mini-sabbatical, I am forwarding to you this vort from my friend and colleague at TBH/CBM, Rabbi Jason Van Leeuwen.

I am also including, following Reb Jason's vort, a brief piece from Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald and our friends at NJOP.

Shabbat Shalom!

 

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Temple B'nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier

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

"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"

"Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”

BT Yevamot 88a

Parashat Pinchas: Can Wrong Be Right?
 
Two days after the Continental Congress signed a patently illegal declaration, Jews around the world opened their Torah scrolls and encountered another type of revolutionary. After Pinchas, son of Elazar, son of Aaron the Kohen, speared an Israelite and a Moabite in the Tent of Meeting, magically staving off a deadly plague, God rewards him with "My covenant of friendship." In God's words, Pinchas "has turned back my fury" against the Israelites for their idolatrous debauchery. 
 
Why are we presented with such a troubling concept, what Kirkegaard called the "teleological suspension of the ethical?" The Palestinian Talmud also reacted with ambivalence: "he acted without approval of the Sages." So both Jefferson and Pinchas indelibly moved without approval of the governing authorities, and both are rewarded in the end.
 
But shall we judge them identically? Were their actions equally ethical? Pinchas killed, which led to lives saved, while Jefferson, et al., gave life to a revolutionary way of governing but escalated a conflict that put his own and many other Americans' lives at risk. Jefferson used the pen, while Pinchas used the proverbial sword. It's hard to tell which is mightier, and it's hard to know what God wants us to do with this information today. Doesn't the Torah also teach, "justice (just ends), justice (just means) shall you pursue?" Doesnt it also require cross-examination prior to establishing a crime has been committed? Have we found ourselves in a situation where we were confronted with such a choice? Is incivility ever rewarded? Is revolution ever an option?
 
Apparently yes - but seldom. Pinchas was a one shot deal. He was kicked upstairs to a strictly regimented life of sacrificing and healing. No more spears for you, young man. Jefferson, too, was kicked upstairs to the presidency 25 years later, after carefully crafting changes to the Constitution within its prescribed framework. The revolutionaries assumed vast power and never again acted above the law. 
 
Last weekend, I was asked if I'd like to get arrested in front of the ICE building on Alameda St. I was unavailable that day, but I'm seriously considering it. I've gotten arrested before in acts of civil disobedience, but I haven't made a habit of it. When, if ever, is it appropriate to break the law?
 
Thoreau was thrown in jail for refusing in protest to pay his Mexican War tax. Dr. King was a guest of many municipal corrections authorities. Gandhi turned back the British empire without picking up a spear. None of these acts is revolutionary nor violent. They are designed to redeem the rule of law so that just ends can be achieved by just means. Civil disobedience is not uncivil, it is supremely ethical. 
 
But we must take care not to misunderstand the message of Pinchas or Jefferson. Their acts should be seen as historical anomalies to he employed only in times of epic crisis, like a deadly plague, or oppressive government, or Hitler. However the plague of political polarization plays out, we are not living in such times. The tools of protest are readily available to us. We have been petitioning our government, worked through the courts, and sometimes resorted to civil disobedience, all just means, and we have the power as sovereign citizens to shape our government so justice can be fairly and humanely meted out for "the citizen and the stranger" alike.
 
Most importantly, nowhere are we told - in this week's parasha or underneath this week's fireworks - to do nothing. Part of celebrating America and Judaism's greatness is that we seek to redeem this world through increased fairness. All of us stood at Sinai, and all of us are created equal. As Jewish Americans, we have the right and sacred responsibility to participate in the public square and deliberate on the right and the good. 2nd wave feminism bequeathed to us "the personal is political." The converse is true as well. We are not fully Americans, or Jews, or fully human, unless we seek and pursue Justice and peace, for ourselves, our fellow citizen, and the stranger alike. 
 
May God remove all oppression from this earth, and give us "pit'hon peh," open our mouths so we can speak God's truth.  
 
Shabbat Shalom
Reb Jason van Leeuwen 

From our friends at National Jewish Outreach Program and Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald

 

The Antidote Of Baseless Hatred

 

The calendrical period between the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz and the Fast of Tisha B’av is known as Bein Hame’tzarim (in the midst of distress) and is referred to colloquially as the “Three Weeks.” While the latter describes the time frame between these two fasts, the former, finds its source from the verse in Scripture (Lamentations 1:3), “all her [Israel’s] pursuers overtook her in the midst of her distress.” The Three Weeks represents the saddest period in the Jewish calendar.

The Talmud teaches that while the First Temple was destroyed because of the cardinal sins of murder, idolatry and sexual immorality, the successful razing of the Second Temple by the Romans is attributed to Sinat Chunam, which literally means “free hatred,” but connotes hatred for no apparent reason or, at least, no legitimate reason.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook famously stated that the antidote to baseless hatred is baseless love, Ahavat Chinam (Orot Hakodesh, section 3, page 324). In modern parlance, which perhaps owes a proper citation to Rabbi Kook, the concept of “random acts of kindness” may find its source from this idea.

During the period of the Three Weeks, Jewish Treats will endeavor to share some brief and inspiring thoughts related to the topic of Ahavat Chinam, or Ahavat Yisrael, the love we should exhibit for our fellow Jews.

The primary Scriptural source associated with Ahavat Chinam and Ahavat Yisrael is the famous “Golden Rule: “You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18). Rabbi Hillel famously taught, “that which is hateful to you, do not do to others” (Talmud Shabbat 31a). Referring to this Biblical verse, Rabbi Akiva proclaimed: “This is a major principle of the Torah” (Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9:4).

Copyright © 2018 NJOP. All rights reserved.