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:
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.
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"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
Visit me
on Facebook
"שתיקה
כהודאה דמיא"
Silence
in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”
BT
Yevamot 88a
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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.
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!):
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