Parashat
Devarim
Torah:
Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22
Haftarah:
Isaiah 1:1-27 (Shabbat Chazon – Shabbat of Vision)
9 Av
5779 / 9-10 August 2019
Tisha
B’Av observance is delayed until Saturday night – Sunday
Tisha
B’Av reading: Megillat Eichah – The Book of Lamentations
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 d'var torah is
offered in memory of Sarah Labovitz Flom (my grandmother) and Martha Gottschalk
Stern (Lynn's grandmother), whose yahrzeits fall Sunday 10 Av, and Tuesday 12
Av, respectively. Both were US immigrants and asylum seekers, escaping
anti-semitic persecution from Romania (1902) and from Nazi Germany (1937 via
France 1934).
Please feel free to pass this on to a friend,
and please cite the source.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE – IT’S A TRADITION
In this week’s haftarah, Isaiah warns the
people what will happen to them if they continue to disobey God’s instructions –
particularly with regard to matters of justice.
“… Your hands
are full of blood. Wash yourselves clean; Put your evil out of My sight. Cease
your evil ways. 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.” Isaiah 1:15-17
“If you refuse
and disobey, you will be consumed by violence – for it was the Lord who spoke.”
Isaiah 1:20
"Your
rulers are rogues and cronies of thieves, every one of them avid for bribery
and greedy for illicit gifts; They do not give the orphan justice, and the
widow's case never reaches them." Isaiah 1:23
This Sunday,
Jews remember and mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, twice,
on the 9th of Av – first in 587 BCE by the Babylonians, and in 70 CE
by the Romans. Other calamities suffered by the Jewish people are attributed to
or very close to the 9th of Av.
The Book of
Lamentations (attributed, probably incorrectly, to Jeremiah) describes the
destruction by the Babylonians. The Talmud, in a number of places, attributes
both destructions, particularly by the Romans, to baseless hatred among the people.
Thus, we may
read the Talmud as teaching that failure to take to heart the teachings of
Isaiah leads to the moral and physical destruction of society.
We’ve seen
resistance to injustice before. Abraham argued with God for the sake of Sodom
and Gomorrah – he lost the argument, but he was not afraid to make the
challenge - for people he didn’t know, for people who were not so nice, but who
were nevertheless fellow human beings. Our Rabbis taught that one of the
reasons God ultimately destroyed the cities was because of “the cry of the
maiden” – a woman who was executed in Sodom for the crime of giving food and
water to the poor and to immigrants.
More famously, Moses
demanded justice from the Pharaoh of Egypt – and set an enslaved people free.
It took a while, and God’s intervention, but our Rabbis teach that had Moses
refused to do this, had he remained silent, the Israelites might still be
slaves. This story of the Exodus led to constant reminders to love the Other
because “you were strangers in Egypt” and “you know the heart of the stranger”.
On this point, we learn specifically, “You will love the stranger, because you
were strangers in Egypt.” Deuteronomy 10:19
Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and virtually all of the Biblical prophets, have a few things in
common. They challenged the status quo of the immoral and unjust power
structure, and they demanded that the people act more justly. “For it is
lovingkindness I desire, not sacrifice.” Hosea 6:6
Here’s a way to
make your fast of Tisha B’Av both modern and meaningful. Become part of the
Jewish tradition that speaks out against injustice. Join me and other like-minded
Jews this Sunday, at 9:00 am, at the Federal Metropolitan Detention Center in
downtown Los Angeles to protest the US government’s incarceration of asylum
seekers and its related family separation policies. As is appropriate for such
a gathering, this protest will include a morning prayer service for Tisha B’Av.
I’m going for my grandmother, and for Lynn’s grandmother, and for every person
escaping violence and oppression who seeks asylum in the United States.
For more
information, visit this site:
Protesting and resisting injustice is not
futile. Even if it were, it’s still a Jewish tradition, and the traditions of
our ancestors are Torah for us.
Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom – A Shabbat of
Peace and a Tzom Mashma’uti – A Meaningful Fast
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: 7:28 pm
Friday: Shabbat
Evening Service – 6:30 pm. Oneg
Shabbat follows. (NOTE TIME CHANGE FOR AUGUST!)
Saturday: Torah study/breakfast – 8:45 am. Shabbat
Morning Service – 9:30 am. Kiddush lunch follows. Tisha B’Av is
coming. We will have a light dinner (before the start of the fast), a study
session, and evening service with chanting of Eichah (Book of Lamentations)
on Saturday, August 10, commencing at 7:15 pm. Fast commences at
7:45 pm, concludes Sunday at 8:11 pm.
Sunday: Tisha B’Av
Observed.
Tuesday: Lunch and
Learn – 12:00 noon.
Friday, August 16: Shabbat Evening Service – 6:30 pm. Oneg
Shabbat follows. (NOTE TIME CHANGE FOR AUGUST!)
Saturday, August 17: Torah study/breakfast – 8:45 am. Shabbat
Morning Service – 9:30 am. Kiddush lunch follows.
This d’var torah is offered for
a refuah shleimah for Bella bat Shoshanah, Leah bat Sarah Imanu, Sarah
bat Devorah, Susan Arbetman, Ken Bitticks, Mark Brownstein, Jerry Daniels, Maya
Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel),
Annabelle Flom (Channah Bella bat Kreina), Bernard Garvin, Leah Granat, Carol
Herskowitz, Brandon Joseph, Gabor Klein, Philip Kovac, Philip Kronzek, Tonya
Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah Imanu), Marilyn Lee, David Marks, Sandra Raab,
Marguerite Rassiner, Josef Sands, Debra Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya
Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), Bernie Seeman, and William
Sragow.
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.
Next time you come to TBH/CBM, please bring
some non-perishable canned and packaged foods and personal items (no glass) for
SOVA.
And be sure to tell your neighbors, friends,
and relatives about our warm and welcoming community and our programs!
We are looking for volunteers for
services: chant Torah or Haftarah, daven, lead English readings,
deliver d’rashot, and have aliyot and other Torah/bimah honors. Training
available! Contact Rabbi Flom by e-mail for details and to sign up!
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
