Parashat Acharei Mot/Kedoshim
Torah: Leviticus 16:1-20:27
Haftarah: Amos 9:7-15 (Ashkenazim); Ezekiel
20:2-20 (Sephardim)
Candlelighting: 7:19 pm
This week's Torah reading, chanted and with commentary, can be viewed here: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/tJEqdrip_Ts3G9PG4wSDAPdwW43vK62shiMYrKUInkyzUnNQMAGlM-MUNLEjKxi2Mf8iN_Rccv3KCqP_?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=S1DRvCRHSgykrrZuz75zBQ.1588350321978.26d48934f587268fb775e702e6f85478&_x_zm_rhtaid=241
This week's Haftarah, chanted by Steve Pearlman, can be viewed here: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AsPP80QvE9AGdtI&cid=83A0487AFB02F2CB&id=83A0487AFB02F2CB%211851&parId=root&o=OneUp
Join our Cool Shabbat Evening Service, with Rabbi Flom and Steve Pearlman this Friday evening at 6:30 pm PDT on Zoom (Meeting Number 418 318 664) or at https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
Downloadable and printable Siddur for Kabbalat Shabbat, Shabbat Ma'ariv, Shabbat Morning, and more, available at:
http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/form-download-e-siddur-0
This week's Torah Sparks from the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem is available here:
This week's Haftarah, chanted by Steve Pearlman, can be viewed here: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AsPP80QvE9AGdtI&cid=83A0487AFB02F2CB&id=83A0487AFB02F2CB%211851&parId=root&o=OneUp
Join our Cool Shabbat Evening Service, with Rabbi Flom and Steve Pearlman this Friday evening at 6:30 pm PDT on Zoom (Meeting Number 418 318 664) or at https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
Downloadable and printable Siddur for Kabbalat Shabbat, Shabbat Ma'ariv, Shabbat Morning, and more, available at:
http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/form-download-e-siddur-0
This week's Torah Sparks from the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem is available here:
You can receive a fresh Torah Sparks every week
via email by subscribing here:
Please feel free to pass this on to a friend,
and please cite the source.
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WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO, GOT TO DO WITH IT?
"You shall not take revenge and you shall not bear a grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your fellow as yourself; I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:18)
Siddur Sim Shalom has the following brief kavannah - a statement of intent - immediately before Birkhot Hashachar – The Blessings of the Morning: "I hereby accept upon myself the mitzvah of the Creator - 'Love your fellow as yourself.'" Rabbi Schneur Zalman, the founder of Chabad, placed this kavannah in his siddur as well. The reason, he said, is that the commandment to love one's fellows is the gateway to coming before God in prayer. I think what he means by that is that we cannot stand before the One we are commanded to love (Deuteronomy 6:5) until we have demonstrated our love for our fellow human beings – who are, after all, created in the Divine image. I found this quote of “an unknown Torah scholar” in Itturei Torah: "To the extent that one is deficient in 'love your fellow as yourself', one is deficient in 'love the Lord your God.'"
In Or Hadash, his commentary
on Siddur Sim Shalom, Rabbi Reuven Hammer, z’l cites the famous
story of Hillel teaching the Torah to a proselyte while standing on one foot:
“Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to others. The rest is commentary. Go
and learn it!” (BT Shabbat 31a) Rabbi Hammer adds that Hillel believes
our religious practices are intended to lead us to treating our fellow human
beings in this loving way. He concludes: “Thus, the ultimate test of a
religious person is not specific observances, but the influence that these
observances have upon that person’s actions toward others.”
The second blessing of the morning, as it
appears in Siddur Sim Shalom and other Conservative siddurim,
says: “Blessed are you, Lord our God, who has made me in His image.” We
thank God for making each and every one of us in the Divine image.
In summary, we cannot hope to approach the
Divine, let alone love the Divine, until we acknowledge the divinity in
every other human being.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Temple B'nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier
Blogging at: http://rav-rich.blogspot.com
Visit me on Facebook
"From the place where we are absolutely
right, flowers will never grow in the spring."
"מן המקום שבו אנו צודקים לא יצמחו לעולם פרחים באביב"
Yehuda Amichai
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Our synagogue community, Temple B’nai Hayim in
Association with Congregation Beth Meier, has set up a GoFundMe page to help
support some of our employees and members who are particularly vulnerable due
to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please help us help them with your donation.
This d’var torah is offered in memory of Lloyd Sharaga, son of TBH/CBM member Esther Rose, who passed away on Wednesday. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a private funeral is taking place on Friday, May 1. Shiva information is pending. Hamakom yenachem otam ... May the One Who is in Every Place grant comfort to Esther, Lloyd's widow Shirley Sharaga, and Lloyd's brother Brian Sharaga.
This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Elisheva bat Malkah, Chanah bat Minnie Leah, Leah bat Sarah Imanu, Sheyna D’verah bat Hodel, Sarah bat Devorah, Susan Arbetman, Ken Bitticks, Elsbet Brosky, Stana Cooper, Jerry Daniels, Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel), Bernard Garvin, Leah Granat, Brandon Joseph, Gabor Klein, Philip Kronzek, Tonya Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah Imanu), Barbara Levy, Gail Neiman, Sandra Raab, Josef Sands, Shirley Sands, Debra Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), and William Sragow.
This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Elisheva bat Malkah, Chanah bat Minnie Leah, Leah bat Sarah Imanu, Sheyna D’verah bat Hodel, Sarah bat Devorah, Susan Arbetman, Ken Bitticks, Elsbet Brosky, Stana Cooper, Jerry Daniels, Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel), Bernard Garvin, Leah Granat, Brandon Joseph, Gabor Klein, Philip Kronzek, Tonya Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah Imanu), Barbara Levy, Gail Neiman, Sandra Raab, Josef Sands, Shirley Sands, Debra Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), 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.
