Parashat Yitro
20 Shevat 5776 / 29-30 January 2016
20 Shevat 5776 / 29-30 January 2016
Torah: Exodus 18:1 – 20:23
Haftarah: Isaiah 6:1 – 7:6; 9:5-6
For a full calendar of events and other info about our
community, check out www.bethmeier.org
Please feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please
cite the source.
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Candlelighting: 5:01 pm
Friday: Shabbat Evening Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.
Saturday: Shabbat morning service – 10:00 am. Kiddush lunch
sponsored by Avremi Manzur in honor of his birthday follows. Mazal tov!
Sunday: Religious School – 9:30 am. Adult Hebrew
Class – 10:00.
Tuesday: Lunch and Learn – 12:00 noon
Friday, 5 February: Shabbat Evening Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat
follows.
Saturday, 6 February: Shabbat morning service – 10:00 am. Bar Mitzvah of
Simon Foster. Mazal tov! Kiddush lunch sponsored by Tony and Lynda Foster follows.
Sunday, 7 February: Religious
School
SHABBAT ACROSS AMERICA is coming – Friday, March 4 – Learners’
Service and Shabbat Dinner – mark your calendar and check your mail for
details. Cost - $5.00/person – RSVP MANDATORY! You can now view the
flyer at:
For Shabbat Across America, off-street
parking will be available at First Christian Church.
Next time you come to Beth Meier,
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 aunt, Shirley Schack, whose first yahrzeit is Thursday, 25 Sh’vat.
Y’hi zekherah liv’rakhah – May her memory be a blessing.
This d'var torah is offered for a
refuah shleimah for Avi Shmuel Yosef Hakohen ben Bella, Miriam Minya
bat Alisa Batya, Sarah bat Devorah, Ken Bitticks, Elsbet
Brosky, Jerry Daniels, Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel
Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel), Leonard Foint (Eliezer Moshe ben
Esther), Jerry Forman, Pamela Huddleston (new kidney – hooray!), Stephanie
Kane, Elaine Kleiger, and Philip Kovac.
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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YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE JEWISH ….
And Jethro said, “Blessed is the Lord, who delivered you from
the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, who delivered the people from under the hand of
the Egyptians.” Exodus 18:10
BT Sanhedrin 94a teaches: “And Jethro said, ‘Blessed is the
Lord who delivered you’; at which a Tanna (anonymous teacher of 1st-3rd century
CE Judea) taught in the name of R. Pappias: It was a reproach to Moses and the
six hundred thousand [Israelites] that they did not bless [the Lord] until
Jethro came and did so.”
Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk (mid-19th century Poland )
teaches: “This statement seems strange, because we know the song that Moses and
the Israelites sang after the crossing of the sea was no less a praise of God
than Jethro’s words. Rather, Jethro was an innovator of a new form of
expressing thanks to God. The Israelites praised God for what He did for them,
but Jethro praised God for His loving-kindness to and deliverance of others. In
this he was first.”
Unstated but understood here is that Jethro, the
father-in-law of Moses, is NOT an Israelite. In fact, he is a priest of the
Midianite religion. The Talmud seems to be saying, “You Israelites! You, not
the foreigner, should have thought of this.” Shlomo of Radomsk doesn’t
understand the rebuke – the Israelites did praise God, after all. Instead, he
sees something much deeper – two things really. Jethro the foreigner taught the
Israelites a new way to thank God (by saying “blessed”), and also a new reason
to praise God – not just for themselves, but for other people too. It’s not
much of a leap to see that Judaism has long adopted from other cultures, that
Judaism teaches that everyone, Jew or not, has a path to and can have a
relationship with God, and, that we should bless God for that possibility.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Congregation Beth Meier - Studio City , CA
Blogging at: http://rav-rich.blogspot.com
"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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