WE’RE ALL STRANGERS ON THIS BUS!

Parashat Mishpatim

27 Sh’vat 5776 / 5-6 February 2016
Torah: Exodus 21:1 - 24:18
Haftarah: Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26

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: 5:08 pm

Friday: Shabbat Evening Service – 8:00 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.

Saturday: Shabbat morning service – 10:00 am. . Bar Mitzvah of Simon Foster. Mazal tov! Kiddush lunch sponsored by Tony and Lynda Foster follows.

Sunday:  Religious   School – 9:30 am. Adult Hebrew Class – 10:00. 

Tuesday: Lunch and Learn – 12:00 noon

Friday, 12 February: Family Shabbat Evening Service – 7:30 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.

Saturday, 13 February: Shabbat morning service – 10:00 am

Sunday, 14 February: NO Religious School or Adult Hebrew Class – Presidents' Day Weekend.

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:

http://rav-rich.blogspot.com/2016/01/shabbat-across-america-at-beth-meier.html

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 honor of Simon Foster, who is becoming a bar mitzvah this Shabbat. Mazal tov!

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, 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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WE’RE ALL STRANGERS ON THIS BUS!

“You shall not wrong a ger or oppress him, for you were gerim in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 22:20

The word “ger” (plural “gerim”) is untranslated here, because it has two distinct meanings. The word may mean “stranger” or "alien”, i.e., one who is not from the place where s/he resides. It may also mean a “convert”.

“It has been taught: Rabbi Eliezer the Great said, ‘Why does the Torah warn against (the wronging of) a ger in thirty-six, and some say forty-six places? Because he has a strong inclination to evil.’” B. Talmud Bava Metziah 59b

Rashi understands “ger” in Rabbi Eliezer's statement to mean a convert to Judaism. He suggests that mistreatment of a convert will cause the convert to relapse to “his original bad character”. This is a not very flattering portrayal of converts (in truth, such a statement does not reflect positively on those who make it).

I believe that Rabbi Eliezer’s teaching deserves a deeper reading. Each of us, every human being, at some time or another has been a ger, a “stranger”, an “other”, which also suggests that each and every one of us has an inclination toward evil. The only protection any of us has is the commandment to remember that very fact. Perhaps that is the true meaning of “love your fellow as yourself”.

No matter who you are, you are a ger to someone else. “Love your fellow, who is a ger just like you”.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Congregation Beth Meier -  Studio City , CA

www.bethmeier.org

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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