Parashat Shoftim
7 Elul 5776 / 9-10
September 2016
Torah:
Deuteronomy 16:18 - 21:9
Haftarah: Isaiah 51:12
- 52:12 (Fourth Haftarah of Consolation)
Rosh
HaShanah is three weeks from
Sunday! Please submit your Membership/High Holy Day forms ASAP! And check your
mail for our High Holy Day bulletin.
Congregation Beth Meier is
looking for volunteers for the High Holy Days: to help set up/tear
down for services, chant Torah and Haftarah, daven, lead English readings, and,
have aliyot and other Torah/bimah honors. Contact Rabbi Flom at the synagogue
office or by e-mail for details and to sign up!
Dedications and Calendar of
Events follow.
For our High Holy Day schedule, and lots of other info
about our community, please check out our web site at: http://www.bethmeier.org/
For this year’s Cheshbon HaNefesh
worksheet, see:
Congregation Beth Meier has
developed a GoFundMe page:
Please visit the page and consider a donation. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!
Please feel free to pass
this on to a friend, and please cite the source.
I originally
published this some years ago, but it seems especially relevant in this US
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THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD
"Thus (the king) will
not act haughtily to his fellows or deviate to the right or to the left from
the commandment ..." Deuteronomy 17:20
In the verses preceding the
above, the king is instructed to always have a personally written copy of
the Torah at his side and to study it all his life. It is to serve as a
constant guide to him, to keep him from straying off the path that is
commanded in the opening verses of this parashah ("Justice, justice you
shall pursue" - 16:20 - found at the entrance to the US Supreme Court)
The past few years have seen
an increasing coarseness and shrillness in our “civil” discourse. Whether
discussing candidates, political or economic issues, matters of war and peace,
local or international concerns, we seem to have lost our way in the manner in
which we treat each other. “Respect” has become a word without meaning, or at
best, something demanded but not offered. Those in power, those who seek power,
and those who support them, at any level of society, more and more often treat
those with whom they disagree as the evil enemy of all that is right and good.
Extreme rhetoric begets extreme positions beget extreme conduct – it is a
dangerous path.
It is worth remembering that
the Torah has a different approach to how rulers ought to exercise their
authority. Staying between the lines of right and left, traveling
down the middle of the lane - that is the way to go. What happens
when a driver goes too far to the right or to the left? A wreck!
The staking out of extreme
positions to placate a "base" is the exact opposite of what the Torah
instructs. Look at the road - the lanes are wide - the boundary lines
at the edges are narrow. This is why Rambam teaches in Hilkhot De'ot
(Laws of Character Traits) 1:3 - "The two extremes of each trait, which
are distant from each other, do not make a proper path. It is improper for
a man to follow them or to teach them to himself." This applies not only
to our rulers, but to each and every one of us!
Extreme moderation - that is
the rule of the road.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Studio City
http://www.bethmeier.org
Blogging at: rav-rich.blogspot.com/
Visit me on Facebook
Twitter: @DrahcirMolf
"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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Candle lighting:
6:49 pm
Friday – Family Shabbat Evening Service –
7:30 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.
Saturday – Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00 am. Kiddush
lunch follows services.
Sunday - first day of Religious School
Tuesday – Lunch and Learn – noon - a 90
minute discussion on a Jewish topic of interest. Everyone is welcome to
participate. Lunch is provided - donation requested.
Friday, 9/16 – Shabbat Evening Service – 8:00 pm.
Oneg Shabbat follows.
Saturday, 9/17 – Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00
am. Kiddush lunch follows services.
Sunday, 9/18 – Religious School
Saturday, 9/24 – Selichot Service with Rabbi Flom and
Cantor Katz – 9:00 pm.
This d'var torah
is offered for a refuah shleimah for Avi Shmuel Yosef Hakohen ben Bella, HaRav
Yisrael Shimon ben Liebah Breina, Yaakov Rani Ben Margalit, Sarah bat Devorah,
Jackie Aaronson, Susan Arbetman, 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, Myra Goodman, Fouad Kay
(Yehoshua ben Salima), Stephanie Kane, Philip Kovac, Toni Linder, Deborah
Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat
Kreina), and Naomi Zimmermann (Naomi bat Yorma).
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.
My weekly divrei torah are
available through free subscription to the Cyber Torah e-mail list.
No salesman will call!
Cyber Torah list
management:
To subscribe to
Cyber Torah, send an e-mail from the receiving address to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with
the heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah”.
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To dedicate a
Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah, in memory of a loved one or for a
refuah shleimah, send an e-mail to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Dedicate
Cyber Torah” and provide details in the message body.
