Parashat Bereishit
27 Tishrei 5777 / 28-29
October 2016
Torah Reading
Haftarah - Isaiah 42:5 -
43:10 (Ashkenazim); Isaiah 42:5-21 (Sephardim)
Dedications and Calendar
of Events follow.
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community, visit our website: http://bethmeier.org
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FUTURE PERFECT
"And the heavens and
the earth and all their hosts were finished. And by the seventh day God
finished all God's work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day
from all the work that God had done. And God blessed the seventh day and
sanctified it because on it God rested from all the work of creating that God
had done." Genesis 2:1-3.
The above verses are
chanted in the synagogue and at the Shabbat evening table as the lead-in to
Kiddush. In their book, "Five Cities of Refuge", Rabbi Lawrence
Kushner and playwright David Mamet point out that work and Shabbat observance
go together – they are inseparable. Like God, we can truly bless our work only
by refraining from it for a day, and reflecting on the work we have done.
They also point out that
the chapter and verse structure of the Torah is a construct, which artificially
separates Shabbat (Chapter 2) from the rest of Creation (Chapter 1). This is
symbolic, they suggest, of our broken world. And it is a reason why we silently
say the concluding words of Chapter 1, "and there was evening and there
was morning, a sixth day", before chanting Kiddush.
I would note that the
Jewish mystics have taught that a way to repair the world is through
"yichidut", the Unification of God's Holy Name. One way we can
“repair” Shabbat, then, is to reunify Shabbat with the rest of the week - not
by working on Shabbat, or resting all week, but by realizing that our work,
which is never done, can have meaning for us only if we take time off to
contemplate that which we have not created - and understand that we play a
role, however minor, in perfecting that Creation.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Congregation Beth Meier
Blogging at: http://rav-rich.blogspot.com/
Visit me on Facebook
Twitter: @DrahcirMolf
"שתיקה כהודאה
דמיא"
"Silence is consent.”
BT Yevamot 87b
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Candle
lighting: 5:45 pm
Friday – Shabbat Evening Service – 8:00 pm.
Oneg Shabbat follows.
Saturday – Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00 am.
Kiddush lunch follows services
Sunday - Religious School
Tuesday – Lunch and Learn – 12:00 noon
Friday 11/4 – NO SHABBAT EVENING SERVICE
Saturday 11/5 – Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00 am.
Kiddush lunch follows services.
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,
Zehavah B’rakhah bat Leah, 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, Simon Hartman,
Fouad Kay (Yehoshua ben Salima), Philip Kovac, Toni Linder, Deborah Schugar
Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), Hedy
Woolf, 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.
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