THIS IS AWESOME!

6 Tishrei 5777 / 7-8 October 2016

Parashat Vayeilekh

Shabbat Shuvah - The Sabbath of Return

Torah: Deuteronomy 31:1-30
Haftarah: Hosea 14:2-10; Micah 7:18-20 (some add Joel 2:15-27)

Important note: If you have no place to worship for the High Holy Days, or any day of the year, or if you think you cannot afford tickets or membership, please, please join us for services. You can pay whatever you can afford later. No one is turned away! Ever!

Yom Kippur begins Tuesday evening! Kol Nidrei Service is at 6:15 pm. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Tuesday at 12:00 Noon at the church to set up, and Wednesday after services end at 7:00 to clean up and move everything back to the synagogue.

Dedications and Calendar of Events follow.

For our complete High Holy Day schedule, and lots of other info about our community, please check out our web site at: http://bethmeier.org

For this year’s Cheshbon Hanefesh worksheet, see: http://rav-rich.blogspot.com/2016/09/cheshbon-hanefesh-worksheet.html

An older, slightly different, version will be distributed at High Holy Day services.

Congregation Beth Meier has developed a GoFundMe page: Please visit the page and consider a donation. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

https://www.gofundme.com/saveourschul

Please feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source.

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THIS IS AWESOME!

“And that their children who have not known may hear and learn to fear (to hold in awe) the Lord your God, all the days you live in the land where you go over to Jordan to possess it.” Deuteronomy 31:13

The word translated as “to fear”, l’yira, might also be translated as “to hold in awe”. Indeed, these days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are known as “Yamim Nora’im” - the Days of Awe, not the Days of Fear, even though nora’im and yira share the same root.

Note 1: The verses immediately preceding our verse instruct all the Jewish people to gather together to hear the reading of the Torah - to learn how to practice Judaism. We do this now in the synagogue, on Shabbat, Mondays and Thursdays, New Moons and Holy Days.

Note 2: Since the dispersion following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. until 1948, few Jews lived in the Land of Israel - i.e., over the Jordan. Yet, they continued, even to today, even though most Jews still do not live in the Land of Israel, to hold God in awe and to hear and to learn, and to practice Judaism. I want to suggest that it is not only God that is awesome, but that the verses mean to tell us that the Torah and Judaism as we know it (and as it is still developing) are also awesome! Our ancestors knew this – and so should we all!

The best way, perhaps the only way, to hear and learn how to practice awesome Judaism is to come together, in synagogues and in study halls and in living rooms, and study Torah. We don’t have to be over the Jordan, in the Land of Israel; we can be anywhere, and these days, thanks to the internet, we don’t even have to be in the same time zone, let alone the same room.

Go to a synagogue; join a Jewish learning program; gather together with other Jews, and experience the awesomeness of it all!

Shabbat Shalom! Wishing you a g’mar chatimah tovah umetukah - May you completely sealed for a good and sweet new year!

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Congregation Beth Meier
Studio City, CA

http://bethmeier.org

Blogging at: http://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: 6:10 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 – 9:30 am. If you have or know of any Jewish children ages 6-13 in need of a warm and welcoming Jewish education in a small setting, bring them on down! Or call Rabbi Flom or Elaine Kleiger at the synagogue office. Adult Hebrew – 10:00 am.

Tuesday – VOLUNTEERS NEEDED AT 12:00 NOON AT THE CHURCH TO SET UP FOR KOL NIDREI AND YOM KIPPUR! KOL NIDREI SERVICE - 6:15 pm

Wednesday – Yom Kippur Morning Service - 8:30 am. Yizkor – approximately 11:00 am. Torah study – 3:00 pm. Blessing of Children and Minchah – 5:15 pm, immediately followed by Neilah. Shofar, Havdalah and Break Fast – 7:00 pm. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO HELP CLEAN UP AND MOVE EVERYTHING BACK TO BETH MEIER IMMEDIATELY AFTER NEILAH (AFTER A BAGEL, OF COURSE!)

Friday 10/14 – Family Shabbat Evening Service – 7:30pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.

Saturday 10/15 – Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00 am. Kiddush lunch follows services.

This d’var torah is offered in memory of my uncle, Sidney Schugar, whose yahrzeit is Yom Kippur. Y’hi zikhro liv’rakhah - his memory is a blessing.

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, 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), 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!

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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.