Parashat
Noach
4 Cheshvan
5777 – 4-5 November 2016
Torah: Genesis 6:9-11:32
Haftarah: Isaiah 54:1-55:5
Torah: Genesis 6:9-11:32
Haftarah: Isaiah 54:1-55:5
Dedications
and Calendar of Events follow.
PLEASE
NOTE:
1. NO Shabbat Evening Service this week – 4 November
2. Because of the inclement weather this past Sunday, the sukkah
at the synagogue is still up. Volunteers to take it down this Sunday at 10:00
am would be greatly appreciated.
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.
--------------------------------------------------------
SOMETHING
OF VALUE
"And
they said, 'Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky,
to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the
world."' Genesis 11:4
Because of its title, we know that this week's parashah contains the story of Noah and the Flood. What gets forgotten by many of us is the other story in our parashah, concerning Migdal Bavel, the Tower of Babel. More than a mere explanation of the origin of the multitude of human languages and nations, our Rabbis tell us it is a cautionary tale, one with particular significance even, or perhaps especially in modern times.
In the Midrash, Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer, we are told, "The tower had seven ramps from the east and seven from the west. The bricks were hauled up from one side, and the descent was on the other. If a man fell down and died, no attention was paid to him. But if one brick fell down, they would sit and weep, saying, 'Woe is us. When will another be brought up in its place?'"
Because of its title, we know that this week's parashah contains the story of Noah and the Flood. What gets forgotten by many of us is the other story in our parashah, concerning Migdal Bavel, the Tower of Babel. More than a mere explanation of the origin of the multitude of human languages and nations, our Rabbis tell us it is a cautionary tale, one with particular significance even, or perhaps especially in modern times.
In the Midrash, Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer, we are told, "The tower had seven ramps from the east and seven from the west. The bricks were hauled up from one side, and the descent was on the other. If a man fell down and died, no attention was paid to him. But if one brick fell down, they would sit and weep, saying, 'Woe is us. When will another be brought up in its place?'"
Although
the people had the intelligence and the technical skill to erect a great
building, and knew the value of things, they were completely lacking in moral
values when it came to applying their wealth and knowledge to helping each
other. They sought only to make a name for themselves, to assert their
superiority over the world and over God. They cared nothing for the
individual human being - the individual's worth was measured, if at all, only
insofar as a person could contribute to the idolatrous undertaking.
We
see this attitude all around us. Nations build nuclear weapons while their
people starve. And who can forget the neutron bomb, designed to kill
people but not destroy infrastructure? We conduct cost-benefit analyses and
determine that it is better to continue building dangerously defective cars and
pay settlements for the dead and injured than to spend money on building
safer vehicles. We treat "human resources" as if they were fungible
goods, like so many widgets or ten-a-penny nails, and dismiss thousands of
people from their jobs with the stroke of a pen, all to meet analysts’ quarterly
earnings expectations.
When human life is at stake, we should respond, "When will another be brought up in its place?" Otherwise, we neglect at the peril of our very souls the teaching of Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 - "one who destroys a single human life, it is as if he destroyed an entire world; and one who saves a single human life, it is as if he saved an entire world".
When human life is at stake, we should respond, "When will another be brought up in its place?" Otherwise, we neglect at the peril of our very souls the teaching of Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 - "one who destroys a single human life, it is as if he destroyed an entire world; and one who saves a single human life, it is as if he saved an entire world".
Shabbat
Shalom.
Rabbi
Richard A. Flom
Congregation
Beth Meier
Studio
City, CA
Visit
me on Facebook
Twitter: @DrahcirMolf
"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"
"Silence
is consent.”
BT
Yevamot 87b
-----------------------------------------------
Candle lighting: 5:39 pm
Friday –
NO SHABBAT EVENING SERVICE
Saturday –
Shabbat Morning Service – 10:00 am. Kiddush lunch follows services. Turn back your clocks Saturday night!
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 Class – 10:00 am. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED to take down the sukkah –
10:00 am.
Tuesday –
NO Lunch and Learn. Resume 15 November. Don’t
forget to vote!
Friday
11/11 – Family Shabbat Evening Service – 7:30 pm
Saturday
11/12 – Sh’MA (Shabbat Morning Adventure) Service with Cantor
Steve Pearlman – 10:00 am. A joyful, accessible guitar-accompanied
(abbreviated) singalong Shabbat morning service. All religious school students and families must attend (please!). Kiddush
lunch follows services.
Sunday
11/13 – NO Religious
School – that’s why we want the kids at services on Shabbat morning!
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.
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”.
To unsubscribe from Cyber Torah, send
an e-mail from the receiving address to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Unsubscribe Cyber
Torah”.
To dedicate a Cyber Torah in honor of
a simcha 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.
