THE FORGETTING COMMANDMENTS

Parashat Ki Tetze
Torah: Deuteronomy 21:10 - 25:19
Haftarah: Isaiah 54:1-10 (Fifth Haftarah of Consolation)

11 Elul 5777 / 1-2 September 2017

All religious services and programs are at Temple B’nai Hayim, 4302 Van Nuys Blvd., corner of Benefit Street.

TBH Religious School commences Sunday, September 10. TBH Pre-school has open enrollment. Enroll your children now! Contact the TBH office for information.

And be sure to tell your neighbors, friends, and relatives about our warm and welcoming community and our programs!

Rosh Hashanah is three (3!) weeks from now! Please submit your Membership/High Holy Day ticket forms ASAP!

We are looking for volunteers for the High Holy Days: chant Torah and Haftarah, daven, lead English readings, and, have aliyot and other Torah/bimah honors. Contact Rabbi Flom or Susan Burke by e-mail for details and to sign up!

We are now well into the month of Elul, the final run-up to Rosh Hashanah. Jewish tradition teaches that in Elul, we are to engage in “cheshbon hanefesh”, literally “an accounting of the soul” -self-evaluation. As I do every year, I have prepared a Cheshbon Hanefesh worksheet to prepare you for the High Holy Days. For this year’s edition, see: http://rav-rich.blogspot.com/2017/08/cheshbon-hanefesh-worksheet.html

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

"When you reap the harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, do not return to take it; it shall be for the stranger, orphan and widow, in order that the Lord your God will bless you in all the work of your hand. When you beat your olive trees, do not go over them again; it shall be for the stranger, orphan and widow. When you harvest your vineyard, do not pick it over again; it shall be for the stranger, orphan and widow. And you will remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing." Deuteronomy 24:19-22

"The Gleaners" - by Jean-Francois Millet, 1857

In these verses, as well as in Leviticus 19:9-10 and 23:22 ("for the poor and for the stranger"), we are told to intentionally leave grain, olives and grapes - basic foodstuffs which are also, not coincidentally, essential for offering the basic sacrifices to God. These are the necessities of the Israelites' physical and spiritual lives. And yet, according to the Rabbis, the commandment to leave forgotten sheaves in the field is the only commandment in the Torah that, in a way, can be fulfilled unintentionally.

There are several rabbinic tales in which people celebrate the fact that they forgot sheaves in the field. But how can they celebrate unless they remember? It seems that what they are celebrating is that they "remembered" to forget! Sheaves on the ground? Forget about them! Olives still in the trees? Don't go back for them! Unripe grapes still on the vines? Don't do a second harvest. Forget about them!

This is all about overcoming human nature. When gathering in the harvest, anyone would be inclined to go back and get as much produce as possible - it was hard work to grow it, winter is coming, and who knows what the future will bring? But by remembering what it was like to have nothing, we can forget about trying to have everything.

These mitzvot can be fulfilled in a different way today. Please donate packaged foods to SOVA (we have a bin at TBH) or the local food pantry of your choice. Don’t forget!

Shabbat Shalom! And have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Blogging at: http://rav-rich.blogspot.com/

Visit me on Facebook

Twitter: @DrahcirMolf

"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"

"Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”

BT Yevamot 87b

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Candle lighting: 7:00 pm

Friday – NO Shabbat Evening Service this week.

Saturday – Shabbat Morning Service – 9:30 am. NO Breakfast and Torah study this week. Kiddush luncheon follows.

Monday – Labor Day

Tuesday – Lunch and Learn – 12:00 Noon.

Friday, September 8 – Shabbat Evening Service – 7:30 pm. Oneg Shabbat follows.

Saturday, September 9 – Light Breakfast and Torah Study – 8:45 am. Shabbat Morning Service - 9:30 am. Kiddush luncheon follows.

Mazal tov to Dr. Martin Lee and Marilyn Lee on the birth of a granddaughter!

This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Avi Shmuel Yosef Hakohen ben Bella, Ze’ev ben Adeline, Yaakov Rani Ben Margalit, HaRav Tzvi Hersh ben Frimet, Sarah bat Devorah, Susan Arbetman, Stuart Barth, Ken Bitticks, Elsbet Brosky (Serach bat Miriam), Stana Cooper, Jerry Daniels, Bryon Fendrich (Berel ben Chanah), Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel), Leonard Foint (Eliezer Moshe ben Esther), Jerry Forman, Myra Goodman, Simon Hartman, Kerry Katz, Philip Kovac, Tonya Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah Emanu), Toni Linder, Stuart Lytton, Deborah Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), Alexis Woolfson, and Simon Woolfson.

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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