Nisan 10, 5780 / April 3-4, 2020
Torah: Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36
Torah: Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36
Haftarah (Shabbat Hagadol): Malachi 3:4-24
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Our synagogue community, Temple B’nai Hayim in Association with
Congregation Beth Meier, has set up a GoFundMe page to help support some of our
employees and members who are particularly vulnerable due to the COVID-19
pandemic. Please help us help them with your donation.
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Friday, April 3, at 6:30 pm PDT we’ll be streaming Cool Shabbat
Evening Service with Steve Pearlman and Rabbi Flom via Zoom and at: https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
This week's Torah reading, chanted by Reb Jason, with running commentary by Rabbi Flom, is available at: : https://zoom.us/rec/play/upR8JO6uqzI3GYHHsASDVKd-W468Ka2shCRM-6YJmE63B3ACY1avZeYTZrbk4iZgn3eT_LP4L8IYdGca?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=gWX0OXxxRGe9u2hO12wopw.1585887495685.9d499f47f5c37f6335af091f5a440aff&_x_zm_rhtaid=714
This week's haftarah, chanted by Steve Pearlman, is available at: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMgeJEaDbRaRqwXIacEX01aYXsIh2EHxz8omKNnQiKkx-rzFeoJZmx0WWMkWeViCA?key=Vk1JWjRIRW9FMjdrajNCTnZmODE0VDNzOFJJeC13
My Pesach Resources - 5780 (UPDATED), is available at: https://rav-rich.blogspot.com/2020/03/pesach-resources-5780-edition-updated.html I have been adding resources as they become available for the past couple weeks, but the link does not change. So please check it often for the latest information.
You can authorize me to sell your chametz for you by filling out
the form at: https://rav-rich.blogspot.com/2020/03/delegation-of-authority-to-sell-chametz.html
Cut and paste the form into an email, fill in the blanks, and send it to me at:
ravflom@sbcglobal.net no later than
10:00 am PDT, Wednesday, April 8.
I’ll be doing an on-line study session for the first-born on
Wednesday, April 8, at 8:30 am PDT via Zoom and at: https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
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Candle lighting: 6:57 pm
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HOLY AFIKOMAN - HOLY SACRIFICE
"That which is left of (the meal offering) shall be eaten by
Aaron and his sons; it shall be eaten as unleavened bread (matzot) in the holy
place…. It shall not be baked with leaven (chametz); I have given it as their
portion from My offering by fire; it is most holy, like the sin offering and
the guilt offering.... Anything that touches these shall become holy."
Leviticus 6:9 – 11
Only some of the minchah (meal) offering is burned on the
altar. The remainder is eaten by the priests in the form of an enriched
matzah (not quite the same as Pesach matzah). Like some of the other
sacrifices, it is "most holy". Anything that touches it becomes holy
as well.
Our Seder Shel Pesach is a re-enactment of an ancient ritual of
sacrifice. We are a kingdom of priests and a holy people (Exodus 19:6).
Our table is the altar. The candles represent the flames of the
sacrifices. The wine represents the libation the priests poured over the
sacrifices. The shank bone and roasted egg represent the Pesach sacrifice and
the Festival sacrifice respectively. As commanded in the Torah, we consume
matzah and maror (bitter herb), though we no longer eat or offer the animal
sacrifice. The three matzot? The top two are used for the commandment to eat
matzah and the commandment to eat maror (along with charoset). The third
matzah? Half of it is used to make the “Hillel sandwich” in the style Hillel
consumed the Pesach sacrifice. And the other half of the third matzah? That is the
afikoman. In short, the third matzah is a substitute for the Pesach sacrifice.
The Seder Shel Pesach is a deep connection to our roots and to
those who have gone before us, as well as a significant link to our future. It
is an act of kedushah - of holiness. The afikoman is not dessert, though
it is the final thing we eat at the seder. As it is representative of the last
morsel of the Pesach sacrifice, it is, like any sacrifice, holy. And its
consumption makes us holy as well.
This year, we are all engaging in a very different kind of
sacrifice, one mandated both by our government health authorities (dina d’malkhuta
dina – the law of the land is the law) and by our religious tradition (pikuach
nefesh – saving life). We will be celebrating our sedarim apart from each
other, in order to maintain the health and safety of ourselves, our loved ones,
our neighbors, and our society. In that very first seder that took place in
Egypt, our people were commanded to stay in their homes as the final plague
passed through the land. That they did so is the reason we are here.
This year, as difficult as it might be to forgo the companionship of
family and friends that we all associate with the holiday, we must do the same
thing as our ancestors. We will each of us observe the seder and the holiday as
best we can under the circumstances. The holiday of Pesach celebrates the
survival and eventual thriving of our people. It is incumbent upon us to not
risk individual survival in order to observe the holiday.
God willing, perhaps we will have the opportunity to come together
on the evening of May 7, Iyar 14, for Pesach Sheni, the Biblical date set aside
especially for those who were unable to celebrate the Seder Shel Pesach at its appointed
time. If not, there will be Pesach again next year. Take heart in that fact as
you eat the last bit of afikoman at your seder. And know that your sacrifice
this year is an additional act of kedushah – an act of holiness.
May God bless us, every one.
Shabbat Shalom V’Chag Pesach Mashma’uti – A Peaceful Shabbat and a
Meaningful Passover
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Temple B'nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier
"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"
"Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”
BT Yevamot 88a
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This d’var torah is offered in honor of my wonderful
wife and shelter-in-place partner Lynn Kronzek, who is celebrating her birthday on Wednesday, April 8. Yom
huledet sameach! Ad meah v’esrim!
This d’var torah is offered in honor of my aunt Helen
Schugar, who is celebrating her birthday on Wednesday, April 8. Yom huledet
sameach! Ad meah v’esrim!
This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for
Elisheva bat Malkah, Chanah bat Minnie Leah, Leah bat Sarah Imanu, Sheyna D’verah
bat Hodel, Sarah bat Devorah, Susan Arbetman, Ken Bitticks, Elsbet Brosky, Mark
Brownstein, Stana Cooper, Jerry Daniels, Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr.
Samuel Fersht (Shmuel Natan ben Gittel), Bernard Garvin, Leah Granat, Brandon
Joseph, Gabor Klein, Philip Kronzek, Tonya Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah
Imanu), Martin Lee, Barbara Levy, Gail Neiman, Sandra Raab, Josef Sands,
Shirley Sands, Gina Seeman, Debra Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat Chaya Feiga),
Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), and William Sragow.
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.
