Parashat Nitzavim - Vayelekh
Torah: Deuteronomy 29:9 – 31:30
Haftarah: Isaiah 61:10 - 63:9 (Seventh Haftarah of Consolation)
Torah: Deuteronomy 29:9 – 31:30
Haftarah: Isaiah 61:10 - 63:9 (Seventh Haftarah of Consolation)
Elul 23, 5780 / September 11-12, 2020
Pickup of machzorim for the High Holy Days is this Sunday, September 13, at Temple B’nai Hayim, from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm, and Thursday, September 17, 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm. Drive up to the kitchen door in the alley at the rear of the TBH building and knock on the door. If you are unable to pick up your machzor, please let the TBH/CBM office know ASAP so that we may arrange local delivery. These are being loaned to all our registered Chaverim, for return in October. To emphasize – these are only for registered Chaverim of TBH/CBM. How can YOU become a Chaver? Read on!
Please submit your Chaver Registration Form ASAP! You can find it at our all-new website: http://www.bnaihayim.org The form was also sent via snail mail to our 5780 members. We will be streaming our High Holy Day services live via Zoom only, and the Zoom link is being provided only to registered Chaverim. If you need assistance in learning how to access those or any other of our services and programs, please contact Reb Jason Van Leeuwen or Rabbi Richard Flom. We are looking for volunteers for the High Holy Days: chant Torah and Haftarah, daven, lead English readings, and, have aliyot and other honors. A few opportunities are still available. Contact Rabbi Flom or Susan Burke by e-mail for details and to sign up!
Pickup of machzorim for the High Holy Days is this Sunday, September 13, at Temple B’nai Hayim, from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm, and Thursday, September 17, 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm. Drive up to the kitchen door in the alley at the rear of the TBH building and knock on the door. If you are unable to pick up your machzor, please let the TBH/CBM office know ASAP so that we may arrange local delivery. These are being loaned to all our registered Chaverim, for return in October. To emphasize – these are only for registered Chaverim of TBH/CBM. How can YOU become a Chaver? Read on!
Please submit your Chaver Registration Form ASAP! You can find it at our all-new website: http://www.bnaihayim.org The form was also sent via snail mail to our 5780 members. We will be streaming our High Holy Day services live via Zoom only, and the Zoom link is being provided only to registered Chaverim. If you need assistance in learning how to access those or any other of our services and programs, please contact Reb Jason Van Leeuwen or Rabbi Richard Flom. We are looking for volunteers for the High Holy Days: chant Torah and Haftarah, daven, lead English readings, and, have aliyot and other honors. A few opportunities are still available. Contact Rabbi Flom or Susan Burke by e-mail for details and to sign up!
We are holding Selichot Service this Saturday evening, September 12, at 9:00 pm PDT. Join us at: https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
We will have the Selichot prayerbook on screenshare for this service.
If you would like to order a Lulav/Etrog set for Sukkot,
please let me know via e-mail – ravflom@sbcglobal.net
– no later than Monday morning, 9/14. Cost for a basic set is $40. They will be
available for pickup at Temple B’nai Hayim in the days before Sukkot.
For the past few years, I have created a Cheshbon Hanefesh Worksheet, to help get us ready for the spiritual
side of the High Holy Days (sorry, no recipes or floral arrangements!). You can
download it from my blog at:
https://rav-rich.blogspot.com/2020/08/cheshbon-hanefesh-woksheet-5781.html Also, some excellent on-line resources are available for your Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur preparations at:
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/
This d'var torah is offered in loving memory of my grandmother, Cora Slome, z'l, whose yahrzeit falls on Thursday, Elul 28. Y’hi zikhronah liv’rakhah – her memory is a blessing.
This d’var torah is offered in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, the anniversary of which is this Friday. They are not forgotten.
Candle-lighting for Friday, September 11: 6:46 PM PDT
Our Refuah Shleimah list can be found at:
If you would like to have a name added or removed from this Prayer for Healing list, please write to me at: ravflom@sbcglobal.net
Links to all of our on-line activities can be found below.
Please feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source.
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THE ROAD TO HELL AND THE EASY WAY
“For this commandment which I am commanding you today is not hidden from you; it is not far away. It is not in Heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go to Heaven and get it for us, so that we might hear it and do it?’ For this matter is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” Deuteronomy 30:11-12, 14
R. Nachman of Bratzlav: “Only the path to Gehinnom (hell) is difficult and bitter. I see people spending restless days and sleepless nights plotting how to go about sinning, and afterwards there is regret, which continues for the rest of their lives. But the way to the Garden of Eden is an easy one, short and pleasant for those who walk it.”
Sometimes we make our lives too difficult. We devote time and energy trying to avoid doing the right thing, making excuses for bad acts, compromising principles, rationalizing our way out of truth, justice and righteousness. An acquaintance of mine, an ex-convict, once told me that the most difficult part of his criminal life was trying to remember all of the lies he had told, keeping them straight in his mind, not getting caught in the web of dishonesty he had spun. It would have been so much easier to be honest.
Rebbe Nachman teaches that same lesson in the context of following the ways of the Torah. With observance, with honesty, with righteousness, there are no regrets, no lies, and no guilt. In the long run, it’s easier to be a mentsch (a decent person) than it is to be a rasha (an evildoer). The Torah, the Tree of Life – “its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.” Proverbs 3:17
Shabbat shalom!
L’shanah tovah u’metukah tikateivu v’tichateimu. May you be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet year.
Shabbat Shalom!
.הַלּוֹמֵד מִכָּל אָדָם ?אֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם
Who is wise? The one who learns from every person.
Ben Zoma - Pirkei Avot 4:1
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UPCOMING EVENTS AND OTHER USEFUL INFO!
We are holding Selichot Service this Saturday evening, September 12, at 9:00 pm PDT. Join us at: https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
We will have
the Selichot prayerbook on display for this service.
Join our Kabbalat Shabbat Service, with Reb Jason and Rabbi Flom this Friday evening at 6:30 pm PDT at:
https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
Join our Shabbat Morning Service with Reb Jason and Rabbi Flom this Saturday morning at 10:00 am PDT at:
https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
Downloadable and printable Siddur for Kabbalat Shabbat, Shabbat Ma'ariv, Shabbat Morning, and more, available at:
http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/form-download-e-siddur-0
You can download both Siddur Sim Shalom and Siddur Lev Shalem at the above link.
Join us every Sunday at 11:00 am PDT for "History of the Jews of Israel and the Middle East" with David Silon at:
https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
Join us every Tuesday at 12:30 pm PDT for Lunch and Learn, a 60 minute study session. We're learning the weekly haftarah. Join us at:
https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
NO Lunch and Learn on September 15. We’ll resume on September 22.
FOR ZOOM LINKS TO OUR SERVICES AND PROGRAMS, PLEASE WRITE TO ME DIRECTLY AT THE ADDRESS BELOW.
You can subscribe to the weekly Torah Sparks via email here:
https://www.conservativeyeshiva.org/torahsparks/
Cyber Torah list management (no salesman will call!):
To subscribe to Cyber Torah, and receive Cyber Torah every week in your mailbox, send an e-mail with the subject heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah” to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net Send requests for dedications of Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah, in memory of a loved one or for a refuah shleimah to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net
Join our Kabbalat Shabbat Service, with Reb Jason and Rabbi Flom this Friday evening at 6:30 pm PDT at:
https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
Join our Shabbat Morning Service with Reb Jason and Rabbi Flom this Saturday morning at 10:00 am PDT at:
https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
Downloadable and printable Siddur for Kabbalat Shabbat, Shabbat Ma'ariv, Shabbat Morning, and more, available at:
http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/form-download-e-siddur-0
You can download both Siddur Sim Shalom and Siddur Lev Shalem at the above link.
Join us every Sunday at 11:00 am PDT for "History of the Jews of Israel and the Middle East" with David Silon at:
https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
Join us every Tuesday at 12:30 pm PDT for Lunch and Learn, a 60 minute study session. We're learning the weekly haftarah. Join us at:
https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
NO Lunch and Learn on September 15. We’ll resume on September 22.
FOR ZOOM LINKS TO OUR SERVICES AND PROGRAMS, PLEASE WRITE TO ME DIRECTLY AT THE ADDRESS BELOW.
You can subscribe to the weekly Torah Sparks via email here:
https://www.conservativeyeshiva.org/torahsparks/
Cyber Torah list management (no salesman will call!):
To subscribe to Cyber Torah, and receive Cyber Torah every week in your mailbox, send an e-mail with the subject heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah” to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net Send requests for dedications of Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah, in memory of a loved one or for a refuah shleimah to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net
