MUTUAL BENEFIT

Parashat Lekh L'kha

Cheshvan 13, 5781 / October 30-31, 2020

Torah Reading - Genesis 12:1 - 17:27

Haftarah - Isaiah 40:27 - 41:16

 

Candle-lighting for Friday: 5:43 PM PDT - Sherman Oaks, CA

Don't forget to turn back your clocks one hour before you go to bed this Saturday night.

This d'var torah is offered in memory of the Etz Chaim/Or Chadash 11 - Joyce Feinberg; Richard Gottfried; Rose Mallinger; Jerry Rabinowitz; Cecil Rosenthal; David Rosenthal; Bernice Simon; Sylvan Simon; Daniel Stein; Melvin Wax; Irving Younger - whose yahrzeits fall on Thursday, Cheshvan 18 / November 5. These 11 souls were taken because they were Jews doing a most Jewish thing. The Ba'al Shem Tov taught: "Memory is redemption - forgetting is exile." Never forget! Y'hi zikhronam liv'rakhah - May their memory be a blessing.

Our Refuah Shleimah/Prayer for Healing List can be found at: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iT0tdp45ITSU6o1tykah41m3IXBxBwLxe8FORSIXzDo/edit?usp=sharing      

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 

This week's Yahrzeit List can be found at: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IvKK6of7m1YFiwWATXCfQXrBrjmLMfS_CAM3WhZ_fu4/edit?usp=sharing 

A list of all of our on-line activities can be found below. All our services and programs are available at: https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim 

A list of Zoom links to all our programs and services is available at:  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M5jzfligR7kovoXdiEeah3pd2R4fiJi8NHarmrMEEzM/edit

Some excellent on-line resources are available at: 

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/  

With the COVID-19 epidemic, SOVA needs your donations more than ever. Please, bring some non-perishable canned and packaged foods and personal items, (no glass) to the lobby of TBH/CBM. Wear a mask, social distance, and help out those in need.

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

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MUTUAL BENEFIT

 

"Then the Lord said to Avram, 'Get yourself from your land, from your community, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.'...So Avram went as the Lord had told him..."  Genesis 12:1, 4

 

Rashi:  "Go for yourself" - for your own benefit and your own good.

 

According to Rashi, God was convincing Avram (later to become Avraham) to go to Canaan because of the benefit he would receive - to become a great nation and to be blessed (v. 2). 

But the S'fat Emet, Yehudah Aryeh Leib of Ger, disagrees. He says that this was the first of ten tests of Avram. It wouldn't be much of a test if he received a benefit for listening to God. Rather, Avram went solely because he was commanded to, without thinking of the benefit. Thus, the act of going to Canaan was not contaminated by selfish motives.

 

Very few of us are as pure of heart as the Avram conceived by the S'fat Emet. Everyone wants to know "what's in it for me?" If I am to spend time and/or money, what is the payoff? This cost-benefit analysis is cynical, to say the least. But it need not be so.

 

Feeding the hungry and clothing the naked are not simply for the benefit of the recipients; we make our world a better place for ourselves and for our children when we reduce suffering and strife, even though tzedakah and gemilut chasadim (acts of lovingkindness) have a cost. The same is true for cleaning up the environment, regardless of the "price". Similarly, doing work for the synagogue community benefits everyone, including the one who does the work.

 

The answer, then, is that doing what God asks of us is always beneficial to us, even when it might seem to be the opposite. The benefits of carrying out God's word can be physically and spiritually uplifting, for ourselves, for those around us, even the whole world! Carry out God's word, and join the mutual benefit society.

Shabbat Shalom Uv'rakhah!

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

TBH/CBM
"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"
"Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”
BT Yevamot 87b
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UPCOMING EVENTS AND OTHER USEFUL INFO! 

Kabbalat Shabbat/Evening Service with Reb Jason Van Leeuwen this Friday evening at 6:30 pm PDT.
 
Shabbat Morning Service with Reb Jason Van Leeuwen this Saturday at 10:00 am PDT. Haftarah chanted by Susan Burke.
 

Downloadable and printable Siddur for Kabbalat Shabbat, Shabbat Ma'ariv, Shabbat/Festival 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. 

 
David Silon’s class "Jewish DNA? The Science Behind the History, or Vice-Versa" meets every Sunday at 11:00 am PST. 

Join us every Tuesday at 12:30 pm PST for Lunch and Learn, a 60 minute study session. We're learning the weekly haftarah. 

The study materials for the November 3 class, Haftarat Vayera, can be found at: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ChAm7_Ca8G6cMrhEvFDpwD4LOX9eYNDN?usp=sharing 

On Sunday, November 15 at 2:00 pm PST, TBH/CBM will host a Special Lecture by Dr. Jonathan Dobrer, "We're Still Here! Why Judaism Survived and WIll Survive Despite the Odds". 

The Zoom link is:  

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84464112730?pwd=K1RvU2NxQVMzWndBOGtFWCtGNjA4QT09

The program will also be streamed on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim 

You can subscribe to the Conservative Yeshivah’s 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      
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