Parashat Vayeilekh
Shabbat Shuvah - The Sabbath of Return
Torah: Deuteronomy 31:1-30Haftarah: Hosea 14:2-10; Micah 7:18-20
Tishrei 5, 5786 / September 26-27, 2025
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Tashlikh – This Sunday, September 28, 10:00 am at Los Encinos State Park – 16756 Moorpark St., Encino. PLEASE DO NOT BRING BREADCRUMBS. Birdseed will be provided. But please do bring snacks/drinks for yourself, and maybe a shofar!
Yom Kippur begins Wednesday evening! Kol Nidrei Service is at 5:45 pm SHARP. If you have not already done so, please submit your Membership/High Holy Day forms ASAP! Or call the synagogue office!
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This d'var torah is offered in memory of my uncle, Sidney Schugar, z'l, whose yahrzeit falls on Thursday, Tishrei 10 - Yom Kippur. Y’hi zikhro liv’rakhah – his memory is a blessing.
This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah and a speedy and safe return of all the hostages being held by Hamas.
This d’var torah is offered for an end to the hunger crisis in Gaza.
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Lunch and Learn meets Mondays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live.
On September 29, we'll be at Ein Ya'akov Yevamot, p. 42 (BT Yevamot 63a) -
' ...וא"ר אלעזר עתידין' - "Rabbi Elazar also said: 'In the future...'"
Ein Ya'akov (Glick edition) is available for on-line reading or as a downloadable PDF at:
https://hebrewbooks.org/9630
A pointed Hebrew text version with different pagination is available at Sefaria:
https://www.sefaria.org/Ein_Yaakov?tab=contents
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A pointed Hebrew text version with different pagination is available at Sefaria:
https://www.sefaria.org/Ein_Yaakov?tab=contents
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Check out our wonderful community, and get lots of info about our various programs and becoming a Member at: https://bnaihayim.org/
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Please feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source.
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THIS IS AWESOME!
“And that their children who have not known may hear and learn to fear (to hold in awe) the Lord your God, all the days you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.” Deuteronomy 31:13
The word translated as “to fear”, l’yira, might also be translated as “to hold in awe”. Indeed, these days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are known as “Yamim Nora’im” - the Days of Awe, not the Days of Fear, even though nora'im and yira share the same root.
Note 1: The verses immediately preceding our verse instruct all the Jewish people to gather together to hear the reading of the Torah - to learn how to practice Judaism. We do this now in the synagogue, on Shabbat, Mondays and Thursdays, New Moons and Holy Days.
Note 2: Since the dispersion following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. until 1948, few Jews physically lived in the Land of Israel - i.e., “over the Jordan” - but all lived there spiritually. Yet, they continued, even to today, even though most Jews still do not live in the Land of Israel, to hold God in awe and to hear and to learn, and to practice Judaism. I want to suggest that it is not only God that is awesome, but that the verses mean to tell us that the Torah and Judaism as we know it (and as it is still developing) are also awesome! Our ancestors knew this – and so should we all!
The best way, perhaps the only way, to hear and learn how to practice awesome Judaism is to come together, in synagogues and in study halls and in living rooms, and study Torah. We don’t have to be physically "over the Jordan", in the Land of Israel; we can be anywhere, and these days, thanks to the internet, we don’t even have to be in the same time zone, let alone the same room.
Go to a synagogue; join a Jewish learning program; gather together with other Jews and experience the awesomeness of it all!
Shabbat Shalom! Wishing you a g’mar chatimah tovah umetukah - May you be completely sealed for a good and sweet new year!
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Rabbi Emeritus, Temple B'nai Hayim
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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