PRESENT TENSE

Sivan 6-7, 5786 / May 21-23, 2026

Shavuot I - Friday

Torah: Exodus 19:1 - 20:23; Numbers 28:26-31

Haftarah: Ezekiel 1:1-28; 3:12

Shavuot II - Saturday

Torah: Deuteronomy 14:22 - 16:17; Numbers 28:26-31

Haftarah: Habakkuk 3:1 - 3:19

Additional reading: Book of Ruth

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This d'var torah is offered in memory of my beloved father, Martin Flom, whose yahrzeit falls on Saturday, Sivan 7. Y’hi zikhro barukh – his memory is a blessing.

This d'var torah is offered in memory of my beloved grandfather, Jacob Slome, whose yahrzeit falls on Sunday, Sivan 8. Y’hi zikhro barukh – his memory is a blessing.

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Lunch and Learn meets Mondays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. NO meeting on Monday, May 25. On June 1, we'll be reading and discussing Ramban's Commentary on the Book of Genesis. You can find the material here:

https://www.sefaria.org/Ramban_on_Genesis.1.1.3?lang=bi 

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

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PRESENT TENSE

"In the third month after the exodus of the Children of Israel from the land of Egypt, on this very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai."  Exodus 19:1

"It was only necessary to write 'on that day'; what is the meaning of 'on this very day'?  In order that the words of the Torah should be new to you as if He gave them today." Rashi, citing Talmud Berachot and Midrash Tanchuma Yashan

Ever sensitive to the meaning of the words, the Rabbis questioned why the Torah uses present tense rather than past tense.  We should be familiar with at least one answer.  After all, the Rabbis formulated the blessing recited before the public reading of the Torah in the present tense - "Barukh atah ... notein hatorah" - "Blessed are You ... the One Who gives the Torah".

Ruth in Boaz's Field - Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1828

But I ask, what do the Rabbis and we really mean by "new to you as if He gave them today"?  At one level, at every public reading of the Torah, we should consider ourselves to be standing at the foot of Sinai, receiving the Torah for the very first time.  We re-enact this by standing when we read the Ten Commandments, in Parshat Yitro, which is also the reading for the first day of Shavuot, and in Parashat Va'etchanan.

At a deeper level, whenever we study Torah, as well as the Talmud, commentaries, or any other holy text, it not only ought to be "as if" new, it _is_ new.  Every day brings with it new experiences, knowledge and insights.  That means that today's understanding of a verse or passage is not necessarily what it will be tomorrow.  This is why Ben Bag Bag (Pirkei Avot 5:22) taught: "Turn it again and again, for everything is in it; contemplate it, grow gray and old over it, and do not swerve from it, for there is no greater good."

The Torah is not a relic of the past - for on this very day and every day, God is giving it to us.

Chag sameach v'shabbat shalom!

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Rabbi Emeritus, Temple B’nai Hayim

הרחמן הוא יברך אותנו כולנו יחד בברכת אחוה, ובברכת אהבה,ובברכת שלום

May the Merciful One bless us, all of us as one, with the blessing of brotherhood, the blessing of love, and the blessing of peace.

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My weekly divrei torah are available through free subscription to the Cyber Torah e-mail list. No salesman will call!

Cyber Torah list management:

To subscribe to Cyber Torah, send an e-mail from the receiving address to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah”.

To unsubscribe from Cyber Torah, send an e-mail from the receiving address to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Unsubscribe Cyber Torah”.

To dedicate a Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah in memory of a loved one or for a refuah shleimah, send an e-mail to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Dedicate Cyber Torah” and provide details in the message body.

THE TEST

Parashat Bamidbar

Iyar 29, 5786 / May 15-16, 2026

Torah: Numbers 1:1 – 4:2

Haftarah: Hosea 2:1-22

Shavuot - Sivan 6-7, 5786 / May 21-23, 2026

Torah (Day 1): Exodus 19:1 - 20:23

          (Day 2): Deuteronomy 14:22 - 16:17

Maftir (both days): Numbers 28:26-31

Haftarah (Day 1): Ezekiel 1:1-28; 3:12

             (Day 2): Habakkuk 2:20 - 3:19

Additional reading: Book of Ruth

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This d'var torah is offered in memory of my beloved father, Martin Flom, whose yahrzeit falls on Sivan 7. Y’hi zikhro barukh – his memory is a blessing.

This d'var torah is offered in memory of my beloved grandfather, Jacob Slome, whose yahrzeit falls on Sivan 8. Y’hi zikhro barukh – his memory is a blessing.

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Lunch and Learn meets Mondays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. On May 18, we'll be reading and discussing Ramban's Commentary on the Book of Genesis. You can find the material here:

https://www.sefaria.org/Ramban_on_Genesis.1.1?lang=bi 

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

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THE TEST

“The Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after their exodus from the land of Egypt, saying.” Numbers 1:1

This parashah, and the book of the Torah named for it, is called “Numbers” in English. But in Hebrew, it is “Bamidbar”, which means “in the wilderness”. The census taken in this parashah, the numbering, is done in the wilderness. The wilderness is a fearful place, with dangers both physical and spiritual. It is a place to be tested, to stand up and be counted.

The Wilderness of Sinai

The giving of the Torah will be commemorated on the holiday of Shavuot next week. In the Midrash, Bamidbar Rabbah, it is taught that the Torah was given in fire, in water and in the desert. In a sense, this wasteland where our ancestors ultimately would spend 40 years, serves as a forge. Just as a sword is hammered and shaped, plunged into fire and water and sand, and tested for durability, so were the Israelites.

Often, people having a life cycle event, whether a bar/bat mitzvah, wedding, graduation, or even a divorce or a death, feel they have passed a test. While that may be true, it is not the end, but the beginning. Now it is time to do something positive with the test results, and more especially with the knowledge and experience by which the passing grade was accomplished. It is life itself that is the ultimate test. And the Torah, given to our ancestors and to us, is the study guide.

Good luck on your exams!

Shabbat Shalom! Chag Shavuot Sameach!

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Rabbi Emeritus, Temple B’nai Hayim

הרחמן הוא יברך אותנו כולנו יחד בברכת אחוה, ובברכת אהבה,ובברכת שלום

May the Merciful One bless us, all of us as one, with the blessing of brotherhood, the blessing of love, and the blessing of peace.

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My weekly divrei torah are available through free subscription to the Cyber Torah e-mail list. No salesman will call!

Cyber Torah list management:

To subscribe to Cyber Torah, send an e-mail from the receiving address to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah”.

To unsubscribe from Cyber Torah, send an e-mail from the receiving address to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Unsubscribe Cyber Torah”.

To dedicate a Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah in memory of a loved one or for a refuah shleimah, send an e-mail to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Dedicate Cyber Torah” and provide details in the message body.

YOUR SIBLING'S KEEPER

Parashat Behar-Bechukotai

Torah: Leviticus 25:1 – 27:34 (Chazak!)
Haftarah: Jeremiah 16:19 - 17:14

Iyar 22, 5786 / May 8-9, 2026

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The National Association of Letter Carriers and the USPS are conducting their annual STAMP OUT HUNGER campaign this Saturday, May 9. For more info, go to:

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/local-releases/ca/2026/0424-the-stamp-out-hunger-food-drive.htm

Please help the community as best you can!

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Lunch and Learn meets Mondays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. NO meeting on May 11. On May 18, we'll be reading and discussing Ramban's Commentary on the Book of Genesis. You can find the material here:

https://www.sefaria.org/Ramban_on_Genesis.1.1?lang=bi 

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

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YOUR SIBLING'S KEEPER

"And if your brother becomes poor and his strength fails him, you shall support him, whether he is a convert or a resident alien (read this as "a naturalized citizen or a resident non-citizen" - RAF), in order that he may live with you." Leviticus 25:35

The great Kabbalist of Tz'fat, Rabbi Moshe Alshikh (1508-1593), notes that earlier verses were in the second person plural. That is, the Torah had set up a social regime to be followed by the community as a whole. In our verse, however, the Torah switches to the singular. He says that, when a person needs help, everyone tries to shift responsibility to someone else, claiming that some other person is more closely related or has more means to help, or... You get the idea.

R. Alshikh says the singular verb teaches that each of us, individually, is responsible for helping the poor. One cannot absolve oneself of this obligation simply by referring the poor person to someone else.

But there’s much, much more at play here. The verse calls the poor person “your brother”, and it clearly means someone beyond only a sibling with closely-shared DNA. Rather, the verse implies that every human being is related to every other human being – we are all siblings. 

"The Creation of Adam" - ca. 1508-1512 - Michelangelo

The prophet Malachi (2:10) is explicit about this: “Do we not all have one father? Did not one God create us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?” See also Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5: “...only a single human being was initially created for the sake of peace, so that no one should be able to claim lineage superior to another person…” 

You and I are each our siblings' keeper! If we don't support them, who will?

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Rabbi Emeritus, Temple B’nai Hayim

הרחמן הוא יברך אותנו כולנו יחד בברכת אחוה, ובברכת אהבה,ובברכת שלום

May the Merciful One bless us, all of us as one, with the blessing of brotherhood, the blessing of love, and the blessing of peace.

----------------------------------------------------

My weekly divrei torah are available through free subscription to the Cyber Torah e-mail list. No salesman will call! Cyber Torah list management:

To subscribe to Cyber Torah, send an e-mail from the receiving address to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah”.

To unsubscribe from Cyber Torah, send an e-mail from the receiving address to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Unsubscribe Cyber Torah”.

To dedicate a Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah in memory of a loved one or for a refuah shleimah, send an e-mail to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Dedicate Cyber Torah” and provide details in the message body.