Rabbinic Reflections: Issue 222bg
August 9, 2024 - 5 Av 5784
Parasha Dvarim - Remembering Our Resilience
Guest author - Beth Gerson
Dear Friends,
We are between rabbis for the month of August, so we are going to be creative in how we hold our services and share some reflections with you.
This Shabbat, we are pleased to welcome to the Bimah Cantor Melissa Puius, our High Holidays cantor, who will lead our Shabbat morning services. Please join us, this Saturday morning at 10AM, so you can meet and hear Cantor Puius (pronounced poo-youse) before she joins us for the Holidays. As always, the service will be broadcast over Zoom and be followed by a Kiddush luncheon, so we hope you to see you then.
On Monday evening, at 7PM, we will hold a service to commemorate Tisha B’ Av, arguably the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. In CBIOTP DIY (Do It Yourself) style, our commemoration will be led by our very own Avi Yacobi and David Isaak. The commemoration will include a reading of the Megillah Eicha (Book of Lamentations), so we look forward to seeing you on Monday evening.
This week, we begin Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah. Deuteronomy is composed of the speeches Moses delivered to the people Israel during the last month of his life. Moses would not cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land, nor would the generation he had led out of Egypt nearly 40 years before. It was their children, the next generation, that would enter the land, led by Joshua. No longer called the children of Israel, the new generation would become, Kol Israel, the people Israel.
Throughout that month, on the banks of the river Jordan, Moses the liberator and lawgiver became Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses the Teacher. His teachings include a history of the peoples’ wanderings, prophecies and warnings, laws, and blessings – a “profound vision of what it is to be a holy people, dedicated to God, constructing a society that would stand as a role model for humanity in how to combine freedom and order, justice and compassion, individual dignity and collective responsibility.”[1] Moses taught the entire congregation what the law is and why it is. The Israelites experience of slavery and persecution in Egypt was their tutorial in why they needed freedom and law-governed liberty. Throughout the Book, Moses says, “You shall do this because you were once slaves in Egypt” … that the people must remember and never forget. We, too, remember and teach our children, millennia later.
This Shabbat, we read Devarim, the first parsha in Deuteronomy. On Monday evening, we begin our observance of Tisha B’av, commemorating the destruction of the first and second Temples, our expulsion from England in the 13th century and Spain in the 15th century, the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto in the 20th century, and the list goes on. We remember lest we forget. We are reminded as well of our resilience as a nation, a people guided by tradition, faith, and hope.
Wherever Jews live, the words of “Hatikvah,” (The Hope) link us, one to another: As long as within out hearts; The Jewish soul sings; As long as forward to the East; To Zion, looks the eye; two thousand years old; To be a free people in our land; the land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Shabbat Shalom,
Beth Gerson
1 “The Teacher as Hero.” Covenant & Conversation. Devarim, 5779. The Rabbi Sacks Legacy.
P.S. We have three more Shabbatot before Rabbi Strom begins to share his reflections with us, so we would like to invite you to share your reflections on the weekly Parasha with the community. If you would like to write an article, please contact Craig in the synagogue office. Thanks!
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August 9, 2024 - 5 Av 5784
Parasha Dvarim - Remembering Our Resilience
Guest author - Beth Gerson
Dear Friends,
We are between rabbis for the month of August, so we are going to be creative in how we hold our services and share some reflections with you.
This Shabbat, we are pleased to welcome to the Bimah Cantor Melissa Puius, our High Holidays cantor, who will lead our Shabbat morning services. Please join us, this Saturday morning at 10AM, so you can meet and hear Cantor Puius (pronounced poo-youse) before she joins us for the Holidays. As always, the service will be broadcast over Zoom and be followed by a Kiddush luncheon, so we hope you to see you then.
On Monday evening, at 7PM, we will hold a service to commemorate Tisha B’ Av, arguably the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. In CBIOTP DIY (Do It Yourself) style, our commemoration will be led by our very own Avi Yacobi and David Isaak. The commemoration will include a reading of the Megillah Eicha (Book of Lamentations), so we look forward to seeing you on Monday evening.
This week, we begin Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah. Deuteronomy is composed of the speeches Moses delivered to the people Israel during the last month of his life. Moses would not cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land, nor would the generation he had led out of Egypt nearly 40 years before. It was their children, the next generation, that would enter the land, led by Joshua. No longer called the children of Israel, the new generation would become, Kol Israel, the people Israel.
Throughout that month, on the banks of the river Jordan, Moses the liberator and lawgiver became Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses the Teacher. His teachings include a history of the peoples’ wanderings, prophecies and warnings, laws, and blessings – a “profound vision of what it is to be a holy people, dedicated to God, constructing a society that would stand as a role model for humanity in how to combine freedom and order, justice and compassion, individual dignity and collective responsibility.”[1] Moses taught the entire congregation what the law is and why it is. The Israelites experience of slavery and persecution in Egypt was their tutorial in why they needed freedom and law-governed liberty. Throughout the Book, Moses says, “You shall do this because you were once slaves in Egypt” … that the people must remember and never forget. We, too, remember and teach our children, millennia later.
This Shabbat, we read Devarim, the first parsha in Deuteronomy. On Monday evening, we begin our observance of Tisha B’av, commemorating the destruction of the first and second Temples, our expulsion from England in the 13th century and Spain in the 15th century, the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto in the 20th century, and the list goes on. We remember lest we forget. We are reminded as well of our resilience as a nation, a people guided by tradition, faith, and hope.
Wherever Jews live, the words of “Hatikvah,” (The Hope) link us, one to another: As long as within out hearts; The Jewish soul sings; As long as forward to the East; To Zion, looks the eye; two thousand years old; To be a free people in our land; the land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Shabbat Shalom,
Beth Gerson
1 “The Teacher as Hero.” Covenant & Conversation. Devarim, 5779. The Rabbi Sacks Legacy.
P.S. We have three more Shabbatot before Rabbi Strom begins to share his reflections with us, so we would like to invite you to share your reflections on the weekly Parasha with the community. If you would like to write an article, please contact Craig in the synagogue office. Thanks!