Lech Lecha- November 11, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 4:33 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 5:20 pm
Upcoming events:
Torah Message:
You’ll Always Be My Baby
“…he (Avram) armed his disciples who were born in his house…” (14-14)
However many the grey hairs that appear on the heads of our offspring, or however many the lines that appear on their faces, they will never cease to be our “babies.”
Obviously the relationship of a parent to a child traverses many phases. You can’t compare diapering your son to discussing with him a moot point in Jewish law, but there is always an unchanging fixed point in that relationship.
Noah- November 4, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 5:38 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 6:26 pm
Upcoming events:
Torah Message:
Saved From the Flood
“A window you will make for the Ark…” (6:16)
The Mishna says the word in Hebrew for “ark” — teva — can also mean “a word.” The word for “window” — tzohar — can also mean “to shine.”
In other words, you can read this verse as follows: “Make your word shine!”
Bereishit – October 28, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 5:45 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 6:32 pm
Upcoming events:
Torah Message:
Idle Worship
“Let’s make man…” (1:26)
Our Sages teach, “Anyone haughty is like one who worships idols.” (Sotah 4)
Ostensibly it’s difficult to see the connection between pride and idol worship, but with Rashi’s commentary in this week’s Parsha we can offer an answer:
The Torah says, “Let’s make man…”
Sukkot – October 21, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 5:52 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 6:39 pm
Upcoming events:
Torah Message:
The reading begins with an injunction that a newborn calf, lamb, or kid must be left with its mother for seven days; one may not slaughter an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The reading then lists the annual Callings of Holiness — the festivals of the Jewish calendar: the weekly Shabbat; the bringing of the Passover offering on 14 Nissan; the seven-day Passover festival beginning on 15 Nissan; the bringing of the Omer offering from the first barley harvest on the 2nd day of Passover, and the commencement, on that day, of the 49-day Counting of the Omer, culminating in the festival of Shavuot on the 50th day; a “remembrance of shofar blowing” on 1 Tishrei; a solemn fast day on 10 Tishrei; the Sukkot festival — during which we are to dwell in huts for seven days and take the “Four Kinds” — beginning on 15 Tishrei; and the immediately following holiday of the “8th day” of Sukkot (Shemini Atzeret).
G‑d declares the fifteenth day (and the subsequent 6 days) of the seventh month to be a holy convocation, no work shall be done during that time. The reading then describes the Sukkot offerings which were brought in the Holy Temple.
Ha’Azinu – October 14, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:01 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 6:47 pm
Upcoming events:
Torah Message:
A Silver Lining
“…with a vile nation I shall anger them.” (32:21)
Rashi comments: These are the unbelievers (the vile nation). And similarly it says, “The vile one says in his heart, ‘There is no G-d’.”
The People of the Torah have suffered much through the millennia at the hands of those who deny G-d. But every cloud, as they say, has a silver lining.
Vayeilech – October 7, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:10 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 6:56 pm
Upcoming events:
Torah Message:
The “I” of Sinai
“…One hundred and twenty years old I am today.” (31:2)
Moshe first ascended Mount Sinai for forty days to receive the Torah from G-d. He spent another forty days on the Mount, praying to save the Jewish People from destruction as a result of the sin of the Golden Calf. Then he went up again for a third time for yet another forty days to receive the second set of Tablets.
Netzavim – September 30, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:19 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 7:06 pm
Upcoming events:
Torah Message:
Subtle as a Brick
“You are standing today…” (29:9)
Rashi comments on this verse: “For when Israel heard a hundred curses minus two (in the previous parsha), their faces turned green. They said, ‘Who can stand these(curses)?’ Moshe began to mollify them (with the first words of this week’s parsha)‘You are standing…’ ”
If the purpose of the curses was to arouse the fear of Heaven in the hearts or the Jewish People, why did Moshe seek to mollify their effect and dilute the impression they made on the Israel?
Ki Tavo – September 23, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:29 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 7:15 pm
Upcoming events:
Torah Message:
The Man Who Has It All
“…you shall only be above and not below…” (28:13)
Someone who lives his life pampered by a brace of Bentley Continentals, a super-yacht, and an executive jet with its own Jacuzzi, is not going to be overly excited when he takes delivery of his third Bentley.
But give him a paradise island in the South Pacific with golden beaches, thousands of gently swaying palms, and year-round gorgeous climate, and he’ll sense he really went up in the world.
Ki Tietzei – September 16, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:39 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 7:25 pm
Upcoming events:
Torah Message:
Pleading Poverty
“Neither an Amoni nor a Moavi may enter the congregation of G-d… because of the fact that they did not greet you with bread and water on the road when you were leaving Egypt, and because he hired Bilaam ben Beor against you to curse you.” (23:4)
“I’d really love to help you, but I just don’t have the money right now.”
Pleading poverty must be one of the oldest excuses in the world.
Shoftim – September 9, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:48 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 7:35 pm
Torah Message:
Women and Children First
“When you go out to the battle to meet your enemy…the officers shall speak to the people, saying: ‘Who is the man who has built a new house and not inaugurated it? Let him go and return to his house lest he die in the war and another man will inaugurate it. Who is the man who has planted a vineyard and not redeemed it? Let him go…lest he die in the war and another man redeem it. Who is the man who had betrothed a woman and not taken her to be his wife? Let him go…lest he die in the war and another man take her’.” (20:1-8)
A dangerous mission behind enemy lines. Chance of coming back alive? Not more than 50-50. Who do you send? The single men, of course. If they die it will be a tragedy for their loved ones, but at least there will be no grief-stricken widows and orphans. So says conventional wisdom.