Temple Beth El

Family Havdalah on Zoom, starting at 5:30 p.m. https://zoom.us/j/91977914266 Join us for a sing-along with Rabbi and Havdalah Hunt with Shari Spark.

Please join us!

Parashat Vayechi Rabbi Moshe Re’em As the secular year ends, it is a time to reflect on our lives during the prior year. What have we accomplished? What were the promises made to ourselves or to others that were left unfulfilled? In short, what is the measure of our lives? This week’s Torah reading opens with the words, And Jacob lived in the Land of Egypt for seventeen years. We find Jacob at the end of his life, a time when, with advanced age, one might be par...ticularly prone to withdraw from activities in society. The Meshoch Chochmah, a commentary written by Rabbi Meir Simcha (d. 1926) of the Latvian town of Dvinsk, notes that the word ‘living’ is capable of different meanings for different people. For some, ‘living’ is centered on their own breathing, eating, sleeping, etc. They are focused on themselves. Others are centered exclusively around their family, wife, children, etc. Still other people, ‘live’ for the contribution they can make to their city. Yet others are concerned in their lives with the whole world that is around them. The Torah comes to tell us that Yaakov ‘lived’ with concern for the whole land of Egypt. He did not retire to the province of Goshen, ignoring the needs and concerns of the people around him. He was concerned with the fact that after his death the famine might return to Egypt. Even though he was a foreigner in a foreign land, toward the end of his life, during hard times, Jacob remained concerned and involved in the affairs of Egypt. Such behavior models what we should all strive for in our own lives. As we begin a new secular year, G-d willing, at some point it will be safe to leave our homes and our own isolation. After having spent so much time away from others, let Jacob’s life serve a model to strive for what it means to live. Let us try to live our lives in a way where we can make a difference not only to ourselves and our own families, but to the greater society of which we are a part. Shabbat Shalom!

It's the last parasha in the book of Bereishit, and the first in 2021. Happy, healthy, safe New Year to us all as we move forward from here. Thanks to our readers - Marla Melman and Shari Spark. Shabbat Shalom!

January Jewelry Sale! Peruse the precious pieces! The Sisterhood of Temple Beth El Giftshop is open by appointment.

Parashat Lech Lecha Rabbi Moshe Re’em Recently, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the US may not return to normal from COVID-19 until 2022!!! Just when we were feeling the weight of close to eight months with the pandemic and the toll that it has taken on our lives, coupled with the prospect of an increase in cases as we head into winter, we are told that we are in it for the long haul. How are we to endure such a prolonged period with COVID? What can help us survive this...Continue reading

Parashat Noach Rabbi Moshe Re’em One of my favorite memories growing up was singing Zemirot Shabbat around the Sabbath table. Zemirot are songs composed in different historic periods that were sung after the Shabbat meals, whose themes were dedicated to the beauty of Shabbat as a foretaste of a perfected world. Like Shabbat itself, the songs freed the singer from his/her daily turmoil and the stormy seas of the world around him or her. Not so much escapism, but spiritu...al transformation was what characterized these songs. One of my favorite zemirot incorporated the dove from this week’s biblical narrative of Noah. Composed by the great Spanish Hebrew poet Yehuda Halevi (1075-1141), the song Yom Shabbaton opens with the line: The day of rest (Shabbat) should not be forgotten; its memory is fragrant. On it (Shabbat) the dove found rest; there shall rest they who are weary. Halevi plays with the biblical verse, Then he (Noah) sent out the dove to see whether the waters had decreased from the surface of the ground. But the dove could not find a resting place. (Gen. 8:8-9) As Rabbi Shlomo Riskin points out in his commentary on zemirot,The Shabbat is compared to the Ark which served as a protective haven from the raging flood waters. By reversing the intent of the verse Halevi shows how the Ark protects the dove from the raging flood waters. Shabbat can serve as a refuge from the sound bites and media news headlines that disturb us daily and prevent us from finding any rest. Shabbat, as Rabbi Riskin puts it, is our life-saving raft even in the most tempestuous of times. What a gift! Following as it does Parashat Bereshit, the Story of Creation and Adam and Eve, Rabbi Riskin quotes a famous Midrash that states that when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden they complained that their suffering was too great to bear. G-d then provided them with two gifts to help them survive the dangerous world outside of Eden: tears and Shabbat. G-d said, ‘When life in the world becomes an almost insufferable burden, you can cry and find comfort of release; observe the Shabbat and you will experience a taste of the eventual redemption. With the birth of a grandchild I was reminded of something I had known but had forgotten. Newborns do not shed tears because their tear ducts are still developing after birth. In the womb, in Eden, there is no need for tears. One imagines that in a future redeemed world there will be no need for tears, as well. Shabbat serves to remind us of the real work that needs to be done during the six day week; work that brings us closer to a redeemed world. Until then, we have Shabbat not only as a reminder, but as respite from the madness which surrounds us. Shabbat Shalom!

As we begin the Torah cycle all over again, we start the second of the triennial cycles. This week's portion, Bereishit, starts in Genesis 2:4-4:26, and begins in the Etz Chayim chumash on page 12. Thank you to our Torah readers: Marla Melman, Marcia Linebarger and Shari Spark. Shabbat Shalom!

Parashat Bereshit Rabbi Moshe Re’em The bitter animosity between political tribes has never been more apparent. Its ubiquitous nature is not only exhausting but, frankly, quite dangerous. Almost a century and a half ago the Italian Jewish scholar Shmuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865), better known by his Hebrew acronym Shadal, noted the natural origins of morality and ethics in his introduction to his commentary on Genesis. He described how, with all groups of human bein...Continue reading