Parshot B’har/B’hukkotai.

Shabbat shalom! Please join us for our Kaballat shabbat services, May 11, at the regular time of 7:00 p.m. As always, you will leave feeling inspired and “Rejewvenated”.

This Saturday May 12, we would love you to attend Shabbat morning services. We are honored to be celebrating the bar mitzvah of Jonathan Silberstein and wish his parents Michal and Udi and his brother Matan much nachas. You all are invited. There will be a delicious kidush luncheon immediately following.

Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Weekly Message;

This week we close Sefer Vayyikra, the Book of Leviticus, with the reading of the combined parshot of B’har/B’hukkotai. B’har begins with the laws of the Sabbatical Year and the Yovel, The Jubilee Year, when property reverted to its original owners, debts were forgiven and indentured servants released. The Torah thus gives us a vision of society in which equality was the rule, rather than the exception. Some of these rules only work in a rural agrarian society, and had to be modified by the Sages two thousand years ago as Jewish society became more urban, but the principle remains, and endured through the ages-that liberty and equality are the ideal state. In fact, a quote from Parshat B’har is found on the Liberty Bell-“Proclaim liberty throughout the land and unto the inhabitants thereof”. May the day come when these words are taken seriously in all lands. Shabbat Shalom.

Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe

Shabbat candle lighting times are at 7: 58 p.m.

Please enjoy photos of our end of year Sunday school celebration at the Park with our BERS families and congregants. We again want to thank our amazing educators Anat, Iris D, Shira, Hadar, Noa, Shereen, Maya, and of course, Cantor Ben-Moshe.

Thank you to grill master extraordinaire Yosef who tirelessly grilled away all afternoon! We are definitely making the picnic at the park an annual event.

Please save the date for our next board meeting on Tuesday May 22 at 7 p.m. at Beth El.

Also, save the date. Our annual “state of the shul” meeting will be held on Sunday, June 10, at 4:30 p.m. followed by a Kosher cookout. We plan to discuss shul business and elect officers for the upcoming year. To nominate a current member as an officer, please send an email to Bob Miller, chair of the nominating committee at bob.miller@milleruniforms.com Nominations should be submitted no later than 15 days before the board meeting. The meeting is open to all – they are always a great deal of fun and very inspiring. We are blessed to be part of this small, yet vibrant and truly chesed filled congregation.
And finally, you all are invited to the Bat Mitzvah of Sara K on the weekend of June 16. Iris and Kevin would be deeply honored to have their Beth El family attend.
Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s Weekly Parasha;

This week we turn to one of the final sections of the Book of Leviticus, the parashah known as B’Chukotay. You will find this week’s section in the book of Leviticus 26:3-27:34. Although this section deals with a number of issues, one theme stands out and forces us into deep contemplation.
In Leviticus 26:3 we read “Im b’chukotai telchu v’im mitzvotai tishmru va’asitem otam/If you walk in (follow) My laws and keep (watch over) My commandments and you do them…” The basic theme here is a political or historical tit-for-tat. The text seems to be saying that If you follow G-‘d’s laws then goodness will come, but if you choose not, then evil will be the outcome.

This verse, however, is more complicated than at first it might appear to be. Grammatically, the verse presents us with conceptual problems. If we read the verse carefully in the Hebrew text, we note that the verse’s first two verbs have a subjunctive sense (expressing doubt), thus it is unclear if we will choose or not choose to follow G-d’s laws, but the third verb (to do) has a declarative sense “You will do them” no questions asked!

How come? Might the Torah portion be giving us an important lesson in life? Could this week’s parashah be hinting at the idea that adults may not like what they have to do, but being an adult means getting beyond one’s own feelings and pleasures and doing something that you do not want to do, but still doing it simply because it is the right thing to do? Is the Torah portion addressing an age such as ours where “feelings” overwhelm facts, where adults often act as children, and where politicians do what is best for them rather than for the nation?

This week’s parashah’s theme is to be an adult is to learn to live in a world where we do not always get our way. Being an adult means going beyond the ‘I” and coming to understand the needs of the “we”. This careful balance between the “I” and the “we”, the personal versus the common good is found throughout the Hebrew Biblical text. For example, Noah’s great act was that he walked with G-d even when it might have been inconvenient; the same is true of every honored Biblical figure. Greatness is not measured always by what we say or feel, but in the end by what we do.

What do you think? Are you stuck in a world of the “I” or can you move into the world of the “we”?