Friday Night Services – November 2

Friday night services will be held on 11/2 at our regular time of 7:00 pm.  Our next Saturday morning service will be on 11/10.

Cantor Ben Moshe Message: This week’s parshah, Vayera, contains the famous story of ‘Akedat Yitzhak, the Binding of Isaac, which we also read on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. We’re all familiar with the outline of the story-God commands Avraham to “take your son, your only son, whom you love” and offer him up as a sacrifice. The very next day, the Torah tells us, “Vayashkem Avraham baboker” “and Avraham got up early in the morning” to fulfill the Divine command. Avraham wastes no time in doing God’s will. In the morning blessings which are traditionally recited at the beginning of the day, we find a short study session, so that we can fulfill the mitzvah of studying Torah. The texts are from the Torah, the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud. The passage from the Talmud is from Tractate Shabbat, page 127A, and lists the things from which a person “benefits in this world, and accrues merit in the world to come.” One of these is “Punctually attending the House of Study for the morning and evening prayers.” The Rabbis use the term “hashkamat Beit HaMidrash”-“hashkamat” is the same verb as “Vayashkem”, to get up early, to make a concerted effort to be on time. It can be difficult for us to be punctual. We have many demands on our time, many obligations, and our lifestyle sometimes leads us to stay up late at night, which makes getting somewhere on time in the morning difficult. This was true in ancient times as well as our own. The Rabbis teach us to follow the example of our ancestor Avraham-“lehashkim”, to get up early, to be punctual to follow God’s commandments. Even when it is difficult to do so, we are assured that the rewards are immense. We look forward to seeing everyone promptly at 7:00 PM for services on Friday, as well as for the services on Shabbatot to come.