Special Friday night guest and announcements

Chaverim/Dear Congregants,

Please join us tonight at 7pm for our lovely Friday night services. We will be joined by Mike Hurewitz of Jewish Family Services who will give a short talk about the crucial work that this great organization does.  Following services, there will be coffee and cake.  We hope you can all join us for this special event.

Sunday morning, May 18 at 10am  we will have Sunday school for the children.

Sunday afternoon at 3:30 in the afternoon, we continue Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Introduction to Judaism class which is open to all wishing to delve into Judaism, its rich history and traditions.

Shabbat shalom to you all!

This week we conclude Sefer Vayikra, the Book of Leviticus, with Parshat B’hukkotai.  Our parshah begins with the promise that if the People of Israel will live in accordance with the Torah, they will be able to stay in the Land of Israel and prosper.  What follows is one of the two passages of “tochechah”-rebuke-found in the Torah.  These passages recount in grim detail the consequences of failure to live up to the Covenant with God-famine, warfare and exile.  Traditionally, this passage and a similar one in the Book of Deuteronomy are read quickly and in an undertone, in order not to dwell on these unpleasant topics.  Nonetheless, we should consider these things, not in order that we become fearful of retribution for any slight infraction of halachah, Jewish Law, but as a spur to do the right thing.  It is significant that the infractions that are considered most heinous by the Torah, and thus most worthy of punishment, are crimes against others, especially the weak in society, the poor and the outsiders.    We are called upon to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy People”.  Let us always strive to live up to that.  Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s Weekly Parasha:  This week we conclude our study of Sefer VaYikra, or as it is known in English translation, the Book of Leviticus.  You will find the book’s final parashah, B’Chukotai,  in Chapters: 26:3-27:34 of Leviticus.  Throughout this section, and to some degree throughout the entirety of Hebrew Scripture,  the question of “who controls history” faces us?  Is history controlled by humans, does it happen by chance, or is the hand of G’d the ultimate director of history? Furthermore, we are faced with the deeper issue of what is history?  Is it the collective narrative of individuals or the relationship between peoples?  Is history the recording of social movements or of individual actions?  Do we control the events in our lives or are we mere slaves to historic currents?
These questions are subtly embedded in the text  For example, 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…”  On a first reading it would appear that the text is indicating that history is the story of a tit-for-tat.  If “you” follow G’d’s laws then goodness will come, but if not, then evil will come.”
This verse, however, is not only more complicated than it might appear to be at first, but also introduces an additional side to the philosophical argument.  Grammatically, the verse presents us with conceptual problems. If we read the verse carefully in the original Hebrew, we note that the verse’s first two verbs have a subjunctive sense (expressing doubt). Thus, it is unclear if we will or will not follow G’d’s laws.  Then, at the end of the verse the verb’s mood changes and its third verb (to do) is written as an imperative: “You will do them” no questions asked!
How come?  Is the Torah  giving us an important lesson about history and our role in it?  Is this section hinting at the idea that history is the recording of not only what we wish to do but also about what we wish we did not have to do? Is history the story of what happened or what did not happen? Is it teaching us that being an adult means getting beyond our own feelings and pleasures and doing that which is right just because it is the right thing to do?  On still another level, we can read this text as a primer in economic theory.  Read this way is the text not a warning us that the price for economic irresponsibility is eventual political and societal chaos?
The text clearly unites the economic with the social and the political, and to some extent even with the theological and philosophical.  If we read the text carefully we note that it emphasizes the idea that we live life in social relationships, and that these ties dominate every aspect of our personal and group lives: from the political to the economic.  Is this the reason that Leviticus recognizes that all of us have personal economic needs, and it also reminds us that we must treat each other with both justice and dignity?
Perhaps the memory of slavery echoes throughout these texts.  Is the text teaching us that we must allow for individual creativity and at the same time create a form of “compassionate capitalism” that demonstrates our respect for ourselves and for our fellow human beings?  These are challenging concepts and questions in economically troubled times.  How would you interpret these texts and answer the challenges it poses to us?