This week our Torah reading is Tetzaveh. We read about the garments that will be worn by the Kohanim, the priests during Temple services. Last year I wrote about how we bring an iteration of these garments forward in our burial practices, where members of the Chevra Kadisha dress our metim, the dead, in traditional shrouds or tachrichim.
Even as we move through the cycle of readings in Torah, I am struck by how often these ancient words have relevance to our lives today. As Ben Bag-Bag advised, “Turn it and turn it again, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and grey with it. Don’t turn from it, for nothing is better than it.”
This week we are reading Parashat Terumah; we are building the Mishkan, the Sanctuary, that will be the house for the Aseret HaDibrot, the Tablets with the Utterances given at Sinai.
Mishpatim is a very special parashah for me. It is also known as Shabbat Shekalim and it was on Shabbat Shekalim that I read Torah for the very first time in 1993. I am attaching a link to a podcast from R. Alex Israel who is with PARDES, who speaks about the history of the half-shekel: https://elmad.pardes.org/2018/02/the-half-shekel/
Boker tov, dear friends,
This week we are walking through the seas – with all the rain we have been having, perhaps also, unfortunately, wet basements. B’Shallach is a particularly gorgeous parashah visually when we come to the Song of the Seas –
Shavua tov,
Many of us have had a very emotional week: Today, Monday marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Rabbi Victor Reinstein journeyed back to Victoria from his home in Boston to speak at the presentation on Sunday at the JCC. He titled his words, Defying Hatred. What does it mean to defy what has been directed towards us for millennia? Sometimes reviewing our history can be devastating – a litany of expulsion and exiles, accusations of blood libels and desecrations. Language reflects our very unique experience of Jew-hatred with specific words: blood libel, pogroms, ghettos, Shoah. The Shoah was preceded by massacres in every century going back to the destruction of the Temple by Rome. And yet. We survived.
Busy days and getting busier at Kolot Mayim! Orders are coming in for Chumashim which is truly rewarding. And we have had a most generous offer from a friend to buy a sturdy bookshelf for our new Chumashim, the set of Talmud I have ordered, and various study manuals/books that will all enhance our learning. There is a most enthusiastic group of people learning in the Intro to Judaism class as well. Thank you to everyone who in every way – be it coming to services, engaging in Torah learning, helping on committees and the Board, offering to help drive some of our elders as will be needed, helping me on the Religious Services committee, and more – all of this participation is re-building Kolot Mayim into a most engaged and caring community. I feel very blessed to be amongst you – even when I look at a long list of tasks and appointment for the day! All this is testament to a profound willingness and desire for building connection. So yasher koach, may we all be strengthened together.
Shavua tov, everyone. One of our members, Johannes Denee will be leaving for Holland this coming week for a very significant event. Johannes grew up in a Holland, in a country ravaged by WWII. He has been haunted for many years by the knowledge of how many Jews from his country were murdered. One of the camps, Camp Westerbork, was known as ‘the foyer of Hell’ during the Second World War. It was a transit camp to concentration camps like Auschwitz and Sobibor. The camp was built in 1939, when it was first used as a refugee camp. Eventually, 102.000 Dutch Jews were sent to their deaths in Sobibor and Auschwitz through the Westerbork transfer camp.
Shavua tov. This is an exciting and somewhat daunting week. I have begun to enter into the cycle called Daf Yomi – a cycle where “we” learn a page of Talmud a day. It takes 7 ½ years to complete reading each page in Talmud. I decided to jump into the sea before too many more years went by! For those of you who might be interested, see My Jewish Learning: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/9-things-to-know-about-the-daf-yomi-daily-page-of-talmud/ . You can also have access to a free online site called Sefaria, which has all manner of our traditional texts available. See: https://www.sefaria.org/ My FB page is now flooded with commentaries and questions by people from all over the world who have started learning too. Here is a wonderful interactive site from Eliezer Segal at the University of Calgary: https://people.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/TalmudPage.html
Purim, Pesach, Covid-19
March 10, 2020 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk Tags: Covid-19, pesach, purim •
Dear friends,
We had a lovely Purim celebration on Sunday evening. Jessica Pratezina organized a crafts table for the children; crowns were decorated, hamantaschen eaten and groggers were grogged!!More