Rabbi's Ramblings...... 

 

Shalom Congregants and Friends.....  
 

We've had to get through an early heart wave and a tornado scare.... after a hopefully meaningful Memorial Day holiday. I saw an especially moving program on PBS entitled, Hallowed Ground," dealing with American military cemeteries overseas. It brought back memories of my presence at memorial services at the one outside Manila in the mid-70's!

So, now it's time for a relaxing Shabbat weekend...with some shul attendance in it as well!  Guess what, it's coming up here at Beth Hillel Synagogue! Friday evening is Sisterhood Shabbat. Members of our Sisterhood will lead the majority of the services. We will also spend a few minutes considering the meaning of Yom Yerushalayim, celebrated Wednesday... the anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem as a result of the 1967 war.... certainly now on "the front burner" of the political process.

Shabbat morning and afternoon services will be an opportunity for each of us to reconnect with the Kodesh Boruch Hu! This week's Torah portion contains the words of family blessing that always move me when I chant them on Friday evening. We'll talk about them a little at services.

Reminder: Next Tuesday evening starts Shavout. We will gather for prayer at Beth Ahm in Windsor at 6:45 followed by study taught by Rabbis Landau, Lefkowitz and myself. We will enjoy both the blintzes and the words of wisdom! Holiday services here Wednesday and Thursday/ Yikzor of course Thursday as well.

 

Friday evening, June 10, Dr O, Joseph Olzacki, comes to speak to us about his bringing music to the genocide-ravaged country of Rwanda. SHOULD BE FASCINATING!
 

Congratulations to Syd Schulman who was elected President of the Congregation at the annual meeting last Thursday evening... and to the other elecgted officers and Board members as well. Look forward to our installation service on June 17th.

 

Shabbat Shalom ....... Rabbi Gary and Iris Atkins

 
"All it takes to study Torah is an open heart,

a curious mind and a desire to grow a Jewish soul."  


 Shabbat  Services & Candle Lighting Times

CANDLE LIGHTING     
Friday, June 3,  8:00pm  DST  
Friday, June 10,  8:05pm  DST  

SHABBAT SERVICE TIMES    

Friday, June 3-- 8:00pm  Saturday, June 4, 9:30am, 

8:00pm Mincha/ Maariv/ Havdalah   

 

Friday, June 10-- 8:00m  Saturday, June 11, 9:30am, 

8:00pm Mincha/ Maariv/ Havdalah   

 

SHAVUOT SERVICE TIMES    

Tuesday, June 7-- 6:45pm  at BETH AHM, WINDSOR

Wednesday, June 8, 9:30am, 7:30PM    

Thursday, June 9-- 9:30apm / Yizkor about 11:30 -- 7:30pm Mincha/ Maariv   

Joke of the Week 

There was a man who entered a pun contest.

He sent in ten different puns in the hope that at least one would win.

Unfortunately no pun in ten did.

Social Action Updates    
 
There are congregants who need a ride to Friday evening services... if you want to help someone attend our worship... as well as doing a mitzvah, call Rabbi Atkins.


DONATIONS OF FOOD ARE GREATLY NEEDED FOR THE KOSHER AND REGULAR FOOD BANKS!! PLEASE DONATE AT THE SYNAGOGUE NOW!!     
 

 

It opened April 2 - Bloomfield Soup Kitchen.... Hosted at Bloomfield United Methodist Church


Be aware of those less fortunate than we are!! Carry out the mitzvah of tikkun olam!
 Upcoming Synagogue & (Selected) Community Events  

 

 

JUNE 3 - SISTERHOOD SHABBAT/ SIMCHA SHABBAT

  
JUNE 7 - TIKKUN L'AYL SHAVUOT AT BETH AHM
JUNE 8-9 SHAVUOT SERVICES - YIKZOR JUNE  9  

  

JUNE 10 - Dr.   JOE OLZAKI speaking on "RETURNING CULTURE TO RWANDA - ONE CHOIR AT A TIME"
 
JUNE 12 - BROTHERHOOD MTG AND BREAKFAST --
AFTER MORNING MINYAN
  
JUNE 17 - INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS AND VOLUNTEER RECOGNITION SHABBAT
 
JUNE 19-26 BUILDING ABRAHAMIC PARTNERSHIPS -
A UNIQUE WEEK OF LEARNING TAUIGHT BY HARTTFORD SEMINARY PROFESSORS, PROGRAM LED BY DR. YEHEZKEL LANDAU


A thought about the use of Hebrew in prayer from an unusual perspective.....

.....one innsight stemming from a teshuvah (legal responsum) we discussed this week at the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards on the question of the heresh (one who is deaf) and to what extent sign language can, halakhically, stand-in for speech when creating rituals that permit the non-hearing community to be as fully enfranchised within Jewish life as possible.  Many around the table got stuck on the matter of Torah-reading.  Blessings can be recited in any language, according to halakhah.  One may recite the Amidah in English.  And so there is no reason a non-hearing person cannot "recite" blessings using signs.  Does that extend to Torah-reading?  What is the status of a Torah-service in which the congregation is non-hearing, and at which the way that the Torah is read is by means of a non-hearing person reading directly from the Torah scroll, but instead of chanting/articulating what s/he reads simultaneously signs it?  Many agreed that while sign language is a/the primary language for the non-hearing community, the rendering of the words of the Torah into sign is, itself, a translation, a "targum" and not a direct recitation.  Most linguists consider sign language to be a language in and of itself.  American Sign Language differs from  Hebrew Sign Language, and Hebrew sign language is not, itself, Hebrew.  Nor is there any certain way to render biblical Hebrew into sign-language completely faithful to the nuance of the original. 

 

Therefore, we would encourage the non-hearing community to experience the Torah in this way, to engage in learning the Torah this way, but we may not be able to claim, halakhically, that what is taking place is fulfillment of the mitzvah of "kriat haTorah b'tzibbur"--reading the Torah in public. What struck me in this exchange was the idea that, quietly, informed it: there is sanctity--unique, supreme, perhaps even mystical sanctity--to hearing our holy Torah chanted, perfectly, in the original.  Think about it.  For many regular shul-goers, Hebrew is not a fully, or immediately, comprehensible language.  This is true for many Torah-readers!  And so the exercise of reading Torah in our shuls often involves a non-Hebrew-speaker chanting Hebrew sounds/syllables to an audience that, mostly, does not understand the words.  And yet we consider that ritual to be, in its pristine state, so sacred and unimpeachable that we would consider a rendering of the Hebrew text into a medium that would be comprehensible (ie, English for our community, sign-language for the non-hearing community) somehow less than authentic. 

I raise this point not to question whether our association with Torah-in-Hebrew ought to persist; I believe it should.  I raise it to have us consider what it means for the individual Jew, and the community of Jews, to pray and, quite literally, "hear revelation" every week in a foreign language.  Religion pushes us beyond the rational, and engages the mystical.  Whether we are full-blown kabbalists who impute to each Hebrew letter unlimited power and import, or Jews looking to taste and touch  something of the transcendent, the Hebrew text, the Hebrew word and the Hebrew chant is our medium.  Let that sink in this weekend as you recite the Shema, savoring each syllable, asking yourself why it is more meaningful articulating "Sh'ma yis-ra-el..." than "Hear O Israel."  Consider it as you listen to the reader bring you in to Parshat Bemidbar in what is most likely not your natural tongue.  Let the Hebrew enter into your soul, to a place where, we believe, only it can reach.


Israel News

A letter from Dr. Ariel Eldad          

           

       I  was instrumental in establishing the Israeli National

Skin Bank, which is the  largest in the world. The National Skin Bank

stores skin for every  day  needs as well as for war time or mass

casualty situations. This  skin bank is hosted at the Hadassah Ein Kerem University hospital in Jerusalem  where I was the Chairman of plastic surgery. This is how I was asked to supply  skin for an Arab woman from Gaza, who was hospitalized in Soroka Hospital in  Beersheva, after her family burned her. Usually, such atrocities happen among Arab families when the women are suspected of having an affair. We supplied  all the needed Homografts for her treatment. She was successfully treated by my friend and colleague, Prof. Lior Rosenberg and discharged to return to

Gaza. She was invited for regular follow-up visits to the outpatient

clinic in  Beersheva.

        One  day she was caught at a border crossing wearing a

suicide belt. She meant to  explode herself in the outpatient clinic of

the hospital where they saved her  life. It seems that her family

promised her that if she did that, they would  forgive her. This is only one example of the war between Jews and Muslims in  the Land of Israel. It is not a territorial conflict. This is a civilizational  conflict, or rather a war between civilization & barbarism. Bibi  (Netanyahu) gets it, Obama does not. I have never written before asking to  please forward onwards, so that as many as possible can understand radical Islam and what awaits the world if it is not stopped.

         

                 Arieh  Eldad MD

Weekly Torah Portion Commentary  -   

Courtesy of Rabbi Michael Gold    .

 

      Sometimes we can learn profound truths from difficult laws.  This portion contains the law of the Sotah - the law of a man who suspects that his wife has committed adultery.  It is a ritual of ordeal, where the woman must drink bitter waters into which certain Biblical curses have been dissolved.  If she is guilty, she will display certain physical symptoms; if she is innocent, she will be blessed with children.  The law is degrading and misogynist.  Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai outlawed the rite long ago when the number of adulterers increased.   (Sotah 9:9)
       What can we learn from such an archaic and difficult law?  The Rabbis never saw the law as applying to a woman who was guilty.  They preferred to apply it to a woman who may have been innocent, but for whom trust has broken down.  As the Rabbis saw it, the real purpose of the law was to rebuild trust between a husband and a wife.  As part of the ritual, God's holy Name was actually dissolved in the bitter waters.  The Midrash says, "For the sake of peace between husband and wife, God has ordered the divine Name be blotted out."   (Numbers Rabbah 9:36)   Of course the law of the Sotah was based on the possible adultery by the wife.  When the husbands began to be unfaithful in marriages, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai outlawed the ritual altogether.
       We can read this as a law about the breakdown of trust between a husband and a wife.  Often I ask young people what is the most important ingredient for a successful marriage.  Invariably they answer "love."  I disagree.  From years of Rabbinic counseling, I believe the most important ingredient in a successful marriage is "trust."  When trust has broken down, it does not matter how much a couple loves one another.  Their suspicion and discomfort will prevent them from staying in the marriage.
       When I speak about trust in a marriage, I am not merely talking about adultery.  Certainly fidelity is a fundamental ingredient of any marriage, and a philandering husband or unfaithful wife will destroy a marriage.  But trust is something far deeper.  Trust is the ability to open up to one's partner, knowing that he or she will not hurt you.  Trust is the ability to uncover oneself, both physically and emotionally, to be exposed without fear that one is vulnerable.  Trust means feeling safe with one's partner.  And when that sense of safety disappears, when one fears that he or she will be hurt by the partner, the marriage is in deep trouble.
       The Bible uses a fascinating phrase to refer to a relationship - "to uncover someone's nakedness."  Until a man and woman really learn to know each other, it is important to keep one's nakedness covered up.  This refers not simply to physical nakedness, but emotional nakedness.  One does not risk exposing one's vulnerability to another until one trusts that person.  But as trust is slowly established during dating and courtship, one slowly exposes one's inner self.  By the time one is prepared to marry, there can be no secrets.  According to the Bible, Adam and Eve were "naked and not ashamed." (Genesis 2:25)  This is the ideal in a marriage, being exposed to one's partner without feel shame, without feeling threatened.
       When trust breaks down, one becomes vulnerable.  In a marriage, partners often know each other so well that they know exactly how to zing it to the other.  Each of us knows what we can say that will truly hurt the other.  Part of trust is the knowledge that our partner will not say things that will hurt us.  Without this trust, the marriage is in trouble.
       Whoever has heard me speak or gone to me for counseling knows that I am a strong advocate of marriage.  I believe that is how God wants us to live.  But a marriage where trust has broken down is not a healthy marriage for either partner.   We must take seriously the idea from this portion that even God's holy Name can be dissolved to rebuild that essential trust between a husband and a wife.