To Mitch and Cheryl Parker for sponsoring morning minyan breakfast marking the yahrzeit of Mitch's mother, Min Parker.

To Marlene and Steve Myers for sponsoring morning minyan breakfast marking their yahrtzeits of their beloved parents, Harvey Meyer and Toby Leib Myers.

ISRAEL: 

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED.  

Join Mitch Parker March 21-April 2nd in Israel.

Click here for detailed itinerary. 

E-mail Mitch:

if you are interested in participating.

 

HIGH HOLIDAY INFORMATION

Guest Tickets

Guest tickets for High Holiday Services may be ordered through the synagogue office.  For order form, please click here.  Please place order by August 31st to allow time for processing.

YIZKOR BOOK 5776

Please consider memorializing your loved ones in the Yizkor Books which will be used throughout the coming year, beginning on Yom Kippur. To add names to the Yizkor Book for the coming year, Click here for
the downloadable form, or simply respond to the e-mails and letters that were sent this past week to those who had previously listed names. 

Questions? Contact DebbieSinger: yizkorbooks@gmail.com

 

PARSHAT MATTOT/MASEI

Coping With Complexity

Sam Shonkoff

 

The child in me wants to hide Parashat Mattot and Parashat Masei in a dusty attic somewhere; so many of their words are disillusioning, disturbing, and embarrassing. Parashat Mattot begins with sexism: all men must keep their promises, yet women's promises may be nullified by disapproving husbands and fathers (Numbers 30). It continues with genocide: in a spirit of revenge, thousands of Israelites invade Midian and kill every man (Numbers 31:7). When they return with captured women, children, and booty, Moses is angry because his soldiers did not do enough. He commands them to kill every non-virgin female and every male child among the captives (Numbers 31:15-18).

This massacre is especially bloodcurdling for those who remember that Moses lived in Midian for a period of his life and that his wife Tziporah and father-in-law Yitro are Midianites. Later, Parashat Maseiforeshadows a horrific mission of ethnic cleansing in Canaan: God commands the People of Israel, "You shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land...And if you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land, those whom you allow to remain shall be stings in your eyes and thorns in your sides" (Numbers 33:52-55).

Click here to continue reading.