Ahavat Achim Presents: The Lizard Guys

Transcription

1 בס ד WEEKDAY DAVENING INFORMATION Sunday (12/30) Monday (12/31) Tuesday (1/1) Wednesday (1/2) Thursday (1/3) Friday (1/4) Earliest Talit 6:19 AM 6:19 AM 6:19 AM 6:19 AM 6:19 AM 6:19 AM Shacharit 8:15 AM 6:15 AM 8:15 AM 6:25 AM 6:15 AM 6:25 AM Gedolah 12:22 PM 12:23 PM 12:23 PM 12:24 PM 12:24 PM 12:25 PM Mincha - Maariv 4:20 PM 4:20 PM 4:30 PM Shkia 4:37 PM 4:38 PM 4:39 PM 4:40 PM 4:41 PM Tzait 5:22 PM 5:23 PM 5:24 PM 5:25 PM 5:26 PM Maariv Only 8:20 PM 8:20 PM 8:20 PM שבת פרשת שמות SHABBAT PARSHAT SHEMOT 21 TEVET/DECEMBER 29 Haftorah is Isaiah 27:6-28:13, then skipping to 29: FRIDAY NIGHT CANDLE LIGHTING - 4:18 PM MINCHA - 4:20 PM TZAIT - 5:21 PM SATURDAY HASHKAMA - 8:15 AM SHACHARIT MAIN - 9:00 AM LAST KRIAT SHEMA - 9:40 AM MINCHA - 4:05 PM SHKIA - 4:36 PM SHABBAT ENDS - 5:21 PM Rabbi Ely Shestack CONGREGATION AHAVAT ACHIM SADDLE RIVER ROAD FAIR LAWN, NJ BULLETIN INFORMATION TO REQUEST A BULLETIN ANNOUNCEMENT (BY 7:00 PM WEDNESDAY) OR DEDICATE A BULLETIN FOR $36 ($54 W/PHOTO), SEPLOTNICK@GMAIL.COM Shabbat Oneg at the Sonnenblick home, 6 Kershner Pl., at 7:30 PM. Rabbi s topic: Polarizing Topics for the Winter Solstice : Halachic Questions From The Polar Region. You can help A h a v a t Achim's finances and it won't cost you a cent! Just make your regular Amazon purchases at After a one-time set up designating Congregation Ahavat Achim of Fair Lawn as your preferred charity, nothing more for you to do except make your regular Amazon purchases. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Ahavat Achim. AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service. Ahavat Achim Presents: The Lizard Guys Join us for a fun show with lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs & bugs! Raffle Photo Booth Sunday, February 10, PM Saddle River Rd Fair Lawn, NJ Can't make it, but still want to donate? diaperdrive@ahavatachim.org RSVP to diaperdrive@ahavatachim.org for the chance to win a raffle prize! Coloring Price for Admission: Bring a diaper donation to be distributed by Jewish Family & Children's Services of Northern NJ President Aryeh Brenenson "1

2 Kiddush Information To sponsor a Kiddush ($1000/$613/$318, plus scotch) Gail at gplotnick@aol.com. If you are around when the Rabbi says המחיה, על your assistance in clean up would be appreciated. Adult Education GEMARA SHIUR - On Winter Hiatus. DAYTIME TORAH VOYAGES - Thursdays at 1:00 PM. FUNDAMENTALS OF JEWISH THOUGHT - After Kiddush. PEREK ON THE LAWN, Pirkei Avot Periodic Shiur. Community Events Jan. 1 Vaccination Moral Responsibilities, a shiur with breakfast by YU Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Daniel Stein. Shomrei Torah, Sunday morning, following 8:00 AM Shacharit. Free if reservation made by Dec. 30, otherwise $10. RSVP to Mendy Aron at Tuesdaystorah@yahoo.com. Feb. 2 - Escape Room Experience, working with your friends to solve a series of physical puzzles, riddles, motion sensitive and touch responsive electronics and locks. Dinner will be served. Shomrei Torah, Saturday night, at 7:30 PM. Cost is $45 per person ($35 for Sisterhood members). RSVP by Jan. 6 to Brittany at mrsricklis@gmail.com. ע ה Gita Cooperwasser Youth Program Youth groups start at 10:00 AM! Contact our Youth Director Aliza Kaplan to discuss our children s youth programming at youthdirectoraliza@ahavatachim.org. Tot Shabbat 10:40 AM, with the Shabbat reading often featuring a surprise story teller. Stay & Play Next get together will be in the spring, on April 6. See you then. Teen Hashkama Feb. 16 Mar. 23 May 11 June 22 Pirkei Avot Teen Learning 10:40 AM, led this week by Matthew Levine. For details contact Ben at Benjamin.greenbaum@frisch.org. Ahavat Achim Future Events Jan. 4 - NCSY Friday Night Lights Feb. 1 - Friday night Oneg/NCSY Friday Night Lights Feb. 3 to 10 - Diaper Drive Feb 10 - Lizard Guy Event, sponsored by Kira & Andrew Wigod Mar. 1 - Friday night Oneg Mar. 9 - Yachad/Yavneh Shabbaton May 11 - Suedah Shlishit sponsored by Kira & Andrew Wigod in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month June 1-2nd Annual Baruch Crawl June 1 - Youth Taking Over Seudat Shelishit in honor of Yom Yerushalayim, sponsored by Kira & Andrew Wigod June 8 - Suedah Shlishit sponsored by Eli Zezon in memory of Shlomo ע ה Ben (שלמה בן אליהו - זזון נלב"ע ז סיון תשס ד) Eliyahu June 22 - Suedah Shlishit sponsored by Eli Zezon in memory of Baroch ברוך מפציר בן שמואל) Ben Samuel ע ה Mafzir (- נלב"ע כ"ד סיון תשנ ט Points To Ponder 1st - Shabbat Table Discussion: What is the significance of choosing to introduce the fatal transition to the new Paroah with the descriptor: "that he did not know Yosef"? 2nd - Bonus: (2:5) Paroah's daughter saw the basket in the reeds and sent her "amata". The word is ambiguous, either meaning her maidservant or her arm. Rashi explains that it means arm and she reached it out to supernatural lengths to reach the child. What is the meaning of the midrash? 4th - What appears to Moshe in the bruning bush? What is the end game described to Moshe at this stage? 6th - Where does Moshe go after receiving the Divine mandate to return to Egypt at the burning bush? Answers to Points To Ponder 1st - Lacking gratitude is the midah, character trait has the potential to devolve into the most horrific behavior and outlook. 2nd - The act of compassion towards a Jewish infant was so antithetical to the prevailing culture that she may as well have done something supernatural. She was reaching beyond the confines of her society and societal expectations. 4th - An angel of Hashem. Returning to a good and spacious land, Eretz zavat chalav ud'vash, a land flowing with milk and honey (3:8) 6th - He goes to say goodbye to his father in law (4:18), because gratitude must be the bedrock of redemption, to reflexively eradicate the edict of exile (see question #1). Shirley Vann has dedicated this week s Covenant & Conversation (used with permission. ע ה of the Office of Rabbi Sacks) in memory of her beloved mother Necha bat Yitzchok "2

3 בס ד CONGREGATION AHAVAT ACHIM S ONEG SHABBAT LECTURE SERIES Will Continue on Friday, December 28 th At the home of Betsy & Marty Sonnenblick 6 Kershner Place At 7:30 PM Please join us for an enjoyable evening of learning with Rabbi Ely Shestack, friends, and refreshments. The Rabbi s Topic Will Be: Polarizing Topics for the Winter Solstice": Halachic Questions from the Polar Region The next Oneg of will be February 1 st. If you are able to host that Oneg, Please call Lori at or garfmom@gmail.com

4 Ahavat Achim Presents: The Lizard Guys Join us for a fun show with lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs & bugs! Raffle Photo Booth Coloring Sunday, February 10, PM Saddle River Rd Fair Lawn, NJ Price for Admission: Bring a diaper donation to be distributed by Jewish Family & Children's Services of Northern NJ Can't make it, but still want to donate? diaperdrive@ahavatachim.org RSVP to diaperdrive@ahavatachim.org for the chance to win a raffle prize!

5 CONGREGATION AHAVAT ACHIM PRESENTS: PIRKEI AVOT FOR TEENS, BY TEENS FACILITATED BY ANDREW WIGOD Shabbat 10:40 AM David Schwitzer Social Hall For more information, contact Benjamin.greenbaum@frisch.org

6 Community Diaper Drive at Congregation Ahavat Achim 1 in 3 U.S. families struggles with diaper need Benefiting families in need with Jewish Family & Children's Services of Northern NJ Drop Off Diapers at Ahavat Achim Saddle River Rd, Fair Lawn, NJ February 3-10, 2019 Sunday, Feb AM Sunday, Feb PM Monday-Friday 6:15-7AM Monday-Thursday 7-9 PM Or diaperdrive@ahavatachim.org to arrange another time

7 TEEN HASHKAMA SHABBAT MINYAN J o i n u s o n : F e b r u a r y 1 6 M a r c h 2 3 M a y 1 1 J u n e 2 2 S t a r t i n g a t 8 : 1 5 A M kiddush to follow For more information contact programmingaa@gmail.com

8 בס"ד שמות תשע ט Shemot 5779 COVENANT & CONVERSATION: FAMILY EDITION Covenant & Conversation: Family Edition is a new and exciting accompaniment to Rabbi Sacks weekly Covenant & Conversation essay, aimed at connecting older children and teenagers with his ideas and thoughts on the parsha. To download the accompanying Family Edition to this Covenant & Conversation essay, please visit or make sure you are subscribed torabbi Sacks free mailing list via The Light at the Heart of Darkness She is one of the most unexpected heroes of the Hebrew Bible. Without her, Moses might not have lived. The whole story of the exodus would have been different. Yet she was not an Israelite. She had nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by her courage. Yet she seems to have had no doubt, experienced no misgivings, made no hesitation. If it was Pharaoh who afflicted the children of Israel, it was another member of his own family who saved the decisive vestige of hope: Pharaoh s daughter. Recall the context. Pharaoh had decreed death for every male Israelite child. Yocheved, Amram s wife, had a baby boy. For three months she was able to conceal his existence, but no longer. Fearing his certain death if she kept him, she set him afloat on the Nile in a basket, hoping against hope that someone might see him and take pity on him. This is what follows: Pharaoh s daughter went to bathe in the Nile, while her maids walked along the Nile s edge. She saw the box in the reeds and sent her slave-girl to fetch it. Opening it, she saw the boy. The child began to cry, and she had pity on it. This is one of the Hebrew boys, she said (Ex. 2:6). Note the sequence. First she sees that it is a child and has pity on it. A natural, human, compassionate reaction. Only then does it dawn on her who the child must be. Who else would abandon a child? She remembers her father s decree against the Hebrews. Instantly the situation has changed. The Light at the Heart of Darkness 1! Shemot 5779

9 To save the baby would mean disobeying the royal command. That would be serious enough for an 1 ordinary Egyptian; doubly so for a member of the royal family. Nor is she alone when the event happens. Her maids are with her; her slave-girl is standing beside her. She must face the risk that one of them, in a fit of pique, or even mere gossip, will tell someone about it. Rumours flourish in royal courts. Yet she does not shift her ground. She does not tell one of her servants to take the baby and hide it with a family far away. She has the courage of her compassion. She does not flinch. Now something extraordinary happens: The [child s] sister said to Pharaoh s daughter, Shall I go and call a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for you? Go, replied Pharaoh s daughter. The young girl went and got the child s own mother. Take this child and nurse it, said Pharaoh s daughter. I will pay you a fee. The woman took the child and nursed it. (Ex. 2:7 9) The simplicity with which this is narrated conceals the astonishing nature of this encounter. First, how does a child not just a child, but a member of a persecuted people have the She has the courage of her compassion. She does not flinch This is courage of a high order. audacity to address a princess? There is no elaborate preamble, no Your royal highness or any other formality of the kind we are familiar with elsewhere in biblical narrative. They seem to speak as equals. Equally pointed are the words left unsaid. You know and I know, Moses sister implies, who this child is; it is my baby brother. She proposes a plan brilliant in its simplicity. If the real mother is able to keep the child in her home to nurse him, we both minimise the danger. You will not have to explain to the court how this child has suddenly appeared. We will be spared the risk of bringing him up: we can say the child is not a Hebrew, and that the mother is not the mother but only a nurse. Miriam s ingenuity is matched by Pharaoh s daughter s instant agreement. She knows; she understands; she gives her consent. Then comes the final surprise: 1 Seeing that she [Pharaoh s daughter] wanted to save Moses, they [her handmaids] said to her, Mistress, it is customary that when a king of flesh and blood issues a decree, even if the whole world does not fulfil it, at least his children and the members of his household fulfill it. Yet you transgress your father s decree! (Sotah 12b) The Light at the Heart of Darkness 2! Shemot 5779

10 When the child matured, [his mother] brought him to Pharaoh s daughter. She adopted him as her own son, and named him Moses. I bore him from the water, she said. (Ex. 2:10) Pharaoh s daughter did not simply have a moment s compassion. She has not forgotten the child. Nor has the passage of time diminished her sense of responsibility. Not only does she remain committed to his welfare; she adopts the riskiest of strategies. She will adopt him and bring him up as 2 her own son. This is courage of a high order. Yet the single most surprising detail comes in the last sentence. In the Torah, it is parents who give a child its name, and in the case of a special individual, God Himself. It is God who gives the name Isaac to the first Jewish child; God s angel who gives Jacob the name Israel; God who changes the names of Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah. We have already encountered one adoptive name Tzafenat Pa neaĥ the name by which Joseph was known in Egypt; yet Joseph remains Joseph. How surpassingly strange that the hero of the exodus, greatest of all the prophets, should bear not the name Amram and Yocheved have undoubtedly used thus far, but the one given to him by his adoptive mother, an Egyptian princess. A Midrash draws our attention to the fact: This is the reward for those who do kindness. Although Moses had many names, the only one by which he is known in the whole Torah is the one given to him by the daughter of Pharaoh. Even the Holy One, 3 blessed be He, did not call him by any other name. How strange that the greatest of all our prophets should bear the name given to him by his adoptive mother, an Egyptian princess. Indeed Moshe Meses is an Egyptian name, meaning child, as in Ramses (which means child of Ra; Ra was the greatest of the Egyptian gods). Who then was Pharaoh s daughter? Nowhere is she explicitly named. However the First Book of Chronicles (4:18) mentions a daughter of Pharaoh, named Bitya, and it was she the sages identified as the woman who saved Moses. The name Bitya (sometimes rendered as Batya) means the daughter of God. From this, the sages drew one of their most striking lessons: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to her: Moses was not your son, yet you called him your son. You are not My daughter, but I shall call 2 On the adoption of a foundling in the ancient world, see Nahum Sarna, Exploring Exodus (New York: Schocken, 1986), Shemot Rabbah 1:26 The Light at the Heart of Darkness 3! Shemot 5779

11 4 you My daughter. They added that she was one of the few people (tradition enumerates nine) who 5 were so righteous that they entered paradise in their lifetime. Instead of Pharaoh s daughter read Hitler s daughter or Stalin s daughter and we see what is at stake. Tyranny cannot destroy humanity. Moral courage can sometimes be found in the heart of darkness. That the Torah itself tells the story the way it does has enormous implications. It means that when it comes to people, we must never generalise, never stereotype. The Egyptians were not all evil: even from Pharaoh himself a heroine was born. Nothing could signal more powerfully that the Torah is not an ethnocentric text; that we must recognise virtue wherever we find it, even among our enemies; and that the basic core of human values humanity, compassion, courage is truly universal. Holiness may not be; goodness is. Outside Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, is an avenue dedicated to righteous gentiles. Pharaoh s daughter is a supreme symbol of what they did and what they were. I, for one, am profoundly moved by that encounter on the banks of the Nile between an Egyptian princess and a young Israelite child, Moses sister Miriam. The contrast between them in terms of age, culture, status and power could not be greater. Yet their deep humanity bridges all the differences, all the distance. Two heroines. May they inspire us. Tyranny cannot destroy humanity. Moral courage can sometimes be found in the heart of darkness. Shabbat shalom 4 Vayikra Rabbah 1:3 5 Derekh Eretz Zuta 1 The Light at the Heart of Darkness 4! Shemot 5779

12 The Light at the Heart of Darkness 5! Shemot 5779