Welcome to the DAT Minyan! Shabbat Shemot December 29, Tevet, 5779 Joseph Friedman, Rabbi Mark Raphaely, President

Transcription

1 Welcome to the DAT Minyan! Shabbat Shemot December 29, Tevet, 5779 Joseph Friedman, Rabbi Mark Raphaely, President Candle Lighting Havdalah 4:25 pm 5:29 pm Shabbat Schedule (All services take place in the BMH-BJ Fisher Hall, 560 S. Monaco Pkwy) Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service. FRIDAY 4:25 pm: Mincha (Shema should be recited after 5:27 pm) SHABBAT Parasha: Page 292 / Haftarah: Page :50 am: Hashkama Minyan 8:20 am: Daf Yomi 8:30 am: Tefillah Warm-up with Ellyn Hutt 9:00 am: Shacharit (Shema should be recited before 9:40 am) Kiddush is available for sponsorship 3:10 pm: HS Boy s Gemara w/ Rabbi Zalesch in the Library 4:10 pm: Mincha followed by Seudah Shlisheet 5:29 pm: Maariv / Havdalah 6:15 pm: Mish Mosh Weekday Schedule (Weekday services Sunday through Friday morning take place at DAT School, 6825 E. Alameda Ave. ) SHACHARIT Sunday: 8:00 am Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 6:35 am Tuesday: 8:00 am (New Year s Day ), followed by breakfast shiur with Rabbi Friedman on the topic The Jewish Leap Year: What Does it Mean To Me?" MINCHA/MAARIV Sunday through Thursday: 4:25 pm Friday: 4:30 pm D var Torah with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks 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. To save the baby would mean disobeying the royal command. That would be serious enough for an 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) (Continued on Page 2) As we approach the end of 2018, we kindly ask that if you have any outstanding balances owed to the shul you please pay them at this time. Please also consider a year-end gift to our beloved DAT Minyan, which relies solely on your generosity to offer the myriad of services, classes and social events that we do. DAT Minyan is a dynamic and friendly Modern Orthodox synagogue for all ages and dedicated to meaningful personal spiritual development, community growth, youth involvement, Torah education, and Religious Zionism. DAT Minyan S. Monaco Pkwy., Denver, CO

2 D VAR TORAH CONTINUED Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Continued from Page 1) 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 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: 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 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, blessed be He, did not call him by any other name. 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 you My daughter. They added that she was one of the few people (tradition enumerates nine) who 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. Shabbat shalom,

3 DAT MINYAN NEWS, EVENTS AND MILESTONES Our condolences to Rachel and Adam Lubchansky and family on the loss of Rachel s grandmother, Jeanne Milder, who passed away this week in St. Louis. Baruch Dayan ha Emet. May the memory of Jeanne Milder always be for a blessing. Our Wednesday night class with Rabbi Friedman resumes January 9th, 7:00 pm at DAT, with a new three-week series, The Shabbat Kitchen: A Refresher Course EVERYONE Needs! See flyer on Page 6 of this Newsletter for complete details. Our annual memorial tribute kiddush honoring the memory of Rabbi Israel Rosenfeld takes place Shabbat, January 12th. To participate as a co-sponsor, please visit our online donation page, As we have done in previous years, the DAT Minyan has once again purchased a block of 20 spaces at a reduced rate of $399 for the AIPAC 2019 Policy Conference, taking place in Washington, DC, March Please visit the home page of our website, to register as a member of our delegation or call the office, SAVE-THE-DATE of Sunday evening, April 7th, for the DAT Minyan Annual Event honoring Steve and Ellyn Hutt. Stay tuned for complete event details coming soon! Thank-you to all of those who contribute to our Shabbat services by signing up to help with our weekly leining. We remain in need of continued help with this and all able-leiners are encouraged to please volunteer! In addition, with a goal of expanding our roster of Haftarah readers, we have now opened up the weekly Haftarah portions for sign-up as well. The sign-up website is Slots are open from now through mid-march. Please contact Steve Hutt for questions and additional information. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS The Leban family invites the community to come celebrate the engagement of their son Shaya to Nava Levine, at a l'chaim this Saturday night from 8-11pm at 7423 East Bayaud Ave. Mazel Tov! The Women s Division of the Denver Community Kollel will be holding its 6th annual Winter Gardens Women s Night Out next Tuesday, January 8th, 6:30 pm at Cableland, 4150 Shangri-La Drive. The event will feature Mrs. Leah Rubashkin, who will share her personal story of faith, endurance and resilience during 8 years of trials and tribulations. It will also feature a delightful and delicious buffet dinner from the Kollel Women s Trademark Gourmet. Discover, Taste, & Learn! For more info or to reserve, visit contact info@denverkollel.org or call Sandy s Closet would like to thank the community for their donations and support. We are seeking new or nearly new men's women's and children's clothes. We especially would like to get some designer dresses, handbags and vintage clothing. Most importantly Sandy's Closet could use some volunteers to do pick ups and sort merchandise. For further information, please contact Lola at The DAT Minyan wishes to acknowledge the following milestones* of our members in the coming week: Dorit Fischer, Rana Kark, Chava Kasztl, Boone Moskowitz, Adrienne Narrowe, Gabrielle Penn, Samuel Rascoff, Golda Shaul Dani and Dali Garfinkel - 7 years Julius Jacobson - Mon., 12/31/18 (23 Tevet) Marc Gitler and Sarah Geiger - 13 years David Marks - Wed., 1/2/19 (25 Tevet) *These details were obtained from the DAT Minyan database, which contains information provided by the members when they joined. We apologize for any omissions or errors. For changes, please log on to your account and update the information as needed, or contact the synagogue office at THANK YOU FOR INSPIRING FUTURE GENERATIONS WITH YOUR GENEROSITY We would like to thank our Legacy Society donors for investing in our future by naming the DAT Minyan with a gift in their will, trust, retirement account or life insurance policy. Our Legacy Society includes: Rob Allen Graeme Bean Myndie Brown Steve and Ellyn Hutt Nathan and Rachel Rabinovitch Mark and Sarah Raphaely Harley and Sara Rotbart Michael Stutzer Steve and Lori Weiser You can add your name to this list with a legacy gift to the DAT Minyan. To arrange for your gift or for more information about our Legacy Society program, please contact any of the following Committee Members: Rob Allen, Myndie Brown, Sarah Raphaely or Steve Weiser.

4 EDUCATIONAL AND YOUTH ANNOUNCEMENTS Learning the DAT Minyan Kitzur Shulchan Aruch: Daily, after Shacharit Daf Yomi Shiur (30 min): after Shacharit on Sun through Fri, and 8:25 am on Shabbat Mishnayot: Daily, between Mincha and Maariv Halacha Chaburah: Sun, 10:00 am 11:00 am, resumes after the first of the year Short & Sweet Talmud Class (30 min-never longer): Wed, 9:20 am, DAT Minyan offices at BMH-BJ (men only) Rabbi Friedman Wed. Night Class: 7:00 pm, resumes Wed, 1/9, with a new threeweek series, The Shabbat Kitchen: A Refresher Course EVERYONE Needs! We welcome all children through 6th grade to join our Junior Congregation Program. ALL youth groups meet at 9:00 am. If you or someone you know (college age and above) is interested in working in the Youth Groups Program, please contact Mor at youth@datminyan.org. Our weekly teen program Morning Motivation, will not meet this Shabbat. We invite all teens to join us next Shabbat for our monthly Teen Minyan, 9:45 am in the Library. Refuah Shelayma Please include the following names in your prayers. May each be granted a Refuah Shelayma. Names are kept on the list until the next Rosh Chodesh. Help us keep the list accurate by verifying the necessary details each month on the Cholim Document at Avraham ben Leah Aviva bat Sara Avram ben Golda Simma Bella bat Malka Carmel ben Tirtza Chaim Tuvia ben Dina Chana Yetta bat Bryna Channa bat Henny Rus Chaya Chanah Elisheva Rivka bat Sarah Chaya Elana bat Elisheva Chaya Miriam bat Shoshana Chaya Orah bat Sarah Davida bas Raizel Devorah Leah bat Chanah Eliezer ben Sarah Eliezer Shmuel ben Chana Yetta Elisheva bat Sarah Eliyahu Chaim ha Cohen ben Sara Rifka Eliyahu Dovid ben Ita Sheiva Ephraim ben Henna Esti bat Sara Faige bat Sarah Feige bat Sara Geula bat Chana Guy Chaim ben Rita Hadassah bat Fruma Rahel Hillel Yerachmiel ben Ariella Kalia bat Miriam Leah Devora Kivitiya bat Chaya Levick Yitzchak ben Bracha Leya bat Sara Liora Shifra bas Bina Malka bat Sarah Mascha bat Rus Mayer Benya ben Nechama Mendel Ila ben Frida Miriam Michel ben Leah Michoel Zisel ben Barbara Mikimia bat Pesha Baila Miriam Tova Chaya bat Chanah Nachson Meir ben Temina Chaya Sarah Shlomit Natanel ben Shyna Zipporah Nataniel ben Elisheva Pinchas ben Beula Batya Raphael Lior ben Miriam Roshka bat Bryna Ruth bat Yisraela Sara Yaffa bat Shoshanah Leah Sarah Shoshanna bat Sarah Sender ben Helen Shabtai ben Sarah Shashi bat Batya Baila Shemuel ben Miriam Shifra Hadassah bat Chaya Leah Shira Chana bat Sara Shira Yael bat Liora Sara Shirley bat Hasia Devorah Shoshanna bat Liora Shoshanna bat Smadar Shoshanna Miriam bat Chanah Shulamit Leah bat Chava Tirtza bat Sarah Tomas ben Galit Tova bat Nechama Tzvi Gershon ben Shaindel Shaina Raizel Yasmine bat Miriam Yehuda Mordechai Shrage ben Roiza Feige Yisroel Yaakov Moshe ben Sarah Yochanan ben Sarah Yona Malka bat Pola Yonatan Zeev ben Netaa Yosef ben Bruria Katrina Yosef ben Malka Machla Yosef Elimelech ben Yehudit Yosef Shabtai ben Amalia

5 COMMUNITY NEWS The following letter was published in our newsletter last June. We are reprinting it in light of the latest development (see picture below). After numerous meetings with the MOED Board and Eric Shafran of SII LLC, the owner s representative on the project, we are pleased to announce that several challenging hurdles have recently been overcome, and the new Mikvah construction plans are back on track, with an expected opening date of Summer The process has certainly been fraught with many complications and challenges, many of which came It Begins! from the City. The MOED Board and Eric have worked diligently and consistently to address the numerous issues, in regular communication and consultation with us. Although visible signs of construction on the site are not yet forthcoming, we plan to convene a community meeting to share further details in the near future. In the meantime, you are welcome to contact us or any Board member for clarification or questions. With prayers for a prompt and successful completion of the new Mikvah, R' Yisroel Engle R' Joseph Friedman R' Avraham Jacobs R' Raphael Leban R' Daniel Rapp

6 NEW LEARNING OPPORTUNITES Wednesday Night Class with Rabbi Friedman Returns January 9th with a Brand New Series