THE TORAH PORTION FOR THIS SHABBAT 11 Av 5780 and 7 PM SHAZOOM July 31, 2020
SHABBAT NACHAMU (Sabbath of Comfort)
The name is taken from the first word of Isaiah 40:1-26, the haftarah for the Parsha which is read on the Shabbat immediately after Tisha B’Av, which was yesterday.
The 15 of Av (Tu B’Av), which starts this Tuesday evening, August 4, is a minor holiday celebrating love similar to Valentine’s Day and is considered a great day for weddings.
PARSHA
From ReformJudaism.org
Va’etchanan (וָאֶתְחַנַּן – Hebrew for “and I [Moses] pleaded [with the Eternal]”)
Deuteronomy 3:23−7:11
I pleaded with the Eternal at that time, saying, “O Eternal God, You who let Your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, that good hill country, and the Lebanon.” – Deuteronomy 3:23-25
SUMMARY:
- Moses pleads with God to let him enter the Land of Israel with the people, but God once more refuses his request. (3:23–28)
- Moses orders the Children of Israel to pay attention and follow the laws given by God in order to be worthy of the land they are about to receive. (4:1–40)
- Specific areas of the land are set aside to serve as cities of refuge. (4:41–43)
- The covenant at Sinai and the Ten Commandments are recalled. Once again, the people are exhorted to heed God’s commandments. (5:1–30)
- Moses speaks the words of the Sh’ma, the credo of Judaism, and commands Israel to show their love for Adonai and keep God’s laws and ordinances. (6:1–25)
- Moses warns the people not to commit idolatry by worshiping the gods of the nations they will conquer in Israel. (7:1–11)
Isaiah 40:1-26 is the first haftarah in the cycle of seven haftarot of consolation after Tisha B’Av, leading up to Rosh Hashanah. It is interpreted as “comforting” the Jewish people for their suffering — נַחֲמוּ נַחֲמוּ, עַמִּי, nachamu nachamu, ami, which in some versions is translated as “Be comforted, be comforted, My nation….” In other versions it is translated as “Comfort, comfort, my people”. The meaning of the Hebrew can also be interpreted to mean God asking to be comforted by the people. Such a reading would render it in English as “you comfort, you comfort, me my people.”
STRUGGLING WITH TORAH
Va’etchanan – and I pleaded with the Eternal
We are finishing the first prologue (Ch. 1-4) and starting the second (Ch. 5-11). Most scholars say the second prologue is the older part.
As noted last week, there are differences in the order of events, place names and recounting of the events. This is also evident in the word ordering of the version of the Ten Commandments, called here “the ten sayings, aseret had’varim” (4:13), found in this Parsha versus the earlier version in Exodus 20:2-17. As an aside, traditionally the congregation stands whenever the Ten Commandments are read in either Parsha.
From Reform.Judaism.org [excerpts from two D’rashot]
WHAT TORAH REQUIRES OF US – Rabbi Max Chaiken
Perhaps most importantly, [Va’etchanan] reinforces the idea of our own free will: While we cannot always control our circumstances, we are responsible for the ethical and spiritual choices we make as we walk our path through life…. [This Parsha] demands our participation as interpreters of Torah. Moses speaks to “all the Israelites” with the instruction to “listen… study… and observe” the laws (5:1).
Finally, for the fans of the brevity in Hillel and Akiba’s teachings, [Va’etchanan] also offers a verse that we can read as an overarching principle: “Do what is right and good in the sight of the Eternal, that it may go well with you…” (6:18).
TO BE A TEACHER IS TO LEAVE A LASTING IMPRESSION – Rabbi Ethan Prosnit
The honorific that our Jewish tradition gives to Moses is Moshe Rabbeinu, “Moses our teacher” – not Moses our leader, our trailblazer, or our savior, not even Moses our father (like Abraham). The tradition remembers him as our teacher.
[In the Sh’ma/V’ahavta, Moses instructs us “v’sh’nantam l’vancha” (6:7), teach the laws and rules to your children.] The Hebrew word, sh’nantam, to teach or to impress, stems from the same Hebrew root for the word “teeth.” To teach is to leave an impression, as teeth do when they bite down on something….
From Temple Or Hadash.org
THU, JULY 30, 2015
HILLEL’S BLOG [excerpts]
PARASHAT VA’ETCHANAN (Deut. 3:23 – 7:11) – DO YOU FEEL COMMANDED?
https://templeorhadash.org/parashat-va-etchanan-deut-3-23-7-11-do-you-feel-commanded/
This week’s Torah portion, Va’etchanan, is full of discussions about mitzvot (commandments), chukim (laws), and mishpatim (rules). Many of the 613 commandments of the Jewish tradition are set forth here, and we are also urged to “do what is right in the eyes of God” if we don’t happen to remember the commandment that applies in a particular circumstance.
The whole idea of being commanded is a problematic one for Reform Jews, and may be the issue that makes a Jew philosophically Reform. Indeed, the first statement of principles of the American Reform Movement, the Pittsburgh Platform of 1885, specifically threw out the commandments having to do with “diet, priestly purity, and dress [which] originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation.”
The 1885 Platform, however, reaffirmed the commitment of Reform Judaism to “moral laws, and maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives.”
Reform Judaism has come a long way since then. Its most recent statement of principles, issued in 1999, has no division of categories of traditional mitzvot, or a blanket rejection of some of those categories, as did its 1885 ancestor. In fact, the 1999 Platform states: “We are committed to the ongoing study of the whole array of mitzvot ({author’s} emphasis),” but make a commitment to fulfill, not that whole array, but only “those that address us as individuals and as a community.” It is still up to the individual Reform Jew to decide what mitzvot s/he will commit to; or to the community as to what mitzvot the community will follow….
Reform Judaism, even in the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform, was willing to accept a sense of being commanded by the ethical mitzvot, but rejected what it deemed ritual mitzvot. Modern Reform Judaism invites each one of us to study all the mitzvot in the Torah, and to take into our daily lives those “sacred obligations” that we find “make our lives holy.”
The key here is to study the traditions, in order to figure out which of them address us sufficiently to add a sense of sacredness, holiness, to our lives. This is the essence of Judaism generally, and of the Reform Judaism to which we {Temple Or Hadash} as a congregation subscribe…. Jewish learning is a life-long commitment, as the principles of Reform Judaism affirm.
From Wikipedia
The 20th century Reform Rabbi Gunther Plaut argued that the discussions of cities of refuge in Deuteronomy 4:41–43 and 19:1–13 and Numbers 35:9–34 were composed during a later, settled period, in order to accommodate the disappearance of local altars that previously served as places of refuge.
Plaut observed that the precise meaning of the six words of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4 is not at all clear. In the Hebrew, after the opening “Hear, O Israel,” the affirmation itself states tersely: “Eternal our God Eternal echad.” Plaut wrote that the text can be understood to say:
יְהוָה is our God, and יְהוָה alone;
יְהוָה is our God, one indivisible יְהוָה;
יְהוָה our God is a unique יְהוָה;
יְהוָה is our God, יְהוָה is unique (in extraordinariness).
Baruch Spinoza listed the proposition in Deuteronomy 6:4 that God is One second among the doctrines of universal faith and the fundamental dogmas of Scripture that tend to the central doctrine that there exists a God, a Supreme Being, Who loves justice and charity, and Who must be obeyed by whoever would be saved, and that the worship of God consists in the practice of justice and love towards one’s neighbor. Spinoza argued that no one could dispute that the doctrine that God is One is absolutely necessary for entire devotion, admiration, and love towards God, for devotion, admiration, and love spring from the superiority of one over all else.
PRAYERS
We plead with the Eternal, let us cross over the current craziness to sanity and wellbeing!
We recite MI SHEBËRACH for the victims of brutality, abuse, fear, natural disasters, pandemics, violence, and war; for all those in need of physical, emotional, and mental healing. “R’fuah sh’lëmah” – a complete recovery!
We say KADDISH YATOM for those of our friends and families who have died and been buried this last week; those in the period of Sh’loshim (30 days since burial); those who have died in the last year; and those whose Yahrzeits/Anyos occur at this time; as well as the victims of brutality, disease, natural disasters, war and violence. We remember, too, those victims of the Shoah (Holocaust) who died at this time of year and have us to say “Kaddish” for them. “Zichronam liv’rachah” – May their memories be for blessing.
SHAZOOM: ONLINE SERVICES – 7 PM
Making sure you have the latest version of Zoom, please join us online this evening:
Topic: Erev Shabbat Service
Time: Jul 31, 2020 07:00 PM Arizona
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Meeting ID: 725 1050 0854
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Shabbat Shalom – Buen Shabbat!
-Ruben