TORAH READING FOR 22 ADAR I 5784 Mar 1-2, 2024

March 1, 2024 by templekol

SHAZOOM 6:30 PM March 1, 2024

OUR HEARTS ARE WITH THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

From “Mishkan T’filah / A Reform Siddur” p.496

ADONAI, ADONAI, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, and granting pardon. Ex. 34:6-7

MARCH BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, AND SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

Mazal Tov – Mazal Bueno to all those celebrating a birthday, anniversary, or significant event during the Month of March. If we were together at Temple Kol Hamidbar, we would extend a Tallit over you, say a special prayer for you, and recite the following blessing (cf Num. 6:24-26):

May the Eternal One bless you and protect you!
May the Eternal One deal kindly and graciously with you!
May the Eternal One bestow favor upon you and grant you peace!

KËIN YEHI RATZON (Let it be so!)

PARSHA

From Reform Judaism https://reformjudaism.org/torah/portion/ki-tisa

Ki Tisa (כִּי תִשָּׂא — When You Take a Census) – Exodus 30:11-34:35

The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: “When you take a census of the Israelite men according to their army enrollment, each shall pay the Eternal a ransom for himself on being enrolled, that no plague may come upon them through their being enrolled.” – Exodus 30:11-12

SUMMARY:

Moses takes a census of the Israelites and collects a half-shekel from each person (30:11-16)
God tells Moses to construct a water basin and to prepare anointing oil and incense for the ordination of the priests. Bezalel and Oholiab, skilled artisans, are assigned to make objects for the priests and the Tabernacle. (30:17-31:11)
The Israelites are instructed to keep Shabbat as a sign of their covenant with God. God gives Moses the two tablets of the Pact. (31:12-18)
The Israelites ask Aaron to build them a Golden Calf. Moses implores God not to destroy the people and then breaks the two tablets of the Pact on which the Ten Commandments are written when he sees the idol. God punishes the Israelites by means of a plague. (32:1-35)
Moses goes up the mountain with a blank set of tablets for another 40 days so that God will again inscribe the Ten Commandments. Other laws, including the edict to observe the Pilgrimage Festivals, are also revealed. (34:1-28)
Moses comes down from the mountain with a radiant face. (34:29-35)

HAFTARAH

Ashkenazim: I Kings 18:1-39 and Sefardim: I Kings 18:20-39

RECOMMENDED READING

From Reform Judaism https://reformjudaism.org/torah/portion/ki-tisa

Why so Quiet?

By: Jonathan K. Crane

STRUGGLING WITH TORAH and REFLECTION

We will continue to meet every other Friday for Torah Study to read and discuss selections from Ketuvim, the third section of Tanach (Hebrew Bible), which follows Torah and Nevi’im. Please see the NEW Torah Study-Shazoom schedule below. NEXT week we will continue studying the Book of Daniel, which is found in the Ketuvim (Writings). Read this week’s Torah Portion at https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.30.11-34.35 and Haftarah at https://www.sefaria.org/I_Kings.18.1-39

From “The Torah / A Women’s Commentary” edited by Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss, Ph.D., Women of Reform Judaism/The Federation of Temple Sisterhoods and URJ Press New York 2008

כי תשא Ki Tisa – Exodus 30:11-34:35

Contemporary Reflection – by Zoë Klein, pp. 516-7

YEARS AGO, my boyfriend and I climbed the alleged Mount Sinai, with the shower of Perseus streaking the Egyptian night sky with shooting stars. At the summit, as God pulled the sun up from the fragrant desert floor, Jonathan held up a ring and proposed. It is written in Pirkei Avot, “Every day a voice goes forth from Sinai” (6:2). That dawn, I heard the reverberation of a sacred voice in the words, “Would you be willing to spend your life with me?”

The revelation at Mount Sinai was a wedding–an eternal, loving joining between God and Israel. The story we read is but a veil covering a radiance we must allow ourselves to know.

This Torah portion, Ki Tisa, begins with Moses taking a census. God then chooses Bezalel to be the artisan of the Tabernacle. Moses climbs Mount Sinai, shrouded in mist and mystery, while the Israelites below build their golden idol. When Moses sees this, he breaks the stone tablets, grinds up the golden calf, and makes the Israelites drink it. Moses ascends the mountain a second time. When he descends, his face is so radiant that he must wear a veil.

But a light ruach (wind) blows from the west, disturbing the mist, and we see the radiant face just beneath the veil of text.

Moses is the master alchemist. He climbs the mountain, hides in the cleft of the tzur (rock). He speaks with the philosophers’ stone face to face. He holds the two tablets of prime matter in his hands. When he grinds up the calf into a fine powder, stirs it into water, holds it up into the air, a brilliant liquid shimmering with flakes of gold, he creates a dizzyingly potent potion, a love potion, an elixir of life. A toast!

We drink of it. Our eyes are opened to see beneath the veil. Ki Tisa is not about frenzied idol worship, but the detailed description of a spectacular wedding feast between God and the people Israel. God-the-Lover and Moses-the-beloved take a census of who shall be invited, and they make the long guest list: 600,000 and growing. Bezalel is singled out to decorate the Tent, arrange the flowers, and adorn the feast.

Time passes, and we find ourselves in the whirl of the banquet festivity. There is dancing and singing, and in the very center, what seems to be a golden calf. But blink your eyes! It is the glittering pile of precious wedding gifts.

High on the bimah (platform), under a chuppah (wedding canopy) of cloud, God presents Moses with the marriage contract, our ketubah. One commentator points out that 31:18, which is translated “Upon finishing (ke-challoto) speaking with him…[God] gave Moses the two tablets,” could also be read, with the slight change of one vowel: “And [God] gave Moses as [God’s] bride (ke-challato)…the two tablets.” Moses, our symbolic bride, turns around in the chuppah and faces the guests. He lifts the contract for all to see–and then smashes the glass beneath his foot.

Now it is time for yichud, when husband and wife are alone together for the first time. In 33:12–23, we read excerpts from a conversation between God and Moses that sound particularly romantic: “Pray let me know Your ways, that I may know You and continue in Your favor” (v. 13). “You have truly gained My favor and I have singled you out by name” (v. 17). “Oh, let me behold Your Presence!” (v. 18). “I will make all My goodness pass before you,” (v. 19). And, at the end, God’s hand reaches out for Moses (v. 22).

Moses comes down from the mountain blushing, a crimson glow in his cheeks. Earlier, when he went into the Tent to meet our Love, he removed his veil, so only God should see his glowing face; but when he leaves the Tent, he lowers the veil.

But this is only one way to imagine this mythic wedding. Instead of seeing Moses (representing all the Israelites) as the bride and God as the groom, some commentators understand Israel to be the groom and Torah the bride. In Midrash HaGadol, for example, it is written:

In the third month…they entered the wilderness of Sinai (19:1)…. [This may be compared] to a king who betrothed a woman, and set a time [for the marriage]. When the time arrived they said: “It is time for the woman to enter the chuppah.” Similarly, when the time arrived for the Torah to be given, they said, “It is time for the Torah to be given to Israel” (Elliot R. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, 1995, p. 4).

Here, Torah is the bride and Israel is the groom.

On the summit of the mountain, within the curtain of cloud, the question of who is marrying whom is enveloped in dreamlike fog. We might even wonder if the true union taking place upon Mount Sinai is perhaps the revelatory union of heavenly Adonai with earthbound Shechinah: God’s masculine and feminine Presence united through Israel, in love.

When the potion wears off, the children of Israel look around them. Once again they are in the desert, long dragged-out footsteps stretching behind them. And they say one to the other, “Love is in this place, and we did not know it! What have we been doing all of this time? Where have we been? Is this the desert, or is it gan eiden (Garden of Eden)? Are we lost and alone, or are we this moment caught up in a fierce union with God? Are we wandering with sandals filled with dust, or are we soaring on eagles’ wings?”

We look from one to the other–and wonder what is the face beneath the face beneath the face we wear every day. Sometimes the beauty of the other is as allusive as a sunray on the water. We seek the radiant face beneath the veil.

Messy world. Angry, idolatrous world. Tired, hungry, sick, and sorry world. But if we could lift the sooty, splattered veil…we might see…

This thing between God and Israel–it is not that we are in covenant. It is that we are in love. Every day a voice comes forth from Sinai and begs your answer, “Would you be willing to spend your life with Me?”

Yes.

ROSH CHODESH ADAR II / רֹאשׁ חוֹדֶשׁ אַדָר ב׳

Rosh Chodesh Adar II for Hebrew Year 5784 begins at sundown on Saturday, 9 March 2024 and ends at nightfall on Monday, 11 March 2024.

Start of month of Adar II (on leap years) on the Hebrew calendar. Adar II (אַדָר ב׳), sometimes “Adar Bet” or “Adar Sheni”, is the 13th month of the Hebrew year, has 29 days, occurs only on leap years, and corresponds to February or March on the Gregorian calendar. רֹאשׁ חוֹדֶשׁ, transliterated Rosh Chodesh or Rosh Hodesh, is a minor holiday that occurs at the beginning of every month in the Hebrew calendar. It is marked by the birth of a new moon.

PRAYERS

From “Mishkan T’filah / A Reform Siddur”:

ROSH CHODESH – FOR THE NEW MONTH p.519

Our God and God of our ancestors, may the new month bring us goodness and blessing. May we have long life, peace, prosperity, a life exalted by love of Torah and reverence for the divine; a life in which the longings of our hearts are fulfilled for good.

FOR OUR COUNTRY p.376

THUS SAYS ADONAI, This is what I desire: to unlock the fetters of wickedness, and untie the cords of lawlessness; to let the oppressed go free, to break off every yoke. Share your bread with the hungry, and take the wretched poor into your home. When you see the naked, give clothing, and do not ignore your own kin.

O GUARDIAN of life and liberty, may our nation always merit Your protection. Teach us to give thanks for what we have by sharing it with those who are in need. Keep our eyes open to the wonders of creation, and alert to the care of the earth. May we never be lazy in the work of peace; may we honor those who have [served, suffered or] died in defense of our ideals. Grant our leaders wisdom and forbearance. May they govern with justice and compassion. Help us all to appreciate one another, and to respect the many ways that we may serve You. May our homes be safe from affliction and strife, and our country be sound in body and spirit. Amen.

FOR HEALING

We recite MI SHEBËRACH for the victims of abuse, brutality, conflicts, fear, natural disasters, pandemics, tragedies, violence of all kinds especially directed at individuals and specific communities including us, and war; for all those at home alone or lonely; for all those in need of physical, emotional, and mental healing. “R’fuah sh’lëmah” – a complete recovery!

PRAYER FOR THE STATE OF ISRAEL p.552

O HEAVENLY ONE, Protector and Redeemer of Israel, bless the State of Israel which marks the dawning of hope for all who seek peace. Shield it beneath the wings of your love; spread over it the canopy of Your peace; send Your light and truth to all who lead and advise, guiding them with Your good counsel. Establish peace in the land and fullness of joy for all who dwell there. Amen.

YAHRZEITS/ANYOS

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, conflict, disease, natural disasters, pandemics, tragedies, violence of all kinds, and war.

This coming week, 22 Adar I through 28 Adar I, we lovingly remember:

Andrea Kemp (First Yahrzeit)

Sister of TKH President, Dr. Sam Caron

Mario Fabela

Father of Ida Farmer

Richie Green

Friend of the Caron Family

Harry Levy

Father-in-law of Iris Adler

Joseph Schwartz

TKH Memorial Board, Husband of Enid Schwartz z”l

Those victims of the Sho’ah (Holocaust) who died at this time of year.

“ZICHRONAM LIV’RACHAH” – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE FOR BLESSING.

SHAZOOM ONLY

We will meet for Shazoom ONLY this Friday evening, March 1, 2024. Please see the NEW Torah Study-Shazoom schedule below. NEXT week we will continue studying the Book of Daniel, which is found in the Ketuvim (Writings).

Zoom regularly updates its security and performance features. Making sure you have the latest version of Zoom, please join us online this evening with wine/grape juice for Kiddush and Challah for Motzi.

Shazoom – Erev Shabbat Service

Time: Mar 1, 2024 06:30 PM Arizona

To join Torah Study and/or Shazoom click on the following link [you may need to copy it into your browser]: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/72510500854?pwd=Z3VQZWF4U1BBZytNYmh3aHFTWkFDZz09

Meeting ID: 725 1050 0854

Passcode: 4NrMk0

Hint: The last character of the password is the number zero.

Shabbat Shalom – Buen Shabbat/Gut Shabbos

-Ruben

PS – About the Book of Daniel and the NEW schedule through June 2024:

From The Torah.com

https://www.thetorah.com/article/daniels-vision-of-the-four-beasts-the-prehistory-of-chanukah

From Wikipedia