TORAH READING FOR 12 NISAN 5784 April 19-20, 2024

April 19, 2024 by templekol

OUR HEARTS ARE WITH THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

From “Mishkan T’filah / A Reform Siddur” p.60

BARUCH atah, Adonai Elohëinu, Mélech ha’olam,

yotzër ‘or uvorë chóshech, ‘oseh shalom uvorë et-hakol.

PRAISED ARE YOU, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe,

Creator of light and darkness, who makes peace and fashions all things.

PARSHA

From Reform Judaism https://reformjudaism.org/torah/portion/mtzora

M’tzora (מְצֹרָע — A Leper) – Leviticus 14:1–15:33

The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: “This shall be the ritual for a leper at the time of being purified .” – Leviticus 14:1-2

SUMMARY:

Priestly rituals to cure tzaraat (a skin condition) when it afflicts humans are described. (14:1-32)
Rituals to rid dwelling places of tzaraat are presented. (14:33-57)
The parashah denotes male impurities resulting from a penile discharge or seminal emission. (15:1-18)
The parashah concludes with accounts of female impurities caused by a discharge of blood. (15:19-33)

HAFTARAH – Shabbat HaGadol

Malachi 3:4-24

SHABBAT HAGADOL 2024 / 5784 שַׁבָּת הַגָּדוֹל

Shabbat before Pesach (The Great Shabbat)

https://www.hebcal.com/holidays/shabbat-hagadol

Shabbat HaGadol for Hebrew Year 5784 begins at sundown on Friday, 19 April 2024 and ends at nightfall on Saturday, 20 April 2024. This corresponds to Parashat Metzora.

Shabbat HaGadol (“Great Shabbat” שבת הגדול) is the Shabbat immediately before Passover. There is a special Haftarah reading on this Shabbat of the book of Malachi. Traditionally a lengthy and expansive sermon is given to the general community in the afternoon.

RECOMMENDED READING

From Reform Judaism https://reformjudaism.org/torah/portion/mtzora

Encountering the Plague in our Midst

By: Rabbi Daniel Mikelberg

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. THIS week we will start studying Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs), which is found in Ketuvim (Writings). Shir HaShirim is traditionally read during Pesach. Read this week’s Torah Portion at https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.14.1-15.33, and Haftarah at https://www.sefaria.org/Malachi.3.4-24

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

מצרע M’tzora – Leviticus 14:1-15:33

Contemporary Reflection – Elyse Goldstein, pp.674-5

THEOLOGIAN ELIZABETH DODSON GRAY notes: “Women’s bodies may be the hardest place for women to find sacredness” (Sacred Dimensions of Women’s Experience, 1988, p. 197). Our society sends negative messages to women from earliest childhood about the expected perfection of their physiques and the disappointments of any flaws in the female form. Parashat M’tzora, then, with its focus on menstrual impurity (15:19–24), seems to impart the same kind of unfavorable sense. Rejecting our own received biases and patriarchal assumptions about menstruation, however, can help us form a contemporary view of these so-called taboos.

What the Torah deems as tamei (“impure”) or tahor (“pure”) is not actually attached to cleanliness, even though they are often translated as “unclean” and “clean.” These Hebrew words are ritual terms, meant to designate those in a physical and spiritual state unable to enter the Mishkan (Tabernacle; and in later times, the Temple), or those able to do so. Those who are considered tamei are taboo (which is not what we think of as “bad”), meaning that they cannot enter the sacred space; and the thing that causes them to be ineligible to enter is also understood to be taboo. Anthropologists note that taboos are the system by which a culture sets aside certain objects or persons as either sacred or accursed. Such objects or persons inspire both fear and respect. Penelope Washbourn writes: “Menstruation symbolizes the advent of a new power that is mana … ‘sacred.’ … A taboo expresses this feeling that something special, some holy power, is involved, and our response to it must be very careful” (in WomanSpirit Rising, 1989, p. 251). This mixed message of fear and power, contact and avoidance, actually dominates all the Torah’s passages around blood. Blood, which is to be avoided in the realm of eating and sex, is the same substance that atones for the community in the sacrificial system, and it binds the individual male child to the Israelite covenant through circumcision. Blood both sustains and endangers; it is the medium of plague or deliverance. Thus blood–like every potent symbol–has the double quality and the twin potential of birth and decay, purity and impurity.

So too with menstrual blood. We who are often uninspired and unaffected by our bodies should reject the negative connotation of taboo–and explore, instead, the positive and sacred aspect. Surely a religion that has a blessing for an activity as mundane as going to the bathroom should have a blessing for the coming and going of menstruation. Since the male composers of the liturgy, living in a world where modesty was central and women’s bodies were a mystery at best, were not able–or more likely, not willing–to imagine such a blessing, we must be the first generation to do so.

More than thirty years ago, I did just this: I wrote a blessing for menstruation and have been writing about it and teaching it ever since. When I crafted my b’rachah, I reappropriated the difficult and offensive morning blessing in the traditional prayer book, which reads: “Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has not made me a woman.” (Traditionally, women say instead, “who has made me according to Your will.”) Each month, when I get my period, I say: “Baruch atah Adonai, eloheinu melech haolam, she’asani ishah: Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has made me a woman.” Saying the blessing becomes a revolutionary moment, for this slight change in wording–changing the negative “who has not made me a woman” into the positive “who has made me a woman”–affirms my holiness and sanctity within the context of menstruation, not despite it.

I believe it is possible to rescue the aspects of mystery inherent in menstruation. While we reject menstrual huts, a separation from the sancta, and antiquated notions of cleanliness, we can still emerge with a sense of the overwhelming mystery of life and death that is embodied in our corporeal female selves. While many women associate menstruation with physical pain and discomfort, the experience nonetheless involves a degree of power. We should reject the notion that menstruation makes a woman “unclean” and instead think of this time as a period of intense electrical charge–the charge of life and death–pulsing through our bodies. Blu Greenberg urges us to focus more on the positive, “to restore the element of holiness to our bodies, our selves” (On Women and Judaism, 1981, pp. 118–120).

We can also consider a connection between menstruation and covenant. The prophet Zechariah speaks to “daughter Jerusalem” and “daughter Zion” about “your covenant of blood” as that which releases prisoners from the dry pit (9:9–11). It does not say “the covenant of blood,” as most translations render it, but rather emphasizes that blood is the focus of the covenant. The address to the feminine persona suggests that all “daughters of Zion” have that covenant of blood. It is through menstruation–from puberty when we accept our responsibilities as Jews, through the elder years when bleeding stops and deep wisdom starts–that the entire world is saved from the dry pit of death, in which there is no water, no womb, no regeneration, no rebirth.

See menstrual blood, then, as women’s covenantal blood–just as the blood of the b’rit milah (ritual circumcision) is men’s. The possibilities for ritual around this abound. For women too have a b’rit (covenant) inscribed in our flesh as an “everlasting covenant” (Genesis 17:19): not just once, at eight days old, but every single month. And M’tzora, in its ancient and perhaps awkward way, attempts to remind us.

PESACH 2024 / פֶּסַח 5784

From Hebcal https://www.hebcal.com/holidays/pesach-2024

Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread

Pesach for Hebrew Year 5784 begins in the Diaspora at sundown on Monday, 22 April 2024 and ends at nightfall on Tuesday, 30 April 2024. [In Israel and for Reform Jews Pesach is seven days. See Reform Judaism/Passover https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/passover]

Passover (Hebrew: פֶּסַח Pesach) commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish calendar, which is in spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and is celebrated for seven or eight days. It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays. [The 49-day period of Counting the ‘Ómer begins on the second night of Pesach and continues until Shavuot.]

Temple Kol Hamidbar will have an in-person Seder in Sierra Vista on Monday, April 22, the first night of Pesach. For details, please see the UPDATE emails sent on April 13 and 17, by Dr. Sam Caron, Congregational President.

PRAYERS

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

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.

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.

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!

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, 12 Nisan through 18 Nisan, we lovingly remember:

Margo McCartney

First Yahrzeit – friend of Jane Kolber

Harvey Ross

First Yahrzeit – TKH Founding Member

Victor Abel

Godfather of Ruben Gomez

Sally Behrstock

Mother of Bob Behrstock

Renate Korrell

Friend of Iris Adler

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

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

TORAH STUDY AND SHAZOOM

We will meet as usual at the regular times for Torah Study and Shazoom this evening, Friday, April 19, 2024. Please see the NEW Torah Study-Shazoom schedule below. NEXT week we will start studying the Song of Songs, which is found in the Ketuvim (Writings), and traditionally read during Pesach.

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

Topic: Torah Study – Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs) Chapters 1-4

Time: April 19, 2024 06:00 PM Arizona

and/or

Shazoom – Erev Shabbat Service

Time: April 19, 2024 07:30 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!

-Ruben

PS – An early Chag Pesach Sameach – Paskue Dulce – Zissen Pesach!