TORAH READING FOR 26 NISAN 5784 May 3-4, 2024

May 3, 2024 by templekol

OUR HEARTS ARE WITH THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AND ALL THE VICTIMS OF CONFLICT

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/acharei-mot

Acharëi Mot (אַחֲרֵי מוֹת — After the Death [of the Two Sons of Aaron]) – Leviticus 16:1-18:30

The Eternal One spoke to Moses after the death [of] the two sons of Aaron who died when they drew too close to the presence of the Eternal. – Leviticus 16:1

SUMMARY:

The duties that the head kohein must perform on Yom Kippur are delineated and the ceremony of the scapegoat is outlined. (16:1-28)
Moses instructs Aaron about the Yom Kippur laws for fasting and atonement. (16:29-34)
Warnings are issued against the offering of sacrifices outside the Sanctuary and the consumption of blood. (17:1-16)
Moses condemns the sexual practices of some neighboring peoples. Certain forms of sexual relations are prohibited. (18:1-30

HAFTARAH

Ashkenazi: Ezekiel 22:1-19 and Sephardi: Ezekiel 22:1-16

RECOMMENDED READING

From Reform Judaism https://reformjudaism.org/torah/portion/acharei-mot

Acharei Mot – Choose Holiness!

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 finish studying Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs), which is found in Ketuvim (Writings). Read this week’s Torah Portion at https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.16.1-18.30, and Haftarah https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.22.1-19

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

אחרי מות Acharei Mot – Leviticus 16:1-18:30

Contemporary Reflection – Judith Plaskow, pp.1753-1755

LEVITICUS 18 IS one of two passages in the Torah (the other being Leviticus 20) that consists of sexual regulations meant to distinguish Israel from the surrounding nations and make it a holy people. Although the prohibitions in our passage have had a profound impact on Western sexual morality, its assumptions are remote from–and in some cases even abhorrent to–contemporary sensibilities.

First of all, Leviticus evaluates sexual behaviors not in terms of the emotional and relational dimensions of sexual experience that are so central to judgments about sexual morality today, but in terms of the categories of purity and pollution. The purpose of anti-pollution laws is to impose structure on the chaos of experience by ensuring that social and symbolic boundaries are respected and that things conform to their proper class. Leviticus 18 forbids a series of discrete behaviors that supposedly cause defilement and thus disrupt the social/religious world, but it offers no positive understanding of holy sexuality.

Second, if we look at the social order that the Levitical anti-pollution laws protect, it seems to consist of extended patriarchal families in which the honor and authority of male heads of household is the primary social value. Verses 7 and 8 do not forbid the father to sexually violate his child but rather forbid the son to violate the sexuality of his father by committing incestuous adultery with the father’s wife. The verses instruct the less powerful party not to dishonor the powerful by treating the wife’s sexuality simply as her husband’s possession. Some of the incest prohibitions, such as the outlawing of marriage with two sisters (v. 18), work to the benefit of the women, but it is not women’s concerns and interests that animate the text. The striking absence of the most prevalent incest violation, namely between father and daughter, makes clear that it is not the purpose of Leviticus in this case to protect the weak and defenseless.

Third, the marginalization of women within the social world presupposed by Leviticus 18 is underscored by the prohibition of sex with a menstruant in v. 19. On one level, this prohibition fits quite seamlessly into the purity-related concerns of Leviticus. The book earlier defines many bodily emissions as defiling, placing menstrual blood in a similar category with semen and other discharges from the penis, as well as nonmenstrual discharges from the vagina (Leviticus 15). On another level, however, the proscription of sex with a menstruating woman is part of a larger symbolic complex in which menstrual blood has particularly negative associations. The prophets liken adultery, idolatry, and murder to menstrual impurity (see Ezekiel 36:17, for example), while the book of Lamentations describes conquered Jerusalem as a menstruating woman whose “impurity clings to her skirts” (1:9).

Fourth, the passage in Leviticus 18 most often cited today, namely the prohibition of male anal intercourse in v. 22, serves as a major justification for homophobia in current religious and political debates and also helps to maintain gender hierarchy. A man who penetrates another man “as one lies with a woman” is guilty of mixing or confusing kinds. He treats another man as one should treat only a woman, thereby moving a male body into the category of female. In the world of Leviticus, doing so both unmans the particular man who is the penetrated partner and threatens the notion of penetrative intercourse as a defining aspect of gender difference.

It seems then that, despite its attempts to promote holiness, Leviticus 18, far from fostering holiness in sexual relations, reflects and reinforces many of the structures of domination that support sexual and family violence. The passage contains important insights that contemporary Jews can affirm: we need some boundaries in sexual relationships; sexual behavior is not simply a private matter; individual behavior is connected with the ethical character of our social world. Leviticus 18 seeks to implement these ideas in its own time and place. But we need to find ways to express these insights in the context of an ethic of sexual holiness appropriate for the 21st century.

We can see Leviticus 18 not as a static document that we must either accept or reject but as a part of Jewish tradition that grapples problematically with ongoing human problems. If so, we can also use it as a starting point for raising hard questions about our own sexual values. What should be included on a list of forbidden and permitted relationships today? Are there certain “bottom lines” that we would want to be part of any statement of sexual norms? How do we balance the need to safeguard those with less power in sexual relationships with the desire to lay out a constructive vision of holy sexuality? How might we articulate a person-centered ethic that focuses on qualities of human connection rather than on the intrinsic nature of particular sexual behaviors? How do we ensure that our sexual values reflect fundamental ethical values such as honesty and justice that ought to guide all human interactions? What place do we give to feelings as a dimension of holy sex? How should pleasure figure into our ethic, for example? How do we attend to the social structures that undergird and make possible holy sustainable relationships? What social rights and obligations might we see as fundamentally connected to the ability to create satisfying relationships?

A contemporary response to Leviticus 18, in other words, requires both criticism and transformation. It requires careful examination and rejection of those presuppositions of Leviticus that produce and support sexual injustice. But it also involves imagining an alternative ethic that brings in the concerns and questions of those whose perspectives are erased or marginalized by Leviticus itself–as well as by our culture today. Such a response seeks to create the foundation for a sexuality and sensuality that is life-giving for all.

COUNTING OF THE ‘ÓMER 2024 / סְפִירַת הָעוֹמֶר 5784

Counting of the ‘Ómer (or Sefirat Ha’ómer, Hebrew: ספירת העומר) is a verbal counting of each of the forty-nine days between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot. [The ‘Ómer is counted each evening.]

We began counting on the evening of the second night of Pesach: Tuesday, 23 April 2024, corresponding to the 16th of Nisan, 5784. The counting concludes on the night before Shavuot: Monday, 10 June 2024, corresponding to the 5th of Sivan, 5784.

Today, Friday, day 11 begins this evening at sundown. Before the ‘Alëinu, after stating that one is ready to count the ‘Ómer, the following blessing is said:

Baruch atah Adonai Elohëinu Mélech ha’olam, asher kid’shánu b’mitzvotav, v’tzivánu ‘al S’firat Ha‘Ómer.

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to count the ‘Ómer.

After the blessing, one recites the appropriate day of the count. If after the first six days, one also includes the number of weeks that one has counted. For example:

“Hayom achad ‘asar yom, shehëm shavúa’ echad v’arba’ah yamim la‘Ómer/ba‘Ómer.”

“Today is 11 days, which is one week and four days of/in the ‘Ómer.”

PIRKË AVOT – Ethics of the Fathers

From Pesach to Shavuot on each Shabbat some study a chapter a week from Pirkë Avot. Following are two selections from the second chapter.

From Sefaria https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_Avot.2

5: He (Hillel) used to say: A brute is not sin-fearing, nor is an ignorant person pious; nor can a timid person learn, nor can an impatient person teach; nor will someone who engages too much in business become wise. In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.

12: Rabbi Yose said: Let the property of your fellow be as precious unto you as your own; Make yourself fit to study Torah for it will not be yours by inheritance; And let all your actions be for [the sake of] the name of heaven.

13: Rabbi Shimon said: Be careful with the reading of Shema and the prayer, And when you pray, do not make your prayer something automatic, but a plea for compassion before God, for it is said: “for (God) is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, and renouncing punishment” (Joel 2:13); And be not wicked in your own esteem.

ROSH CHODESH IYAR 2024 / רֹאשׁ חוֹדֶשׁ אִיָיר 5784

Rosh Chodesh Iyyar for Hebrew Year 5784 begins at sundown on Tuesday, 7 May 2024 and ends at nightfall on Thursday, 9 May 2024. Iyar is the second month of the Hebrew calendar and has 29 days. We continue Counting the ‘Ómer throughout the month of Iyar.

PRAYERS

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

ROSH CHODESH IYAR – 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.

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, 26 Nisan through 2 Iyar, we lovingly remember:

Mark Krastoff

Cousin of TKH President Dr. Sam Caron

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, May 3, 2024. Please see the NEW Torah Study-Shazoom schedule below. THIS week we will finish 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 5-8

Time: May 3, 2024 06:00 PM Arizona

and/or

Shazoom – Erev Shabbat Service

Time: May 3, 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 – About Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs) and the NEW schedule through June 2024: