TORAH READING FOR 10 IYAR 5784 May 17-18, 2024

May 17, 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.98

SIM SHALOM tovah uv’rachah, chën vachésed v’rachamim, alëinu v’al kōl Yisraël ‘amécha, [v’al kōl yoshvëi tëvël, v’imru: Amën.]

GRANT PEACE, goodness and blessing, grace, kindness, and mercy, to us and to all Your people Israel [and all who inhabit the earth, and let us say: Amen.]

PARSHA

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

Emor (אֱמֹר‎‎ — Hebrew for “speak”) – Leviticus 21:1-24:23

The Eternal One said to Moses: “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: None shall defile himself for any [dead] person among his kin, . . .” – Lev. 21:1

SUMMARY:

Laws regulating the lives and sacrifices of the priests are presented. (21:1-22:33)
The set times of the Jewish calendar are named and described: the Sabbath, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the Pilgrimage Festivals of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot. (23:1-44)
God commands the Israelites to bring clear olive oil for lighting the sanctuary menorah. The ingredients and placement of the displayed loaves of sanctuary bread are explained. (24:1-9)
Laws dealing with profanity, murder, and the maiming of others are outlined. (24:10-23)

HAFTARAH

Ezekiel 44:15-31

RECOMMENDED READING

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

Accepting Ourselves

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 the Book of Ruth, which is found in Ketuvim (Writings), and traditionally read during Shavuot. Read this week’s Torah Portion at https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.21.1-24.23, and Haftarah at https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.44.15-31

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

אמר Emor – Leviticus 21:1-24:23

Contemporary Reflection – Shulamit Reinharz, pp.743-4

ALTHOUGH THE DESTRUCTION of the Temple (70 C.E.) eliminated the conditions that required priests to preserve certain laws of purity, the influence of such laws nevertheless continues. According to Emor, a priest (kohein) has to guard against possible defilement at all times. A movie produced by several religiously observant students at the Ma’ale School of Television, Film, and the Arts in Jerusalem illustrates some consequences of these laws for their contemporary circles.

Entitled “Cohen’s Wife,” this film concerns Rivki Cohen, a young ultra-orthodox woman who opens the door slightly for a strange man who has come asking for tzedakah (charity). The stranger then forces his way in and rapes her. This crime renders Rivki ritually impure to her husband. The film deals with how the husband approaches the rabbinical court as to whether he–a kohein–must divorce his wife because she is now defiled.

This deeply moving film depicts a loving couple that desperately wants to remain married, while at the same time wanting to observe Jewish law. The wife turns out to have the key to saving the marriage–by not saying the words “I was raped,” and certainly not to her husband. Thus, since there was no witness, the husband could seek a sympathetic set of rabbis who simply would pretend that the rape had not taken place, thus allowing the couple to remain intact.

The problem, of course, is the guilt and confusion that both the wife and husband feel after the rabbinic decision; have they themselves resolved the problem or not? Will they be able to live their lives in peace with their guilty secret? This movie, like most made at Ma’ale, exposes viewers to the human conflicts, tragedies, and even comic situations that arise when people wish to live both according to Jewish law and to their honest feelings.

While we can expect the laws of Leviticus to have a strong impact primarily in certain religious circles, other ideas in Emor continue to have subtle ramifications for general society. One example is the stress found in Emor on the ideal of physical “perfection.” Leviticus 21:17–20 disqualifies a descendant of Aaron from carrying out the rituals of the priesthood if he is subject to certain physical deficiencies or disfigurations. Physical imperfection, it seems, impairs holiness.

While the priest’s bodily perfection may no longer be a Jewish necessity, the idea and expectation of bodily perfection have become a cultural goal of the wider American Jewish population, with terrible consequences–particularly for women, regardless of age. By now most people are aware that many American Jewish girls starve themselves or over-exercise to become thin, or they have surgery on their noses and elsewhere to be more beautiful. So too, older Jewish women undergo a wide range of plastic surgery to remain attractive. On this drive among young girls to be pretty at all costs–and to be intolerant of those who are not–see The JGirl’s Guide: The Young Jewish Woman’s Handbook for Coming of Age (co-authored by me, Penina Adelman, and Ali Feldman, 2005). Mothers pass the goal of beauty on to their daughters, and men reinforce it. By manipulating women’s self-confidence about their appearance, the beauty industry has become a highly lucrative business. The point is that each girl or woman considers herself to be defective or imperfect, no matter what she does. This idea derives from the notion that there is such a thing as bodily perfection, a concept presented in Emor.

The motivation to be beautiful by any means should not be dismissed out of hand as misguided, however. After all, the Bible and much of Western culture frequently equate beauty with goodness.

Several admired matriarchs–Sarah and Rebekah, for example–are beautiful, even “very beautiful.” In fact, one term for beauty in the Bible actually uses forms of the word tov (good), further promoting such associations. Thus, kindly Rebekah is tovat mar’eh (“exceedingly beautiful,” Genesis 24:16). And Esther is touted for her beauty, which enables her to carry out later virtuous deeds. Based on these cases and many others, I suggest that the Torah’s preference for beauty is a clear theme that appears in many places, including the Emor section on the necessity for physical perfection among priests.

By and large it is not only the preference for beauty that has spilled into Western culture, but also the equation between beauty and goodness. Children’s fairy tales typically feature the beautiful princess who is good, the handsome prince who is also good, and the ugly witch who is evil. Psychologists have found that people who are attractive are trusted more than those who are not; handsome people are likely to rise in the ranks of their organizations and be elected to office. Physically attractive individuals, research shows, are perceived as more intelligent, sociable, talented, and moral. There is even a term for this prejudice: beautyism–the idea that what is beautiful is good, and what is not beautiful is bad. Beautyism is a danger to the self-esteem of those who are not physically attractive and can lead to arrogance among those who are. While efforts to urge children to look beyond physical appearance may address race and disability, they almost never deal with beauty. This silent prejudice is thus able to persist and be reinforced throughout popular culture, religious instruction, and the education system.

Some passages in the Bible, however, do not equate beauty with goodness, possibly in an attempt to counteract the heavy emphasis on the subtle equation elsewhere. Ruth, for example, is a model of goodness but is never called beautiful. More notable is the description of the “woman of valor” (eshet chayil) in Proverbs 31, which explicitly repudiates beauty as a criterion for virtue: “Grace is deceptive, and beauty is illusory; it is for her fear of יהוה that a woman is to be praised” (31:30). Yet the negation can be also read as an admission that the cultural norm is otherwise.

Emor’s implication that a priest must not remain married to his wife if she is raped is a case of punishing the victim. So, too, Emor’s exclusion of a blind descendant of Aaron from priestly activities punishes the handicapped. Contemporary society tries not to punish rape victims or disabled individuals. While it is true that we have tried to distance ourselves from these two ancient ideas, we have made hardly any progress with regard to the obverse, that is, unfairly rewarding those who are physically beautiful and punishing those who are not.

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 25 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 chamishah v‘esrim yom, shehëm sh’loshah shavu’ot v’arba’ah la‘Ómer/ba‘Ómer.”

“Today is 25 days, which is three weeks 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. The following selection is from the third chapter.

From Sefaria https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_Avot.4

3: He [Ben Azzai] used to say: do not despise any man, and do not discriminate against anything, for there is no man that has not his hour, and there is no thing that has not its place.

15: Rabbi Yannai said: it is not in our hands [to explain the reason] either of the security of the wicked, or even of the afflictions of the righteous. Rabbi Mathia ben Harash said: Upon meeting people, be the first to extend greetings; And be a tail unto lions, and not a head unto foxes.

19: Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: Do not try to appease your friend during his hour of anger; Nor comfort him at the hour while his dead still lies before him; Nor question him at the hour of his vow; Nor strive to see him in the hour of his disgrace.

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, 10 Iyar through 16 Iyar, we lovingly remember:

Jill Alexander

TKH Memorial Board, sister of Holly Sickles

Shane Kissinger

Grandson of Founding Member Harvey Ross, 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.

TORAH STUDY AND SHAZOOM

We will meet as usual at the regular times for Torah Study and Shazoom this evening, Friday, May 17, 2024. Please see the NEW Torah Study-Shazoom schedule below. THIS week we will start studying the Book of Ruth, which is found in the Ketuvim (Writings), and traditionally read during Shavuot.

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 – Book of Ruth Chapters 1-2

Time: May 17, 2024 06:00 PM Arizona

and/or

Shazoom – Erev Shabbat Service

Time: May 17, 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 the Book of Ruth and the NEW schedule through June 2024: