TORAH READING FOR 24 IYAR 5784 May 31-June 1, 2024

May 31, 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.178

SHALOM RAV al Yisraël amcha tasim l’olam, v’al kōl yoshvëi tëvël, v’imru. Amen.

GRANT ABUNDANT PEACE to Israel Your people forever, [and all who inhabit the earth. Amen.]

PARSHA

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

B’chukotai (בְּחֻקֹּתי — Hebrew for “My Laws”) – Leviticus 26:3-27:34

If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit. – Leviticus 26:3-4

SUMMARY:

God promises blessings to the Children of Israel if they follow the law and warns about the curses that will befall the people if they do not observe God’s commandments. (26:1-46)
Gifts made to the Sanctuary whether by conditional vows or by unconditional acts of pious gratitude are discussed. (27:1-34)

This Parsha ends the Book of Leviticus. Upon completing a book of Torah Ashkenazi Jews shout “Chazak! Chazak! Venit-chazëk” which is translated as “Be strong! Be strong! And may we be strengthened!” The Sephardic custom is to say “Chazak U’baruch” (“strength and blessing”) at the end of every single individual Torah reading; the response is “Chazak Ve’ematz” (“be strong and have courage” from Deut. 31:23) or “Baruch Tihiye” (“may you be blessed.”)

HAFTARAH

Jeremiah 16:19-17:14

RECOMMENDED READING

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

Blessings and Curses – Parashat B’chukotai

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 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.26.3-27.34, and Haftarah at https://www.sefaria.org/Jeremiah.16.19-17.14

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

בחקתי B’chukotai – Leviticus 26:3-27:34

Contemporary Reflection – Sarah Sager, pp.782-3

THERE IS SOMETHING profoundly unsettling about B’chukotai. It seems to posit a world that we know, empirically, does not exist. It claims that there is a direct correlation between our actions and the natural order of the universe. Leviticus 26:3–5 promises unambiguously: “If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, I will grant you rains in their season…you shall eat your bread….” Verses 14–16 warn just as clearly: “But if you do not obey Me and do not observe all these commandments…I will wreak misery upon you….” The seeming system of reward and punishment that these biblical passages proclaim appears to contradict the troubling reality that we witness, in which good people suffer, and evil people often prosper.

Passages like these seem to provide justification for those who reject both faith and God. How often do we hear, in the face of personal trauma or tragedy, “I can no longer believe in God” or “I can’t believe in a God who would do this”? How are we to understand God’s threats and promises?

According to the biblical scholar Nehama Leibowitz, our ancestors regarded blessings and curses, such as those in B’chukotai, as forms of prayer: these are the things that people hoped for, even willed to happen, in their longing for a world in which justice would visibly prevail. Perhaps this parashah is telling us, in its own theological language, that there is a moral order to the universe that is intrinsically connected to the natural order of the universe–and that the two orders are mutually dependent. In these teachings, it is as if God gives humankind every opportunity to discern that human action is intrinsic, and essential, to the proper functioning of the cosmos. Over and over again, the Torah enjoins us to act, to do, and to be because we “were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt” (Deuteronomy 6:21), because we “know the feelings of the stranger” (Exodus 23:9), and through these experiences have been given the opportunity to glimpse this truth. This is why we were chosen to bear witness to God’s revelation that “I, your God יהוה, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). We are created in God’s image and we, as God’s partners, were chosen for a sacred task. This is our heritage and our responsibility; this is what it means to complete the work of Creation. But what if we forget, neglect, or ignore our sacred task of following the commandments?

The catalogue of threats and promises is a biblical way to explain how intimate the connection of the natural realm of the universe is to the moral realm. The two realms do not function independently of each other. There is a moral order to the universe as surely as there is a more easily observable natural order of “rains in their season.”

And it is in the moral realm where God cannot function alone. God never could–and so kept looking for partners. What did we expect of a God who created the natural universe? That the moral dimension was an afterthought? Our sages believed it pre-existed. God did not neglect the moral realm. On the contrary, humankind did. God kept expecting humankind to behave morally and was constantly disappointed–with Adam, with Noah, with the generations after the Flood. Finally, God found Abraham, the person who engaged God as an equal on ethical ground: “Must not the Judge of all the earth do justly?” (Genesis 18:25), and the process of Revelation began.

The essential unity of all aspects of God’s Creation appears as well in Lurianic Kabbalah’s formulation of the universe. Isaac Luria’s theory of Sh’virat Hakeilim (Shattering of the Vessels) seeks to explain the brokenness of our world, and to advance the means to restore it to its original unity. For Luria in the 16th century, it was the great cosmic shattering that had brought about our exile from God and from God’s Creation. Luria not only understood the primordial unity of God’s intention but also yearned for a return to it. In God’s promise of “rains in their season [and presence] in your midst,” Luria could see the opportunity for humankind to repair the world, to release the sparks, to play a role in the restoration of the universe through the performance of mitzvot.

In Judaism, the mystic does not seek to transcend or deny the material world. Rather, the mystic’s goal is the objective of this Torah portion: to restore the world, materially and spiritually, to a “single divine reality.” As Lawrence Fine describes that goal in his study of Luria, Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos (2003), it is the “dream that collective human effort can mend a broken world.” This is the vision of B’chukotai.

In these final verses of the book of Leviticus, God describes–in the most tactile, physical, understandable terms possible–the relationship between God’s Creation and humankind’s responsibility. It is simultaneously bribe and promise, exhortation and encouragement. At the foundation of it all is the essential understanding of Torah: the physical and ethical dimensions of God’s Creation are wholly dependent upon each other, and we ignore that relationship at our peril. There is no quid pro quo for individuals in the world–God’s scheme is far grander and more subtle than that. The issue is not one of personal reward and punishment. It is the unity of God, the unity of the prophetic vision as rendered in the Reform liturgy: “On that day, all the world shall be One and God’s name shall be One” (Zechariah 14:9). It is the ultimate fulfillment of Torah–as expressed in Leviticus 26:46: “These are the laws, rules, and torot that יהוה established beino uvein b’nei Yisrael (in relationship with the Children of Israel).” This is the partnership that must one day bring about the fulfillment of our hopes, dreams, and strivings–the sparks released as heaven and earth, heart and mind and soul are united at last.

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 39 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 tish’ah ush’loshim yom, shehëm chamishah shavu’ot v’arba’ah la‘Ómer/ba‘Ómer.”

“Today is 39 days, which is five 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 sixth chapter.

From Sefaria.org https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_Avot.6

11: Whatever the Holy Blessed One created in His world, he created only for His glory, as it is said: “All who are linked to My name, whom I have created, formed and made for My glory” (Isaiah 43:7), And it says: “The Lord shall reign for ever and ever” (Exodus 15:18).

Said Rabbi Hananiah ben Akashya: It pleased the Holy Blessed One to grant merit to Israel, that is why He gave them Torah and commandments in abundance, as it is said, “The Lord was pleased for His righteousness, to make Torah great and glorious” (Isaiah 42:21).

YOM YERUSHALAYIM / יוֹם יְרוּשָׁלַיִם

From Hebcal.com https://www.hebcal.com/holidays/yom-yerushalayim

Yom Yerushalayim for Hebrew Year 5784 begins at sundown on Tuesday, 4 June 2024 and ends at nightfall on Wednesday, 5 June 2024. Jerusalem Day … is an Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City in June 1967. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel declared Jerusalem Day a minor religious holiday to thank G-d for victory in the Six-Day War and for answering the 2,000-year-old prayer of “Next Year in Jerusalem”.

ROSH CHODESH SIVAN / רֹאשׁ חוֹדֶשׁ סִיוָן

Rosh Chodesh Sivan for Hebrew Year 5784 begins at sundown on Thursday, 6 June 2024 and ends at nightfall on Friday, 7 June 2024. Start of month of Sivan on the Hebrew calendar. Sivan (סִיוָן) is the 3rd month of the Hebrew year, has 30 days,

PRAYERS

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

ROSH CHODESH SIVAN – 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, 24 Iyar through 1 Sivan, we lovingly remember:

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 31, 2024. Please see the NEW Torah Study-Shazoom schedule below. THIS week we will finish 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 3-4

Time: May 31, 2024 06:00 PM Arizona

and/or

Shazoom – Erev Shabbat Service

Time: May 31, 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!

-Ruben

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