TORAH READING FOR 20 AV 5784 August 23-24, 2024

August 23, 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/eikev

Eikev (עֵקֶב – Hebrew for “If” or “[And if You] Obey [These Rules]”) – Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25

And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the Eternal your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant made on oath with your fathers. – Deuteronomy 7:12

SUMMARY

Moses tells the Israelites that if they follow God’s laws, the nations who now dwell across the Jordan River will not harm them. (7:12–26)
Moses reminds the people of the virtues of keeping God’s commandments. He also tells them that they will dispossess those who now live in the Land only because they are idolatrous, not because the Israelites are uncommonly virtuous. Thereupon, Moses reviews all of the trespasses of the Israelites against God. (8:1–10:11)
Moses says that the Land of Israel will overflow with milk and honey if the people obey God’s commandments and teach them to their children. (10:12–11:25)

HAFTARAH

Isaiah 49:14-51:3

This is the second of seven haftarot of consolation leading up to the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which this year begins the evening of Wednesday, October 2, 2024. This haftarah corresponds to Parashat ‘Ëkev.

RECOMMENDED READING

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

Are We There Yet?

By: Rabbi Sari Laufer

STRUGGLING WITH TORAH and REFLECTION

Through September 6, 2024, 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 Proverbs (משלי – Mishlëi), which is found in Ketuvim (Writings). Read this week’s Torah Portion at https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.7.12-11.25, and Haftarah at https://www.sefaria.org/Isaiah.49.14-51.3.

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

עקב Eikev – Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25

Contemporary Reflection – Malka Drucker, pp. 1110-1

SCRIPTURE DESCENDS to speak to us, using metaphor to reveal the holy. In parashat Eikev, we find references to the “mighty hand and the outstretched arm” by which God liberated the Israelites from Egypt (7:19). When the Torah uses the human body as a code to decipher God, we glimpse through ourselves the presence of the One in whose image we are created. Knowing that God is incorporeal, some find such physical descriptions of God inadequate and turn to the natural world. Thus we may imagine God as a rock (hatzur, as in 32:4), as dew (Hosea 14:6), or as a spring of living water (Jeremiah 17:13). Nevertheless, if we look closely at the corporeal imagery in parashat Eikev, we discover that its imagery hints at the luminous potentiality of our bodies to experience God.

The portion begins, “And if (eikev) you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, your God יהוה will maintain faithfully for you the covenant” (7:12). Why is the term eikev (here translated as “if”) used to introduce the conditional clause, instead of a word more commonly employed for that purpose (such as im or ki)? The unusual language that begins our parashah invites the early medieval commentator Rashi to engage in word play, linking eikev to the noun akeiv (“heel”). Rashi writes that if we heed even minor commandments that are easy to trample over with our heels (in other words, commandments that we are likely to treat lightly), then God will keep the promises given to our ancestors. Read in this manner, the portion opens with a warning about not allowing thick skin to divert us from the path on which we walk toward God. Like Moses who takes off his sandals to experience holiness emanating from the earth, so we too are called to remove all barriers between God and ourselves.

The next verse states, “[God] will favor you and bless you and multiply you–blessing your issue of the (literally: your) womb” (7:13). What is interesting here is that the Hebrew wording is all in the masculine singular. Are men imagined as having wombs, or more darkly, as owning women’s wombs? Perhaps we can generously understand the verse as a suggestion that empathy can allow anyone to feel the blessing of a full womb. We know God first as the Creator, the womb of the world. The organ that nurtures potential life may be found in only half the population, yet the Torah suggests that both men and women celebrate pregnancy and birth.

If we accept this idea, then women can look at a later verse in our parashah that speaks in an unequivocally male metaphor and not feel excluded. Although our translation reads, “Cut away…the thickening about your hearts” (10:16), a more literal translation of the verse is, “Circumcise…the foreskin of your heart.” In other words, remove that which obstructs your heart and keeps you from following God’s teachings; open yourself up to experiencing “the great, the mighty, and the awesome God” (10:17). The foreskin in this expression can be likened to the thick skin on our feet that keeps us from feeling our connection to the Holy most intimately. Women and men alike can have a heart that is tender, loving, and open to the Divine, not just those who have literally been circumcised.

The metaphor that calls for a naked heart may help us to understand a deeper reason for the mysterious–and frankly disturbing–ritual of b’rit milah (circumcision). Native American and Mayan beliefs align with Kabbalah in understanding the left side of the body as feminine and the right as masculine. Since the heart rests on the left side, circumcising the heart brings feminine energies into play. Would the addition of a circumcised heart bring into a balance the masculine and feminine energies? Perhaps the metaphor found in parashat Eikev hints that the purpose of the ritual is to remind both men and women to keep the heart tender, for this is not only a woman’s quality.

The circumcised heart is not gender specific. All of us are called to bring forth creative and nurturing energy within ourselves and to act with an empathic heart. Some say that the reason girls do not have an equivalent physical ritual to b’rit milah is that they are born circumcised, the implication being that they are born with unveiled hearts. B’rit milah, then, becomes a spiritual catch-up for boys to approach the open-hearted potential of girls.

Being a mother of sons, I have trouble with this explanation, yet we know that women walk through the world with circumcised hearts by their very place in many cultures. They reveal themselves because they often have less power and therefore less to lose. When we think of the hardened, calloused heel that feels little under it, experience shows that women do not have the luxury of stepping without looking carefully. Every misstep becomes a reason for others to keep us back; it becomes an accusation of our iniquity or incompetence.

Rabbi David Mark sees b’rit milah in a broadened mythic context when he compares the phallus to the ancient symbol that the Greeks called ouroboros, the mystical snake that rolls through eternity with its tail in its mouth. He asserts that removing the foreskin from the phallus is like when the snake–a symbol of eternal life–sheds its skin. As a result, through the act of b’rit milah, we incorporate God’s promise of eternal life for the Jewish people directly into the male organ of reproduction. When applied to parashat Eikev, this interpretation helps us to see that a circumcised heart, possible for all of us, allows for growth and expansion, and provides a model for sloughing off gratuitous, constraining defenses.

Torah gives us a language that speaks beyond the physical world and gender. Both women and men embody God in their ordinary lived experience. Just as when we are in danger or despair we reach for another person to lift us up, so we understand that God is reaching for us with an outstretched arm to free us from slavery. In our female and male bodies we find God, and in this discovery we know ourselves to be more than physical beings. All of us are called upon to be creative, transparent, and loving before God.

PRAYERS

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 – El Na R’fa Na Lah!

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, 20 Av through 26 Av, we lovingly remember:

Gene Connors

Friend of Jane Kolber

Diane Levine

Mother of Lisa Levine and Joe Levine

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, August 23, 2024. Please see the NEW Torah Study-Shazoom schedule below. THIS week we will start studying the Book of Proverbs (משלי – Mishlëi), which is found in the Ketuvim (Writings). Besides Ëshet Chayil, which passage(s) do you favor?

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 – Proverbs

Time: Aug 23, 2024 06:00 PM Arizona

and/or

Shazoom – Erev Shabbat Service

Time: Aug 23, 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 – Gut Shabbos!

-Ruben

PS – About Proverbs (משלי – Mishlëi) and the NEW schedule through October 2024: