Shabbat Parashat Ha’azinu
Shabbat Shuvah
September 11, 2010 ~ 3 Tishrei 5771
Rabbi Matthew Field
Hazzan Martin Leubitz
Rabbi Sarah Freidson-King
Friday, September 10 ~ 2 Tishri 5771
. Candle Lighting 7:11 PM
. Kabbalat Shabbat (Chapel) 6:00 PM
Saturday,September 11 ~ 3 Tishri 5771
. Morning Service 9:00 AM
. Torah: Deuteronomy 32:1-52 Page: 1185
. Haftarah: Hosea 14:2-10, Joel 2:15-27 Page: 1234
. Mincha………………………………………………..……7:20 PM
. Havdalah……………………………………………..……8:09 PM
The flowers on the bima were donated by the family of Lynn, Charles, Michelle, and Aaron Mills.
Weekday Services
Shaharit:
. Sunday 8:30 AM
. Monday - Friday 7:30 AM (bagels to follow)
Ma’ariv:
. Sunday-Friday 6:00 PM
Are you interested in…
Teaching or volunteering at the Religious School ?
Please contact Eleanor Lewin
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/ 473-1190
Shabbat Usher Program
If you are interesting in volunteering to be part of our Shabbat Usher program, please contact Joel Shertok at
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. We are trying for a 5-6 week rotation sequence.
TIKKUN OLAM: THE TEMPLE BETH EL FAMILY HELPING THOSE IN NEED
Weekday servers are also needed to serve breakfast Tuesday – Friday 6:30 – until 9:30 AM (or leave sooner to get to work) – whatever fits best in your schedule at Asbury.
Please contact Barbara Waldman to register (
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or 473-1770 X119).
NEW MEMBER OPEN HOUSE
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH, 2-4 PM
Please join us at the home of Rabbi Matt & Rachel Field for wine and cheese. Our clergy, Temple officers, senior staff and other Temple Beth El families look forward to this opportunity to meet the newest members of our Temple family.
RSVP to the Temple Office at 473-1770.
PIZZA IN THE HUT
Tuesday, September 28TH
5:00 p.m.
Temple Beth El
$6 each, $30 maximum per nuclear family
Join with us as we celebrate Sukkot together.
Pizza, salad, drinks and dessert all taste much better in the Sukkah!
Please be sure to make your reservations by September 20th and send it to the TBE School Office. The form may be found in the High Holiday book.
First Friday programs
Mark the First Friday of every month on your calendar as the Temple Beth El family comes together for a special celebration of Shabbat.
Beginning in October, we will bring increased ruach to one of Temple Beth El’s unique Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat services on the First Friday of the month. First Friday services will begin at 6 pm and include Friday Night Live, Friday Night Soul and some other live surprises.
October 8th, (Scheduled for October 8th because October 1st is Simchat Torah)
November 5th, December 3rd, January 7th, February 4th, March 4th, April 1st, May 6th, & June 3rd.
SAVE THE DATE
Hazak Group
Date: Sunday, October 10, 2010
Time: 12 noon
Cruise the Erie Canal on the Colonial Belle
Leaving from Packets Landing in Fairport Village
Return to Temple Beth El for a late lunch and a sing-a-long with Hazzan Martin Leubitz and Lisa Kasdin
Cost $18.00 per person
Cruise and box lunch
Keshet Preschool
…is down to only a very few spaces left for new students!
Please call Randi [473-1190 x121] or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for registration information!
Don't delay and miss all of the fun!
COME LEARN AND PLAY IN A JEWISH WAY
COMMENTARY ON THIS WEEK'S TORAH PORTION
By Stephen Garfinkel, Assistant Professor of Bible, Dean of The Graduate School, and Dean of Academic Affairs, JTS
Poetry is the soul of religion. This week on the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Shabbat Shuvah (the Sabbath of Repentance), we will experience the power of exquisite poetry in both the Torah reading, Parashat Ha'azinu, and the special Haftarah excerpted from the prophetic books of three so–called minor prophets, Hosea, Micah, and Joel. (They are minor only in length, but their messages are no less incisive than their much wordier counterparts.)
It is entirely fitting that the poem of Ha'azinu is the reading for this week of our renewed focus on repentance. It recognizes the continuing pattern of ancient Israel, a pattern continued to our own times. Despite God's immeasurable kindnesses to the people throughout their history as a nation, it was assumed that they would again be disloyal to God in the future. God intended to punish Israel severely but then (perhaps remembering the lesson Moses taught God after the molten calf apostasy incident of Exodus chapter 32) decided to minimize the punishment. The reason for that divine change of heart was, as we ascertain by overhearing both sides of God's internal dialogue, so the other nations would not mistake Israel's impending suffering for God's weakness. That theology echoes succinctly in the liturgy of Avinu Malkenu: "'asei lema'ankhah 'im lo' lema'aneinu. Forgive us, O God, for Your sake, if not for our own." We will use any ploy that results in merciful treatment, even if not fully deserved. In our own defense, however, we do so with the liturgical insight that God wants to be merciful; in the words of the High Holiday Mahzor, God is "the King who desires life" for us.
The Torah reading is quite short. The poem is only forty–three verses, taking advantage of a central element of poetry, the ability to incorporate and interweave many complex themes and images into just a few lines. The poem is immediately followed by three verses in which Moses exhorts the people to heed everything he has taught them. The Torah, he explains, is no small matter: it has the potential to guide their very lives. With that, Moses is told by God that the day of his death has arrived. He will be able to offer a farewell blessing and will then die after viewing the land of Canaan, but only from a distance. (One wonders whether the announcement here of Moses' impending death might also hint at guidance for the penitent: do what you can, even if you cannot be assured of experiencing the final success of your efforts.)
In its poetic language and imagery, the Haftarah continues the theme of repentance, with its powerful opening words: "Shuvah yisrael, Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God." Recounting several themes of the Torah reading, the prophet Hosea reminds the people that the successes they have enjoyed are from God, neither exclusively of their own making nor resulting from the political alliances they had courted with Assyria. God's anger, the people are assured, will be assuaged, and God will eagerly take them back in love. God will continue to provide sustenance and support for them and will be like the dew, softly and gently enabling their produce and prosperity. (A similar image at the beginning of the Torah reading portrays Moses' words, too, like the dew, soft and refreshing.)
The next segment of the Haftarah, from the book of Joel, adds action to rhetoric. The people are told to sound the shofar, to sanctify a fast, and to proclaim an assembly day. Everyone, from old to young, is asked to join in pleading for God's forgiveness and protection, after which God succumbs to their supplications. God promises renewed abundance. Even more, God assures that they will no longer be embarrassed or shamed by other nations. Repentance will succeed, leading to fertility and dignity for the nation, and they will be back in God's good graces.
The final component of the Haftarah (although not all communities include all three sections) is from the prophet Micah who asks, rhetorically, what other deity is like God, forgiving the people's transgressions? Not only does God forgive, God takes the people back in love. Their relationship is renewed and strengthened. Even if future wrongdoing leads to future punishment — as seems to be inevitable with the Israelites and with us, the inheritors of their foibles and faith — the people's relationship with God is guaranteed into the future. That guarantee was promised long ago, in ancient times. And so the Haftarah completes the cycle with a beginning assumption of the week's Torah reading. God's generous and forgiving nature goes all the way back, to the beginnings of the nation as God's people.
No matter what our theological stance in understanding the compelling metaphorical language describing God, all the readings for this Shabbat underscore an essential reciprocity between God and the people. The basic pattern of biblical poetry, making a point by repeating it in slightly different words, and even the way this parashah is written — in two parallel columns — emphasize that notion of reciprocity. Our sincere repentance will lead to divine forgiveness, support, and love. God, too, will repent for any plans to bring punishment if we undertake our part of the reconciliation.
The message of Shabbat Shuvah is clear. Return. Come back. God is eager to meet us more than half way. Yet even if we have doubts about God's actions, our own behavior can put us back on the right path. Listen to the poetry and move to its cadence.
Shabbat Shalom
Shabbat Parah
This study piece was prepared by Rabbi Mordechai Silverstein, senior lecturer in Talmud and Midrash at the Conservative Yeshiva.
Ezekiel's prophecy, in this week's haftarah, may be one of comfort, but this does not mean that it affirms God's love for His people. Instead, it expresses God's profound disappointment with them. Their sins caused them to be exiled and their exile caused God profound embarrassment among the nations. In order to restore God's lost dignity, their exile had to end but there is no sense in Ezekiel's message in this prophecy that the people had the ability to transform themselves so that they might be worthy of being returned from exile. For this to happen, God would have to initiate the change: "And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit into you: I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh; and I will put My spirit into you. Thus I will cause you to follow My laws and faithfully to observe My rules." (verses 26-7)
This radical human transformation is symbolically represented as a "change of heart". A "heart of stone" is a symbol of human obstinacy while a "heart of flesh" signifies a person's willingness to follow in God's ways. Still, Ezekiel denied the human ability to alter his obstinate nature. If change would occur, God would be its agent. (see R. Kasher, Ezekiel, Mikra L'Yisrael, p. 704)
Ezekiel viewed this transformation as a national one. The author of the ethical midrash, Eliahu Rabbah (~ 9th century CE) turns Ezekiel's message inward, seeing in it the God-given means by which each person struggles to overcome the forces within him which might lead him astray: "'And I will give you a new heart' – this refers to the inclination to do good. 'and put a new spirit into you' – these are good deeds. 'I will remove the heart of stone from your body' – this refers to the inclination to do evil. 'And I will give you a heart of flesh' – to perform the words of Torah. (Seder Eliahu Rabbah ch. 4, Ish Shalom ed. p. 19)
The sages envisioned a struggle which exists in each of us between two forces: the yetzer ha tov – the inclination to do good and the yetzer hara – the inclination to do evil. Since it is not difficult for the yetzer hara to get the upper hand and "enslave us", each of us needs God's assistance, at times, to overcome it and free us from its chains.
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