Candle Welcome to the DAT Minyan! Lighting (earliest) 3:37p Shabbat Vayishlach (latest) 4:18p December 14, 2019 - 16 5780 Joseph Friedman, | Mark Raphaely, President Havdalah 5:21p

Shabbat Schedule D’var with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (All services take place in the BMH-BJ Fisher Hall, One fact about this week’s parsha has long perplexed the commentators. After his wrestling match with the unnamed adversary, Jacob was told: “Your name shall no 560 S. Monaco Pkwy) longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings Divine and human, and Please help make our prayer service more meaningful have prevailed” (Gen. 32:29, JPS translation). Or “Your name will no longer be said to be Jacob, but Israel. You have become great (sar) before God and man. You have by refraining from talking during the service. won.” (Aryeh Kaplan translation). This change of name takes place not once but twice. After the encounter with Esau, FRIDAY and the episode of Dina and Shechem, God told Jacob to go to Beth El. Then we read: “After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed 4:20 pm: Mincha / Kabbalat Shabbat / Maariv him. God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.’ So He named him Israel” (Gen. 35:9-10). (Shema should be recited after 5:21 pm) Note, first, that this is not an adjustment of an existing name by the change or addition SHABBAT of a letter, as when God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, or Sarai’s to Sarah. It is an entirely new name, as if to signal that what it represents is a complete change of Parasha: Page 170 / Haftarah: Page 1141 character. Second, as we have seen, the name change happened not once but twice. Third – and this is the puzzle of puzzles – having said twice that his name will no longer be Jacob, the Torah continues to call him Jacob. God Himself does so. So do we, every 7:50 am: Hashkama Minyan time we pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How so, when the Torah twice tells us that his name will no longer be Jacob? 8:20 am: Daf Yomi Radak suggests that “your name will no longer be called Jacob” means, “your name will 8:30 am Tefillah Warm-up with Ellyn Hutt no longer only be called Jacob.” You will have another name as well. This is ingenious, but hardly the plain sense of the verse. Sforno says, “In the Messianic Age, your name 9:00 am: Shacharit, with drasha by Rabbi Dr. will no longer be called Jacob.” This, too, is difficult. The future tense, as used in the Torah, means the near future, not the distant one, unless explicitly specified. Darrell Ginsberg following Musaf This is just one mystery among many when it comes to Jacob’s character and his (Shema should be recited before 9:33 am) relationship with his brother Esau. So difficult is it to understand the stories about them that, to make sense of them, they have been overlaid in Jewish tradition with a thick layer of that makes Esau almost perfectly evil and Jacob almost perfectly Kiddush is sponsorsed by the Berkow and Gorlin righteous. There is a clear need for such Midrash, for educational purposes. Esau and families in honor of this morning’s Brit Milah of Jacob, as portrayed in the Torah, are too nuanced and complex to be the subject of simple moral lessons for young minds. So Midrash gives us a world of black and white, the new son born to Alexis and Yoni Gorlin last as Maharatz Chajes explained. Shabbat The biblical text itself, though, is far more subtle. It does not state that Esau is bad and Jacob is good. Rather, it shows that they are two different kinds of human being. The 2:55 pm: HS Boys’ Gemara Class will meet with contrast between them is like the one made by Nietzsche between the Greek figures of Nathan Rabinovitch at the Rabinovitch home Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo represents reason, logic, order, self-control; Dionysus stands for emotion, passion, nature, wildness and chaos. Apollonian cultures value 3:15 pm: Women’s Book Club meets in the restraint and modesty; Dionysian ones go for ostentation and excess. Jacob is Library to discuss Ellyn Hutt’s new book, “Living Apollonian, Esau, Dionysiac. in the Present Moment” Or it may be that Esau represents the Hunter, considered a hero in many ancient cultures, but not so in the Torah, which represents the agrarian and pastoral ethic of farmers and shepherds. With the transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer-and- 4:15 pm: Mincha followed by Seudah Shlisheet herdsman, the Hunter is no longer a hero and instead is seen as a figure of violence, especially when combined, as in the case of Esau, with a mercurial temperament. It is 5:21 pm: Maariv / Havdalah not so much that Esau is bad and Jacob good, but that Esau represents the world that was, while Jacob represents, if sometimes tentatively and fearfully, a new world about 6:05 pm: Mish Mosh to be brought into being, whose spirituality would be radically different, new and challenging. —————————————————— The fact that Jacob and Esau were twins is fundamental. Their relationship is one of the Weekday Schedule classic cases of sibling rivalry. Key to understanding their story is what Rene Girard (Weekday services Sunday through Friday morning called mimetic desire: the desire to have what someone else has, because they have it. take place at DAT School, 6825 E. Alameda Ave.) Ultimately, this is the desire to be someone else. That is what the name Jacob signifies. It is the name he acquired because he was born SHACHARIT holding on to his brother Esau’s heel. That was consistently his posture during the key events of his early life. He bought his brother’s birthright. He wore his Sunday: 8:00 am (Continued on Page 2) Monday and Thursday: 6:30 am Payments of any outstanding balances on your shul account older than Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday: 6:35 am December 1, 2019 are due before the end of the year. Please also consider supporting our programs and mission by making a tax-deductible year-end MINCHA/MAARIV donation. Payments may be made through our website or by calling the Sunday through Friday: 4:20 pm shul office. DAT Minyan is a dynamic and friendly Modern Orthodox for all ages and dedicated to meaningful personal spiritual development, community growth, youth involvement, Torah education, and Religious . DAT Minyan - 560 S. Monaco Pkwy., Denver, CO 80224 - 720-941-0479 - www.datminyan.org D’VAR TORAH CONTINUED

Rabbi Sacks (Continued from Page 1) brother’s clothes. At his mother’s request, he took his brother’s blessing. When asked by his father, “Who are you, my son?” He replied, “I am Esau, your firstborn.” Jacob was the man who wanted be Esau. Why so? Because Esau had one thing he did not have: his father’s love. “Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebecca loved Jacob.” All that changed in the great wrestling match between Jacob and the unknown stranger. Our Sages teach us that this stranger was an angel in disguise. After they fight, he tells Jacob that his name would now be Israel. The stated explanation of this name is: “for you have wrestled with God and with man and have prevailed.” It also resonates with two other senses. Sar means “prince, royalty.” Yashar means “upright.” Both of these are in sharp contrast with the name “Jacob,” one who “holds on to his brother’s heel.” How then are we to understand what, first the stranger, then God, said to Jacob? Not as a statement, but as a request, a challenge, an invitation. Read it not as, “You will no longer be called Jacob but Israel.” Instead read it as, “Let your name no longer be Jacob but Israel,” meaning, “Act in such a way that this is what people call you.” Be a prince. Be royalty. Be upright. Be yourself. Don’t long to be someone else. This would turn out to be a challenge not just then but many times in the Jewish future. Often, have been content to be themselves. But from time to time, they have come into contact with a civilisation whose intellectual, cultural and even spiritual sophistication was undeniable. It made them feel awkward, inferior, like a villager who comes to a city for the first time. Jews lapsed into the condition of Jacob. They wanted to be someone else. The first time we hear this is in the words of the Prophet Ezekiel: “You say, ‘We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone.’ But what you have in mind will never happen” (Ez. 20:32). In Babylon, the people encountered an impressive empire whose military and economic success contrasted radically with their own condition of exile and defeat. Some wanted to stop being Jews and become someone else, anyone else. We hear it again in the days of the Greeks. Some Jews became Hellenised. We recognise that in the names of High Priests like Jason and Menelaus. The battle against this is the story of Chanukah. Something similar happened in the days of Rome. Josephus was one of those who went over to the other side, though he remained a defender of . It happened again during the Enlightenment. Jews fell in love with European culture. With philosophers like Kant and Hegel, poets like Goethe and Schiller, and musicians like Mozart and Beethoven. Some were able to integrate this with faithfulness to Judaism as creed and deed – figures like Samson Raphael Hirsch and Nehemiah Nobel. But some did not. They left the fold. They changed their names. They hid their identity. None of us is entitled to be critical of what they did. The combined impact of intellectual challenge, social change, and incendiary , was immense. Yet this was a Jacob response, not an Israel one. It is happening today in large swathes of the Jewish world. Jews have overachieved. Judaism, with some notable exceptions, has underachieved. There are Jews at or near the top of almost every field of human endeavour today, but all too many have either abandoned their religious heritage or are indifferent to it. For them, being Jewish is a slender ethnicity, too thin to be transmitted to the future, too hollow to inspire. We have waited so long for what we have today and have never had simultaneously before in all of : independence and sovereignty in the state of Israel, freedom and equality in the diaspora. Almost everything that a hundred generations of our ancestors prayed for has been given to us. Will we really (in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s phrase) throw away our shot? Will we be Israel? Or will we show, to our shame, that we have not yet outlived the name of Jacob, the person who wanted to be someone else? Jacob was often fearful because he was not sure who he wanted to be, himself or his brother. That is why God said to him, “Let your name not be Jacob but Israel.” When you are afraid, and unsure of who you are, you are Jacob. When you are strong in yourself, as yourself, you are Israel. The fact that the Torah and tradition still use the word Jacob, not just Israel, tells us that the problem has not disappeared. Jacob seems to have wrestled with this throughout his life, and we still do today. It takes courage to be different, a minority, countercultural. It’s easy to live for the moment like Esau, or to “be like the peoples of the world” as Ezekiel said. I believe the challenge issued by the angel still echoes today. Are we Jacob, embarrassed by who we are? Or are we Israel, with the courage to stand upright and walk tall in the path of faith? Shabbat shalom. This Day in Jewish History - 14 Dec / 16 Kislev  December 14, 164 BCE (3597) - After a three-year battle led to free the Jews of Jerusalem from the Syrian occupying forces led by Antiochus IV, Judah Maccabee and his four brothers succeed in recapturing the desecrated Holy Temple and restoring it for Jewish worship. We, of course, celebrate this event as Chanukah, according to its date of the 25th of Kislev. Though the battle was begun under the leadership of Jewish priest Mattathias the Hasmonean, Judah assumed leadership of the Maccabean tribe when Mattathias died one year into the battle.  16 Kislev 5564 (1803) - Rabbi Avraham Danzig, author of the work of Jewish law dealing with the Shulchan Orach known as Chayei Adam, survives an explosion and fire that destroys his home and many others in his neighborhood. Though his entire family was in a room whose walls collapsed, everyone survived. As a result of their miraculous escape, Rabbi Danzig established the date as a Yom Tov for all of his future descendants.  December 14, 1819 - Alabama becomes the 22nd state to join the Union, and continued to grow through the efforts of a limited number of early Jewish settlers to the state. Jewish merchant Abram Mordecai, who moved to Alabama from Philadelphia in 1785, is credited by some with the founding of Montgomery, the state capital. The first synagogue in Alabama was formed in Mobile in 1844, and a second congregation was founded in Montgomery in 1852.  December 14, 1952 - “Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl,” is first broadcast to the world as a radio drama, written by journalist Meyer Levin. Levin had visited the concentration camps after the war and contacted Anne’s father, Otto Frank, to request rights to create a play based on the Diary of Anne Frank, which was first published as a book five years earlier. The broadcast took place on NBC and was produced by the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service. DAT MINYAN NEWS, EVENTS AND MILESTONES

 Mazal Tov to new parents Alexis and Yoni Gorlin on the birth of their son last Shabbat! Denver grandparents are Lisa and Steven Berkow and Atlanta grandparents are Rabbi Shai and Dr. Paula Gorlin. A Shalom Zachor will be held Friday evening, 8:15 pm at the home of Ahron and Rifky Katz, 602 S. Magnolia St. The Brit Milah will take place following this week’s Shabbat services.  Welcome to Rabbi Dr. Darrell Ginsberg, Rosh of Yeshivat Migdal Hatorah in Israel, who joins us this Shabbat to deliver the drasha following Musaf.  Consider volunteering to lein on Shabbat! The sign-up website is www.datminyan.org/laining. Slots are open from now through mid-January. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS  Merkaz Torah Vchesed announces its Pirchei Shabbos afternoon groups program for boys in 1st to 8th grades. The program meets every other Shabbos afternoon at the Jewish Experience approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes prior to Mincha. To register, contact Rabbi Ribakow at 720-358-5383 or [email protected].  The community is invited to kddush at EDOS on December 21st, sponsored by Sharon Kaplan and family in memory of former DAT Minyan member Burton Kaplan on his first yahrzeit and in gratitude to the community for its continued kindness and friendship during times of joy and sorrow.  Jewish in the City invites the community to a Chaunkah celebration with government officials on the west steps of the State Capitol, 5:00 pm, Monday, December 23rd. The event features a live DJ, barbecue dinner, fire show, fire breather, super hero breakdancers, Chanukah gelt and doughnuts. RSVP at Jewishinthecity.org .  SAVE-THE-DATE, Thursday, December 26th, for a community Grand Chanukah Celebration, 5:00 pm at Urban Air Addventure Park in Littleton. For reservations, visit: www.chabadcolorado.com/chanukah or call: 303-329-0213 .  The Cell presents the critically acclaimed film “Kids: Chasing Paradise,” Tuesday, January 14th, 7:00 pm at the Alamo Drafthouse. 7301 S. Santa Fe Dr., Unit #850, in Littleton. The film deals with the radicalization of children andthe extraordinary activists who are dedicated to saving them. The presentation features a post-film discussion with Executive Producer Raphael Shore. Tickets available online at https://tinyurl.com/KidsChasingParadise .  The Arevim Taskforce announces their Community Awareness event, January 23, 2020 at Zera Abraham, 1560 Winona Ct., from 8:00 to 9:30 pm, entitled “Children in Chaos: When Parents and Leaders no Longer Matter.” The Guest speaker is Rabbi Naphtali Hoff, PsyD, President, Impactful Coaching & Consulting, speaking on the topic “How to Assert Parental Authority Without Being Authoritative.”

DAT Minyan acknowledges the following milestones* of our members this Shabbat and in the coming week:

Alex Amchislavskiy, Marc Avner, Irit Bean, Eli Benel, Ahron Katz, George Khavasov, Willa Moskowitz, Alan Pomeranz, Molly Schoenberger, Sarah Mae Schoenberger

Moish Pomeranz, Tue., 12/17/19 (19 Kislev)

*These details were obtained from the DAT Minyan database, which contains information provided by the members when they joined. We apologize for any omissions or errors. For changes, please log on to your account and update the information as needed, or contact the synagogue office at 720-941-0479. THANK YOU FOR INSPIRING FUTURE GENERATIONS WITH YOUR GENEROSITY We would like to thank our Legacy Society donors for investing in our You can add your name to this list with a legacy gift to the DAT future by naming the DAT Minyan with a gift in their will, trust, Minyan. To arrange for your gift or for more information about our retirement account or life insurance policy. Our Legacy Society Legacy Society program, please contact any of the following includes: Committee Members: Rob Allen, Myndie Brown, Sarah Raphaely or Steve Weiser. Rob Allen

Graeme and Irit Bean Myndie Brown Steve and Ellyn Hutt Nathan and Rachel Rabinovitch Mark and Sarah Raphaely Harley and Sara Rotbart Michael Stutzer Steve and Lori Weiser

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service. DAT MINYAN NEWS, EVENTS AND MILESTONES

Learning Opportunities @ the DAT Minyan • Kitzur : Daily, after Shacharit

• Daf Yomi (30 min): after Shacharit on Sun through

Fri , and 8:20 am on Shabbat

• Mishnayot: Daily, between Mincha and Maariv Yasher Koach Rabbi Friedman! • “Short & Sweet Class” (30 min-never longer): Representing both the Colorado Air National Guard and the DAT Minyan, our own Rabbi Friedman was honored as a participant with Governor Wed, 9:20 am, DAT Minyan offices at BMH-BJ (men only) Polis in lighting the Chanukah menorah last week at the State Capitol.

JOIN OUR MINYAN ATTENDANCE CAMPAIGN Important Security Reminder

One of the foundations of the DAT Minyan has always been our daily morning and afternoon minyanim. In recent times, we For the safety and security of everyone attending the often find ourselves struggling to maintain the 10-men quorum we need for our daily services. Our commitment to our DAT Minyan, we ask that all children either be in members and to the community is to provide daily minyanim attendance at one of our childrens’ programs or with with the opportunity for anyone who needs to fulfill the obligation of saying Kaddish. To accomplish this, we needa parent AT ALL TIMES when in the building. Children commitments from our male members as to when they can may not be left unescorted to roam hallways or attend a daily minyan. If you have not already received a call from someone on our Ritual Committee asking you to make a attend BMH-BJ Shabbat and High Holiday programs minyan attendance commitment, you will. Please participate and events unless accompanied by an adult. Thank as vigorously as you can. Committing to even one service a week can make a huge difference! You can also sign up toyou for your cooperation in this matter. participate online at www.datminyan.org/makeaminyan .

Refuah Shelayma Please include the following names in your prayers. May each be granted a Refuah Shelayma. Names are kept on the list until the next Rosh Chodesh. Help us keep the list accurate by verifying the necessary details each month on the Cholim Document at https://goo.gl/aeyJG2.

Bella bat Malka Michel ben Leah Eliyahu Chaim ha Cohen ben Sara Rifka Michoel Zisel ben Barbara Eliyahu Dovid ben Ita Sheiva Miriam bat Sarah Guy Chaim ben Rita Raphael Lior ben Miriam Leibel ben Harriet Reuven Yehoshua ben Nechama Levick Yitzchak ben Bracha Roshka bat Bryna Leya bat Sara Shimshon Raphael ben Eliya Mascha bat Rus Shmuel Aharon ben Jenny Mayer Benya ben Nechama Yonatan Zeev ben Netaa Mendel Ila ben Frida Miriam Yosef Yeshai ben Sarah YOUTH ANNOUNCEMENTS

Youth Group Program Guidelines 1. All children must be escorted to their appropriate group/room. 2. All children must stay with their group at all times. 3. All children must be picked up by a parent or adult relative. Children will not be allowed to leave with siblings. 4. Children that are not dropped off at groups must be supervised by their parent at all times. 5. A parent or appointed guardian must be present in the building the entire time that his/her child (ren) is/are in groups. 6. Rip boards, skateboards, scooters and the like may not be used in or around the building during shul hours.

Toy Donations to the Youth Program All teens are invited to join us for We accept new and like new toys, books and games. “Morning Motivation” this Shabbat, Please speak with Mor Shapiro at

[email protected] for further information. December 14th, 10:30 am in the Library Mish Mosh is BACK!

Our fun-filled motzei-Shabbat family program continues this Saturday evening at 6:05 pm in Fisher Hall

SHABBAT YOUTH GROUP PROGRAM SCHEDULE (subject to change)

3 yo - Kindergarten 1st-3rd Grade 4th-6th Grade 9:00 – 9:30 am Indoor Play 9:00 – 9:20 am Indoor Play 9:00 - 9:30 am Indoor Play 9:30 -10:00 am Outdoor Play 9:20 – 9:50 am Outdoor Play 9:30 - 10:05 am Outdoor Play 10:15 am Circle Time 10:00 am Davening 10:15 am Davening w/ R Estreicher Davening 10:20 am Kiddush Kiddush and Dvar 10:30 am Kiddush Parsha Torah Story Time, Games/ Games, etc Mussaf, Parsha Free Play Clean Up and Pick Up Games, etc. Clean Up and Pick Up

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service.