Parshat -Masei July 22, 2017 28 Tammuz, 5777 ARTSCROLL 900 Jonathan Sacks on Matot-Masei HERTZ 702 The book of Bamidbar Only now, right at the end of the Bamidbar is a book is about comes to a close that is book, does the Torah report on individuals. It begins with a very strange indeed. an event that arose directly from census, whose purpose is less HAFTORAH Earlier in the parsha of that case. Leaders of to tell us the actual number of ARTSCROLL 1193 Pinchas we read of how the Tzelophehad’s tribe, Menasheh, than to “lift” their HERTZ 725 five daughters of son of Joseph, came and made “heads”, the unusual locution Tzelophehad came to the following complaint. If the the Torah uses to convey the Shabbat Mevarchim Av with a claim based land were to pass to idea that when God orders a Molad is Sun. July on justice and human Tzelophehad’s daughters and census it is to tell the people 23rd at 11:00:14 pm rights. Their father had they married men from another that they each count. The died without sons. tribe, the land would eventually book also focuses on the Rosh Chodesh Inheritance – in this case, pass to their husbands, and thus psychology of individuals. We Menachem Av of a share in the land – to their husband’s tribes. Thus read of Moses’ despair, of Mon. July 24th passes through the male land that had initially been and Miriam’s criticism line, but here there was no granted to the tribe of Menasheh of him, of the spies who Times male line. Surely their might be lost to it in perpetuity. lacked the courage to come father was entitled to his Again, Moses took the case to back with a positive report, Candle Lighting 8:02 pm share, and they were his God, who offered a simple and of the malcontents, led only heirs. By rights that solution. The daughters of by , who challenged Mincha 7:00 pm share should come to Tzelophehad were entitled to the Moses’ leadership. We read of them: “Why should our land, but so too was the tribe. and , Eldad and Hashkama 8:00 am father’s name be Therefore, if they wish to take Medad, Datham and Aviram, Youth Minyan 8:30 am disadvantaged in his family possession of the land, they Zimri and Pinchas, and merely because he did not must marry men from within Bilam and others. This Parsha Shiur 8:30 am have a son? Give us a their own tribe. That way both emphasis on individuals portion of land along with claims could be honored. The reaches a climax in Moses’ Main 9:00 am our father’s daughters did not lose their right prayer to “God of the spirits Beit 9:15 am brothers” (Num. 27:4). to the land but they did lose of all flesh” to appoint a Moses had received no some freedom in choosing a successor – understood by Shiur 6:55 pm instruction about such an marriage partner. The two the sages and to mean, eventuality, so he asked passages are intimately related. appoint a leader who will deal Mincha 7:55 pm God directly. God found in They use the same terminology. with each individual as an favor of the women. “The individual, who will relate to Shabbos Ends 9:09 pm Both Tzelophehad’s daughters daughters of Tzelophehad and the leaders of the clan “draw people in their uniqueness Sun. July 23 7:30/8:30 am are right. You shall give near”. They use the same verb to and singularity. That is the them possession of an describe their potential loss: context of the claim of Mon. R. Chodesh 6:30/7:45 am inheritance among their yigara, “disadvantaged, Tzelophehad’s daughters. Tues. Wed. & Fri. 6:45/7:45 am father’s brothers and diminished”. God replies in both They were claiming their transfer the inheritance of cases with the same locution, rights as individuals. Justly Thurs. 6:35/7:45 am their father to them.” He “kein…dovrot/dovrim,” rightly do so. As many of the Mincha 8:00 pm gave Moses further they speak. Why then are the commentators pointed out, instructions about the two episodes separated in the the behavior of the women Latest Times for disposition of inheritance, text? Why does the book of throughout the wilderness Shema/Shemoneh Esrei and the narrative then Numbers end on this seemingly years was exemplary while July 22 9:21/10:34 am passes on to other anticlimactic note? And does it that of the men was the matters. have any relevance today? opposite. The men, not the July 29 9:24/10:37 am Next Shabbat Kiddush Seudah Shlishit is sponsored by is sponsored by Carol & Jeffrey Kaufman Candle Lighting 8:02 pm Great Neck Synagogue in memory of her father Frank Morgenstern z"l Mincha 7:00 pm 26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023 (516) 487-6100 Shabbat Announcements Matot-Masei 5777 women, gave gold for the golden calf. The spies were men: a A strong civil society is essential to freedom. That is why, famous comment by the Kli Yakar (R. Shlomo Ephraim alongside individual rights, a society must make space for Luntschitz, 1550–1619) suggests that had Moses sent women group identities. The classic instance of the opposite came in instead, they would have come back with a positive report. the wake of the French revolution. In the course of the debate Recognizing the justice of their cause, God affirmed their rights in the French Revolutionary Assembly in 1789, the Count of as individuals. Clermont-Tonnerre made his famous declaration, “To the as individuals, everything. To the Jews as a nation, nothing.” If But society is not built on individuals alone. As the book of they insisted on defining themselves as a nation, that is, as a Judges points out, individualism is another name for chaos: “In distinct subgroup within the republic, said the Count, “we shall those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was be compelled to expel them.” right in their own eyes.” Hence the insistence, throughout Bamidbar, on the central role of the tribes as the organizing Initially, this sounded reasonable. Jews were being offered civil principle of Jewish life. The Israelites were numbered tribe by rights in the new secular nation state. However, it was tribe. The Torah sets out their precise encampment around the anything but. It meant that Jews would have to give up their Mishkan and the order in which they were to journey. In , identity as Jews in the public domain. Nothing – not religious at inordinate length, the Torah repeats the gifts of each tribe at or ethnic identity – should stand between the individual and the inauguration of the Mishkan, despite the fact that they each the state. It was no accident that a century later, France gave exactly the same. The tribes were not accidental to the became one of the epicentres of European antisemitism, structure of Israel as a society. Like the United States of beginning with Édouard Drumont’s vicious La France Juive, America, whose basic political structure is that of a federation 1886, and culminating in the Dreyfus trial. Hearing the Parisian of (originally thirteen, now fifty) states, so Israel was (until the crowd shout “Mort aux Juifs”, Theodor Herzl realised that Jews appointment of a king) a federation of tribes. The existence of had still not been accepted as citizens of Europe, despite all something like tribes is fundamental to a free society. The the protestations to the contrary. Jews found themselves modern state of Israel is built on a vast panoply of ethnicities – regarded as a tribe in a Europe that claimed to have abolished Ashkenazi, Sefardi, Jews from Eastern, Central and Western tribes. European emancipation recognized individual rights but Europe, Spain and Portugal, Arab lands, Russia and Ethiopia, not collective ones. The primatologist Frans de Waal makes the America, South Africa, Australia and other places, some point powerfully. Almost the whole of modern Western culture, Hassidic, some Yeshiva-ish, others “Modern”, others he says, was built on the idea of autonomous, choosing “Traditional”, yet others secular and cultural. individuals. But that is not who we are. We are people with strong attachments to family, friends, neighbors, allies, We each have a series of identities, based partly on family co-religionists and people of the same ethnicity. He continues: background, partly on occupation, partly on locality and A morality exclusively concerned with individual rights tends to community. These “mediating structures”, larger than the ignore the ties, needs and interdependencies that have marked individual but smaller than the state, are where we develop our our existence from the very beginning. It is a cold morality complex, vivid, face-to-face interactions and identities. They that puts space between people, assigning each person to his are the domain of family, friends, neighbors and colleagues, or her own little corner of the universe. How this caricature of and they make up what is collectively known as civil society. a society arose in the minds of eminent thinkers is a mystery.

Great Neck Yoetzet Halacha Lisa Septimus That is precisely the point the Torah is making when it divides Welcomes your questions about mikvah, the story of the daughters of Tzelophehad into two. The first observance of taharat mishpacha (halacha relating part, in parshat Pinchas, is about individual rights, the rights of to married life) and women’s health, as it connects to Jewish law. Reach out to her at: Tzelophehad’s daughters to a share in the land. The second, at Phone: 516.415.1111 the end of the book, is about group rights, in this case the Email: [email protected]. right of the tribe of Menasheh to its territory. The Torah All conversations and emails are kept confidential. affirms both, because both are necessary to a free society. Many of the most seemingly intractable issues in contemporary Jewish life have appeared because Jews, especially in the Great Neck Synagogue West, are used to a culture in which individual rights are held 26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck , NY 11023 to override all others. We should be free to live as we choose, 516-487-6100 worship as we choose, and identify as we choose. But a culture based solely on individual rights will undermine families, Rabbi Dale Polakoff, Rabbi communities, traditions, loyalties, and shared codes of Rabbi Ian Lichter, Assistant Rabbi reverence and restraint. Despite its enormous emphasis on the Dr. Ephraim Wolf, z”l, Rabbi Emeritus value of the individual, also insists on the value of Zeev Kron, Cantor those institutions that preserve and protect our identities as Eleazer Schulman, z”l, Cantor Emeritus members of groups that make them up. We have rights as Rabbi Sholom Jensen, Youth Director individuals but identities only as members of tribes. Honoring Zehava & Dr. Michael Atlas, Youth Directors both is delicate, difficult and necessary. Bamidbar ends by Mark Twersky, Executive Director showing us how. Dr. James Frisch, Assistant Director Dov Sassoon, President Rabbi Jesse Shore, Rabbinic Intern Harold Domnitch, Chairman of the Board Lisa Septimus, Yoetzet Halacha 516-415-1111 SUMMER LEARNING PROGRAM SUMMER LEARNING PROGRAM

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ANNOUNCEMENTS Rabbi Polakoff’s shabbos drasha through 5777 MAZAL TOVS & COMMUNITY NEWS is dedicated in memory of PINCHAS BEN YOSEPH For other such opportunities please contact Mazal Tov to Roslyn & Zachary Dicker on the birth of Howard Wolf 516-643-3344 their first great grandchild, a boy, born to their IF YOU KNOW OF SOMEONE WHO IS MOVING INTO THE grandchildren Michal Dicker & Joshua Halpern, in GREAT NECK AREA PLEASE LET THE OFFICE KNOW. Cambridge, Ma., children of Carolyn Hochstadter & Dr. Adam Dicker of Marion Station, Pa. SUMMER LEARNING LECTURES Tuesday, July 18th at 7:00 pm Sandra E. Rapoport - Mazal Tov to Dassie & Eddy Barth on the birth of a grandson born to their children Kayla Barth & Brandon “The Sons of Elohim and the Daughters of Man: God Takes Goldstein. on Noah’s World.” Tuesday, July 25th at 8:30 pm Rabbi Baruch Simon - NSHA - SAVE THE DATE “The Simcha & Siyum of .” Join us at NSHA'S 14th annual golf, tennis & spa classic on Those interested in sponsoring the Summer Program, Monday August 14th at Fresh Meadows Country Club, please contact Rabbi Lichter - [email protected]. honoring Steve Santodonato. For information regarding sponsorships and participation, please contact Glenn CHAVERIM CENTER Zuckerman, Jonathan Muller, Andrew Feldschreiber, Please join Chaverim Center this Wednesday, July 19th Josh Lev or email Arnie Flatow at [email protected] or call from 11:30-2:00. Please let us know if your are joining us. 487-8687 ext 133. Thank you to Naeema Pomerantz for sponsoring lunch in BIKUR CHOLIM NEWS memory of her mother, Kockab Kahen z”l. If you are aware of anyone who may need volunteer UNVEILING FOR GIL ARONOWITZ Z”L services from our community for visiting, shopping, rides to Jay Aronowitz & family would like the community to know the doctor, etc., please contact the synagogue office at that the unveiling for Gil Aronowitz z”l will be at Mt. 516 - 487 -6100 or Robyn Blumner at 516-487-3859. Hebron Cemetery in Queens at 10:30 am on Thursday July 27th. SCHOLARS’ KOLLEL SIYUM The Scholars’ Kollel will be having a siyum on Wednesday HUNGER INITIATIVE/PASS IT FORWARD July 26th . More details to follow. Hunger Initiative/Pass it Forward is looking for volunteers to join our Leadership team. The rewards of providing food Farangess Sedaghatpour & family would like to thank to our needy brothers and sisters on Long Island and in Polakoff & Lichter, Chazzan Kron and the entire community Queens are endless. Please join our team to help plan our for their outpouring of support following the passing of their Rosh Hashanah program. The time commitment is dear husband and father, Vahid Sedaghatpour z”l. minimal, the benefit is incalculable! Contact Cindy Hodkin [email protected] or 516.317.9632. Saturday, 28 Tammuz Ada Berkowitz for Israel Hass Cindy Hodkin; Nechama Liss Levinson; Michelle Berman Alisa Hoenig for Augusta Olen MEN’S CLUB UPCOMING EVENTS Mansour Farhadian for Morad Sohayegh August 16th - Mets vs. Yankees @ Citi Field: 7:10 pm Sunday, 29 Tammuz Rabbi Moshe Kwalbrun for Avraham Shlomo ben Purchase tickets at the GNS office. Yisrael Aharon August 20th - 7th Annual Fishing Trip: 4:15-8:30 pm Y Monday, 1 Av with dinner included. Tickets for members are $60 per Greenwald Family for Marvin Greenwald A Ivan Seidle for Hymie Seidle person and $70 for non-members. Children ages 6-12 are Tuesday, 2 Av $40. Contact Mark Friedman or synagogue office. H Sheila Ebrahimian for Devorah Aminoff Michael Moslin for Seymour Moslin CHOLIM FOR REFUAH SHELEIMAH R Osnass Shein for Joseph Shein If you would like to regularly receive email blasts listing Lauren Abehsera for Evelyn Stricker names of people in the community who are ill and in need Z Wednesday, 3 Av of our prayers for a refuah shelaimah, please send your E Mansour Farhadian for Joseph Farhadian name and email to Randa Pittell ([email protected]). Susan Mandelbaum for Tillie Justin Phyllis Safdieh for Bella Shampan You can also send names as needed to include on the I Alex Weiss for Ignatz Weiss Tehillim lists. Please include them in your daily prayers, Michael Weiss for Ignatz Weiss when you light Shabbat candles and bake challah so they T Medeline Belonsky for Monty Wine may merit a complete and speedy recovery. Thursday, 4 Av Elaine Schneider for Elfrieda Mayer UPCOMING EVENTS Friday, 5 Av AT GREAT NECK SYNAGOGUE Anne Gold for Harry Feinstein Stephen Rabinowitz for Rose Getreu July 18: Summer Series: Sandra Rapoport Carol Kaufman for Frank Morgenstern July 19: Chaverim Center Brian Smith for Louis Smith July 25: Summer Series: Rabbi Baruch Simon Edward Wydra for Helen Wydra