Candle Welcome to the DAT Minyan! Lighting (earliest) 3:40p Shabbat Mevarchim (Vayeishev) (latest) 4:21p December 21, 2019 - 23 Kislev 5780 Joseph Friedman, Rabbi | Mark Raphaely, President Havdalah 5:24p
Shabbat Schedule D’var Torah with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (All services take place in the BMH-BJ Fisher Hall, The story of Joseph and his brothers, spread over four parshiyot, is the longest and 560 S. Monaco Pkwy) most tightly-scripted of all the narratives in the Torah. Nothing is there by accident; every detail counts. One moment, however, seems gloriously irrelevant – and it is this Please help make our prayer service more meaningful that contains one of the most beautiful of the Torah’s ideas. by refraining from talking during the service. With great speed, we are introduced to the broad lines of the story. Joseph is envied and hated by his brothers. So deep has the animosity gone that they cannot talk FRIDAY peaceably with one another. Now the brothers have left home to tend their sheep, and Jacob tells Joseph to go and see how they are doing. This encounter will set in motion 4:20 pm: Mincha / Kabbalat Shabbat / Maariv the central drama from which all else will follow: the moment when the brothers sell (Shema should be recited after 5:23 pm) Joseph into Egypt as a slave. SHABBAT But it nearly didn’t happen. Joseph arrived at Shechem where he expected his brothers to be, but they were not there. He might well have wandered around for a while and Parasha: Page 198 / Haftarah: Page 1142 then, failing to find them, gone home. None of the events that take up the rest of the Torah would have happened: no Joseph the slave, no Joseph the viceroy, no storage of 7:50 am: Hashkama Minyan food during the years of plenty, no descent of Joseph’s family to Egypt, no exile, no slavery, no exodus. The entire story – already revealed in broad outlines to Abraham in 8:20 am: Daf Yomi a night vision – seemed about to be derailed. Then we read the following: Tefillah Warm-up with Ellyn Hutt is on break for A man found [Joseph] wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you the next several weeks looking for?” He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?” “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I 9:00 am: Shacharit heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found (Shema should be recited before 9:37 am) them near Dothan. (Gen. 37:15-17) Kiddush is sponsorsed by Rabbi Marc Gitler and I know of no comparable passage in the Torah: three verses dedicated to an apparently trivial, eminently forgettable detail of someone having to ask directions from a Sarah Geiger in honor of the Bat Mitzvah of stranger. Who was this unnamed man? And what conceivable message does the their daughter, Sophia episode hold for future generations, for us? Rashi says he was the angel Gabriel. Ibn HS Boys’ Gemara Class is on break for the next Ezra says he was a passer-by. Ramban however says that “the Holy One, blessed be He, two weeks sent him a guide without his knowledge.” I am not sure whether Ramban meant without Joseph’s knowledge or without the 4:15 pm: Mincha followed by Seudah Shlisheet, guide’s knowledge. I prefer to think both. The anonymous man – so the Torah is sponsored by Essie Perlmutter, Lisa and intimating – represented an intrusion of providence to make sure that Joseph went to Jonathan Perlmutter, Lisa and Jay Perlmutter, where he was supposed to be, so that the rest of the drama could unfold. He may not Lisa and Shell Cook, and Vicki and David Dansky, have known he had such a role. Joseph surely did not know. To put it as simply as I in memory of husband and father Jordon can: he was an angel who didn’t know he was an angel. He had a vital role in the story. Perlmutter on his yahrzeit Without him, it would not have happened. But he had no way of knowing, at the time, the significance of his intervention. 5:24 pm: Maariv / Havdalah The message could not be more significant. When heaven intends something to 6:10 pm: Mish Mosh happen, and it seems to be impossible, sometimes it sends an angel down to earth – an angel who didn’t know he or she was an angel – to move the story from here to there. —————————————————— Let me tell the story of two such angels, without whom there might not be a State of Weekday Schedule Israel today. (Weekday services Sunday through Friday morning One was a remarkable young woman from a Sephardi family who, at the age of take place at DAT School, 6825 E. Alameda Ave.) seventeen, married into the most famous Ashkenazi family in the world. Her name was Dorothy Pinto; her husband was James de Rothschild, son of the great Baron Edmond SHACHARIT de Rothschild who did so much to support the settlement of the land in the days before Sunday and Wednesday: 8:00 am the proclamation of the State. A critical juncture occurred during the First World War that would eventually lead to Join us following Shacharit services on the defeat of the Ottoman Empire and the placing of Palestine under a British mandate. Wednesday, December 25th, for a breakfast Suddenly, Britain became absolutely central to the Zionist dream. A key figure in the shiur with Rabbi Friedman on the topic, “The Zionist movement, Chaim Weizmann, was in Britain, experimenting and lecturing in Great Turkey Controversy” chemistry at Manchester University. But Weizmann was a Russian immigrant, not a (Continued on Page 2) Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 6:25 am Payments of any outstanding balances on your shul account older than MINCHA/MAARIV 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 Sunday through Thursday: 4:30 pm donation. Payments may be made through our website or by calling the Friday: 4:25 pm shul office. DAT Minyan is a dynamic and friendly Modern Orthodox synagogue for all ages and dedicated to meaningful personal spiritual development, community growth, youth involvement, Torah education, and Religious Zionism. 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) prominent member of British society. Manchester was not London. Chemistry was not politics. The most influential and well-connected Jewish family was the Rothschilds. But Edmond was in France. James was a soldier on the battlefield. And not every member of the British Rothschilds was a Zionist. At that moment, Dorothy suddenly assumed a leading role. She was only nineteen when she first met Weizmann in December 1914, and understood very little of the political complexities involved in realising the Zionist dream. But she learned quickly. She was perceptive, resourceful, energetic, delightful and determined. She connected Weizmann with everyone he needed to know and persuade. Simon Schama, in his definitive account of Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel, says that “young as she was… she combined charm, intelligence and more than a hint of steely resolution in just the right mixture to coax commitment from the equivocal, enthusiasm from the lukewarm and sympathy from the indifferent.” His judgement on the effect of her interventions is that “through tireless but prudent social diplomacy she had managed to open avenues of influence and persuasion at a time when they were badly needed.” The result, in 1917, was the Balfour Declaration, a milestone in the history of Zionism – and we should not forget that the Declaration itself took the form of a letter to Lord (Walter) Rothschild. Dorothy’s husband James, in his will, left the money to build the Knesset, Israel’s parliament building. In her own will, Dorothy left the money to build a new Supreme Court Building, a project undertaken by her nephew Jacob, the current Lord Rothschild. But of all the things she did, it was those connections she made for Chaim Weizmann in the years 1914 to 1917 that were surely the most important. Without them, there might have been no Balfour Declaration and no State of Israel. The other figure, who could not have been less like Dorothy de Rothschild, was Eddie Jacobson. The son of poor Jewish immigrants, born in New York’s Lower East Side, he moved with his family to Kansas City where he met a young man called Harry Truman. They knew one another in their youth, and became close in 1917 when they underwent military training together. After the end of World War I, they opened a haberdashery business together. It failed in 1922 because of the recession. From then on, they went their separate ways, Jacobson as a travelling salesman, and Truman successively a county administrator, Senator, Vice-President, and then when F.D. Roosevelt died in office in 1945, President of the United States. Despite their very different life-trajectories, the two stayed friends, and Jacobson would often visit Truman, talking to him about, among other things, about the fate of European Jewry during the Holocaust. After the war, the position of America vis-à-vis the State of Israel was deeply ambivalent. The State Department was opposed. Truman himself refused to meet Chaim Weizmann. On 13 March 1948, Jacobson went to the White House and persuaded Truman to change his mind and meet Weizmann. Largely as a result of this, the United States became the first nation to grant diplomatic recognition to Israelon 14 May 1948. Many years later, Truman wrote: One of the proudest moments of my life occurred at 6:12 p.m. on Friday, May 14, 1948, when I was able to announce recognition of the new State of Israel by the government of the United States. I remain particularly gratified by the role I was fortunate to play in the birth of Israel as, in the immortal words of the Balfour Declaration, “a national home for the Jewish people.” Two people, Dorothy de Rothschild and Eddie Jacobson, appeared on the scene of history and connected Chaim Weizmann with individuals he might otherwise not have met, among them Arthur Balfour and Harry Truman. They were like the stranger who connected Joseph and his brothers, but with infinitely more positive consequences. I think of them both as angels who did not know they were angels. Perhaps this is true not only about the destiny of nations but also about each of us at critical junctures in our lives. I believe that there are times when we feel lost, and then someone says or does something that lifts us or points the way to a new direction and destination. Years later, looking back, we see how important that intervention was, even though it seemed slight at the time. That is when we know that we too encoun- tered an angel who didn’t know he or she was an angel. That is what the story of Joseph’s stranger is about. Shabbat Shalom
This Day in Jewish History - 21 Dec / 23 Kislev December 21, 1733 - Despite the objections of many English colonists to James Oglethorpe’s decision to allow Jews to settle in the new colony of Georgia, Jews from the Suasso, Salvador and Da Costa families were among those who received conveyances of lots, gardens and farms that were apportioned today. Ogelthorpe noted that while the Georgia charter banned Roman Catholics and slaves, there was no legal basis to exclude Jews. With the addition of 42 Jews who arrived in Savannah earlier that year, it became North America’s largest Jewish community at the time. December 21, 1860 - Jewish Zionist leader and Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold is born in Baltimore, Maryland. The eldest of eight daughters, Szold taught school after her own graduation from high school, and went on to establish the first American night school to provide English language education and vocational skills to Russian Jewish immigrants in Baltimore. At age 49, she traveled to Palestine and discovered her life’s mission, joining with six other women to found Hadassah. Szold died in 1945, in the same Hadassah Hospital she helped build in Jerusalem. December 21, 1967 - Movie classic “The Graduate” is released. While the characters depicted in the film are not Jewish, the film itself has many Jewish roots. It had a Jewish director, Mike Nichols, the title role was played by Jewish actor Dustin Hoffman, co-star Anne Bancroft was married to Jewish comedian and producer Mel Brooks, and the music was written and performed by Jewish musicians Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. “The Graduate” received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Hoffman and Bancroft were nominated for Best Actor and Actress, and Nichols won for Best Director. 23 Kislev 5763 (2002) - Passengers aboard an Israeli Arkia Airlines Boeing 757 narrowly escape death when two surface-to- air missiles are fired upon it but miss as it takes off from Mombasa, Kenya, en route to Tel Aviv. Though Kenyan police locate the missile launchers and casings, the perpetrators are never found. Simultaneously on this date in Kenya, a bomb blast takes place at a hotel as sixty Israeli tourists are checking in. Thirteen people are killed and eighty are injured.
Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service. DAT MINYAN NEWS, EVENTS AND MILESTONES
Mazal Tov to Sophia Gitler, and parents Rabbi Marc Gitler and Sarah Geiger, on her Bat Mitzvah this morning! Mazal Tov to Nathan and Rachel Rabinovitch on the upcoming marriage of their son Yoni to Nechama Dembitzer this weekend in Brooklyn! Consider volunteering to lein on Shabbat! The sign-up website is www.datminyan.org/laining. Slots are open from now through mid-March. Please contact Steve Hutt for questions and additional information. 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 this Shabbat, 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 Chabad 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 . Grand Chanukah Celebration at Urban Air! Early bird special of $18 per person (normally this would cost $34.99 at Urban Air) is through this Monday. Don't forget to sign up online! There is also a special rate of $8 per non-playing adult if you sign up online. See website for details. www.chabadcolorado.com/chanukah Merkaz Torah V’Chesed cordially invites the community to a Sheva Brachos Buffet Reception in honor of Yoni and Nechama Rabinovitch, which will take place, Thursday, December 26th, fifth night of Chanukah from 7:00 – 8:30, at Merkaz. For more information and to reserve, contact R’ Chaim and Rivky Sher [email protected], (303) 335-7331 . 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 Hillel Academy 68th Anniversary Dinner takes place Tuesday evening, January 21st, 6:00 pm at BMH-BJ. Mazal Tov to Kesher Shem Tov Award honorees Dr. Robert and Mrs. Erin Salehrabi. Email: [email protected] , Phone: 303-333-1511 . 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:
Benjamin Avner, Michael Freiheiter, Dani Garfinkel, Maya Haasz, Caleb London, Annie Sarid
Leonard Marks, Sat., 12/21/19 (23 Kislev) Jordon Perlmutter, Sun., 12/22/19 (24 Kislev) Aliza Tzipora Fuksbrumer, Tue., 12/24/19 (26 Kislev) Joyce Lightstone, Tue., 12/24/19 (26 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 Marc and Melanie Avner
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 anonymous
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 MIKVAH UPDATE • Kitzur Shulchan Aruch: Daily, after Shacharit The Mikvah of East Denver (MOED) is pleased to announce that it completed initial rounds of interviews for general contractors. We are still on track for our expected start of construction in Spring 2020. MOED • Daf Yomi Shiur (30 min): after Shacharit on Sun through is currently in the design and development phase, which involves finalizing the design and specifying such items as water collection pools Fri , and 8:20 am on Shabbat and general structural details. Design development yields a more detailed site plan as well as floor plans, elevations and section drawings with full dimensions. Project Manager, Eric Shafran, has been diligently • Mishnayot: Daily, between Mincha and Maariv reviewing specifics of the building design with MOED's architectural team. We look forward to releasing more information on this project as • “Short & Sweet Talmud Class” (30 min-never longer): it develops. From the MOED family to yours, we wish you a festive and light-filled Wed, 9:20 am, DAT Minyan offices at BMH-BJ (men only) Chanukah.
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 .
Rfuah 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 Mendel Ila ben Frida Miriam Dovid Eliezer ben Chasha Beila Michel ben Leah Eden Shalom ben Shira Michoel Zisel ben Barbara Eliyahu Chaim ha Cohen ben Sara Rifka Miriam bat Sarah Eliyahu Dovid ben Ita Sheiva Raphael Lior ben Miriam Guy Chaim ben Rita Reuven Yehoshua ben Nechama Leibel ben Harriet Roshka bat Bryna Levick Yitzchak ben Bracha Shimshon Raphael ben Eliya Leya bat Sara Shmuel Aharon ben Jenny Malka bat Mazel Tov Shmuel Yaakov ben Chana Mascha bat Rus Yonatan Zeev ben Netaa Mayer Benya ben Nechama 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 21st, 10:30 am in the Library Mish Mosh is BACK!
Our fun-filled motzei-Shabbat family Torah study program continues this Saturday evening at 6:10 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 Musaf, 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. INTRODUCING OUR 2020 HONOREES
We are thrilled to be honoring Melanie and Marc Avner at the DAT
Minyan Annual Event, Sunday, March 15th (please note the change of date). The Avners are true pillars of our community, and dedicated servants to both the shul and the Denver Academy of Torah. They give of themselves in so many ways, and we are excited to be able to recognize them for their service.
Please save the date for what promises to be a wonderful evening celebrating this incredibly deserving couple.