B'nai Israel Congregation, Norfolk, VA
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For the week of: Oct. 2, 2010 Parshas Berashis Tishrei 24, 5771 B’nai Israel Congregation The Orthodox Synagogue For ALL Jews In Hampton Roads Davening & Learning Schedule This week’s Shmini Atzeres & Simchas Torah Kiddushes are sponsored by the Blumenthal and Schlain families in memory of their parents Wed. 9/29 Hoshanah Rabah ERUV TASHVILIN Daf Yomi 6:00 AM This week’s Shalosh Seudos in sponsored by Mr. & Mrs. Shia Lome and Ms. Shachris 6:30 AM Barbara Meyers in memory of David & Leah Traub and Itta Mostofsky Mincha 6:30 PM Candle Lighting 6:34 PM Thurs. 9/30 - Shmini Atzeres Shachris 9:00 AM COMMUNITY EVENTS Daf Yomi 5:35 PM Mincha 6:35 PM RABBI SILVER’S WEEKLY CLASSES Candle Lighting Shabbos: 40 minutes before Mincha: Navi (Sefer Shmuel 2) not before 7:28 PM Sunday: Morning: Gemara Rosh Hashana Night: Halacha Class Hakofos 7:40 PM Parsha Class cancelled Monday: Evening: Philosophies of the Parsha Fri. 10/1 - Simchas Torah Tuesday: Noon: Tehillim Class [Ladies only] Shachris 8:00 AM Always check Davening & Learning Schedule for cancellations. Hakofos 9:00 AM Daf Yomi TBA TZEDAKA - CLOTHING CAMPAIGN Mincha 6:30 PM Our special Tzedaka campaign in conjunction with Yad Eliezer is underway. We are Candle Lighting 6:31 PM looking for Men’s clothing (suits, white shirts, shoes) and children’s clothing (especially Shabbos 10/2 shoes). We ask that the clothes be pre-packed in boxes from U-haul [book boxes]. Shacharis 9:00 AM Daf Yomi 4:35 PM There is a special $10 donation to ship the boxes to Eretz Yisroel. The deadline for Sefer Shmuel 5:35 PM having the packed boxes in the shul is Friday, October 15th. Mincha 6:15 PM Havdalah 7:25 PM BIRTHDAYS Sun. 10/3 TORAS CHAIM LIBRARY FUNDRAISER Please donate your used printer cartridges to the Rabbi Meryl Joy Goldstein 10/ 1 Daf Yomi 7:00 AM Chamie Haber 10/ 1 Shachris 8:00 AM Bornstein Memorial Library at Toras Chaim. All proceeds are Chaim Shereshevsky Rosh Hashanah class cancelled used to buy books and supplies for the Library. Donations can 9th 10/ 3 Mincha 6:25 PM Naomi Silver 10/ 3 Halacha class cancelled be dropped off at the Library or in the Shul office. Mildred Soroko 10/ 5 Mon. 10/4 Aaron Cohen 10/ 6 Daf Yomi 6:00 AM WOMEN’S SWIM Yehudis Schwartz Shachris 6:45 AM 16th 10/ 6 Mincha 6:25 PM The JCC has once again agreed to have a Women's only swim YAHRZEITS Parsha Class cancelled hour every Sunday from 4:30 to 5:30. Ladies' swim will start Yochoved Drory 9/30 Tues. 10/5 Sunday, October 3. They have asked that we all bring our own Eva Cogan Hurwitz 9/30 Daf Yomi 6:00 AM towels because they have already done the laundry for the day. Hyman B. Swartz 9/30 Shachris 7:00 AM This swim session is free for JCC members and $5 a person for Isadore Brooke 10/1 Ladies Class cancelled Maurice Pogolowitz 10/1 Mincha 6:25 PM non-members you can pay at the front desk. Please direct all David Rines 10/1 Wed. 10/6 questions to Starr Kimmer at [email protected] William Banks 10/2 Daf Yomi 6:00 AM Lillian Adolson 10/3 Shachris 7:00 AM Ida Glick 10/3 Mincha 6:25 PM JCC FALL SPORTS Phillip Kurzer 10/3 Partners in Torah 7:00 PM BRAND NEW girls basketball league, Sunday games only (no Fannie Cohen 10/4 Rosa T. Hirsch 10/4 Thurs. 10/7 practices). On October 17th, the first meeting will be held and Libby Salant 10/4 Daf Yomi 6:00 AM teams will be chosen. Then, on Sunday afternoon (Oct 24 - Dec David Traub 10/4 Shachris 6:45 AM 12), the games will be held. The league is open to girls, Harry Amdursky 10/5 Mincha 6:25 PM Phillip Hilles 10/5 Cantorial Class 7:00 PM ages : 3rd thru 5th grade & 6th thru 8th grade Nathan Gutterman 10/6 Fri. 10/8 - Rosh Chodesh To register, call the front desk at the JCC : 321-2338 Ethel Kirschenbaun 10/6 Daf Yomi 6:00 AM Eli Putterman 10/6 Shachris 6:35 AM Leah Traub 10/7 Annie Potts 10/8 Mincha 6:15 PM Sarah Sonnenberg 10/8 Candle Lighting 6:20 PM Please visit our website, especially the affiliates tag at www.bnaiisrael.org Rabbi Yissachar Frand On Parshas Berashis (www.Torah.org) The Grass Is Always Greener When You Pray For Rain The beginning of the second perek [chapter] of the Chumash says: "These are the products of the heavens and the earth, when they were created on the day of Hashem G-d's making of earth and heavens. [Bereshis 2:4] This summary of creation is followed by a difficult pasuk [verse] to interpret and even to translate: The presumed translation is "Now any tree of the field was not yet on the earth and any herb of the field had not yet sprouted, for Hashem G-d had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to work the soil." Rashi interprets that even after the 6 days of creation, there was still no grass. Despite the fact that the To- rah stated on the third day of creation "and the earth brought forth vegetation, herbage yielding seed" [Bereshis 1:12], Rashi explains that they did not emerge from the earth on that day but they stood on the surface of the ground until the sixth day. The Torah explains in perek 2 pasuk 5 why the grass did not come out – "because there was no man to work the soil". Rashi interprets this to mean that there was no one who could recognize the goodness of rains. In other words, there was no human being around to appreciate the rain and to ask for it. When Adam was created and he understood that the world had a need for rain, he prayed that rain should fall. In answer to man's prayer, rain fell and the grass, trees, and all the vegetation of the earth then began to grow. We learn a couple of interesting things from this Rashi. First, we see that the first prayer in the history of the world was Adam, the first man, asking for rain, shortly after his creation. We also learn that G-d was not merely waiting, as it were, for man to recognize the need for rain before bringing the rain, but G-d was wait- ing for man to pray for rain. Rav Aharon Kotler in Mishnas Aharon says that from here we learn that if a per- son does not pray for that which he needs, it can be there waiting and ready for him, but if he does not pray to G-d for it, it will not come. This year could be the most financially successful year in one's career. The deal may just be waiting and ready. But if the person does not pray for it, it will not come. This is the way the Almighty set up the world. He set up the world in such a way that we must pray for things from Him. In this way, we will come to an appreciation that everything comes from Him. The commentaries ask a very basic question: Why do we recite the same Shmoneh Esrei ('18 benediction' Amidah) day in and day out, 3 times a day, every weekday of the year? The point is to drive home through our thick skulls the lesson that we need the Almighty. We recite this prayer 1000 times a year and we still do not get it! This Rashi is teaching us a very basic lesson regarding man's existence in the world. Blessings may be waiting right around the corner, waiting to come to us, but they won't come until we pray for them and thereby ac- knowledge that these blessings come from the Almighty. .