Parashat-Dvarim-July
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Friday July 27 Candle lighting: 7:53 pm Shabbat Service Times Friday Night – Kabbalat Shabbat 6:30 pm Old Whaler’s / Union Street Shabbat Dinner is sponsored by Elaine Rosen and Jed Supnick in memory of Usha Avraham Rosen, by Marilyn Mishaan in memory of her parents Margie and Frank Haddad by Sheila Pack in memory of her parents Bertha and Abe Kawer Shabbat Morning 9:30 am Shabbat Hazon Old Whaler’s / Union Street Kiddush is sponsored by Kim and Arthur Birnbaum SAVE THE DATES Shabbat Nachamu, August 3 & 4 Rabbi Ed Feld and poet/playwright Merle Feld will be our guests for services and Shabbat dinner. RSVP for Shabbat Dinner by Tuesday, July 31th. Plan on joining us for Havdallah (Saturday evening August 4th), when we’ll have a chance to discuss prayer with Rabbi Feld. At the rabbi’s home 7:15 pm RSVP for Discussion & Havdallah by Tuesday, July 31th. ~~~~~~~~~~ Sunday August 12 10:00am – 12:30pm at the home of Marcy and Emil Braun, Scuttle Hole Rd. COOKS, BAKERS, EATERS WANTED Join us as we officially launch our CSH cookbook, Ekhol B’Simcha, with a buffet “tasting” of recipes and challah baking. Special guest Cantor Marcos Askenazi, who will be with us for the High Holy Days, will join Rabbi Uhrbach in teaching some holiday melodies and will lead us in a sing-along! If you are willing to “showcase” any of your recipes from the CSH cookbook for this event please let us know. ~~~~~~~~~~ Sunday August 19 Rosh Hodesh Elul morning minyan (with the blowing of the shofar) followed by our annual membership meeting. (If you haven’t yet paid your dues, please do it soon — don’t miss out on the french toast!!!) CSH Membership Dues http://www.synagoguehamptons.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Membership_Form_2012.pdf ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tisha B’Av Saturday Evening, July 28 9:00pm Ma’ ariv / The chanting of Eicha Old Whaler’s / 44 Union Street / Sag Harbor Please bring a flashlight for the reading of Eicha! Sunday Evening 7:30 – 9:00pm *Home of Miriam and David Brous Forest Road, Sag Harbor A Reminder of prohibitions on Tisha B’Av · no eating and drinking · no washing oneself, even to remove perspiration (if one's hands become dirty, they may be washed). · no wearing leather shoes (sneakers that have leather tops are also prohibited · no perfuming or anointing oneself (if one applies an ointment for medicinal purposes, it is permitted). · no sexual relations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Parashat Ha’Shuva -- D’varim Annual: Deuteronomy 1:1 - 3:22 (Etz Hayim p. 981) Triennial: Deuteronomy 2:2 – 2:30 (Etz Hayim p. 990) Haftarah: Isaiah 1:1 – 27 (Etz Hayim p. 1000) Parashat Musings: These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan. (Deut. 1:1) The rabbis say that the word devarim, “words,” was chosen to describe Moshe’s words in this parsha because the root implies harshness and rebuke. Indeed, Moshe speaks harshly to the people here, reminding them of their sins, of how they mistrusted God again and again during their years in the desert and were too fearful, after the spies' report, to enter the land at the first opportunity. Isaiah in the haftarah has his own poetic words of criticism, saying that the people have abandoned God, that their hands are full of blood, that they are evil like Sodom and Gomorrah. How depressing! Maybe that is our destiny. Maybe, as God says after the flood, man is “evil from his youth (Gen 8:21),” doomed to a life full of mistakes and sins, without hope of ever being different. Ah, but there is hope. And that is the whole point of rebuke – to inspire change, to make room for second chances. “Wash yourselves clean,” says Isaiah. “Learn to do good.” “Be your sins like crimson, they can turn snow-white; be they red as dyed wool, they can become like fleece.” Here is a strong belief in the possibility of complete self-transformation, of coloring yourself a new color. Rebuke is not meant as a life sentence, but as a call to change. It is an expression not of despair about the nature of humanity, but of faith in humanity’s infinite flexibility, the never-ending possibilities which lie in every human soul. Isaiah calls the heavens and the earth to witness this rebuke; they stand, still and silent, as unchanging, permanent witnesses to the human capability of being just the opposite, not still, but mobile, bending, turning from red to white. http://parshathoughtsmore.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE BLESSING THE BEGINNING of the Book of Deuteronomy places us at the border of The Land of Promise after a lifetime of journeying. We pause now to look back at the path we have traveled thus far in order to understand its meaning, receive its lessons, and embrace the wisdom and love that we have received through grace and diligent practice. It is indeed a blessing to come to this place of such wide perspective and calm discernment. The Torah tells us that by linear calculations our journey should have taken but eleven days. How did it take a lifetime – forty years – to arrive here? Our calculations must rely on a different kind of sense. Our journey through the wilderness has not taken the form of a straight line, but rather a series of breath- taking spirals that drop us again and again at the same point in a cycle, each time at a new level, with an added dimension of awareness. The blessing of D’varim is the expanded awareness that comes from the attainment of a wide perspective – the ability to see our own lives from the vantage point of dispassionate clarity. From here we look back on our defeats and our victories, gleaning the blessings of both. http://rabbishefagold.com/Dvarim.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TRAVELOGUE (D’VARIM) These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan. (Deut. 1:1) We’ve been on the road a long time. Feels like forty years. In fact, are you the same travelers who set out with me? Sometimes I imagine you’re their children. Maybe you’ve just grown up along the harsh and winding way. Remember the day we set out, a mixed multitude straggling through the brackish waters? Remember the day I realized I couldn’t lead this trip alone? Remember the day we sent runners to scout where we were going but you were afraid of the prospect of entering somewhere new, maybe being changed by the experience? The wandering, the fighting, the wadis we crossed: the story will take hours to retell. For now close your eyes, take a breath and remember where we’ve been. What moved you, what surprised you. After a journey like this one no one is exactly the same as on the day of departure from that other home so far away http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2008/08/this-weeks-portion-travelogue.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tisha B’Av "Tisha B'Av comes exactly seven weeks before Rosh Hashanah, beginning the process that culminates on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Tisha b'Av is the moment of turning, the moment when we turn away from denial and begin to face exile and alienation as they manifest themselves in our own lives -- in our alienation and estrangement from God, in our alienation from ourselves and from others. Teshuvah -- turning, repentance -- is the essential gesture of the High Holiday season. It is the gesture by which we seek to heal this alienation and to find at-one-ment; to connect with God, to reconcile with others, and to anchor ourselves in the ground of our actual circumstances, so that it is this reality that shapes our actions and not just the habitual, unconscious momentum of our lives."(41-42) Rabbi Alan Lew, This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The story is told that Napoleon was walking through the streets of Paris one Tisha B'Av. As his entourage passed a synagogue he heard wailing and crying coming from within; he sent an aide to inquire as to what had happened. The aide returned and told Napoleon that the Jews were in mourning over the loss of their Temple. Napoleon was indignant! "How come I wasn't informed? When did this happen? Which Temple?" The aide responded, "They lost their Temple in Jerusalem on this date 1,700 years ago." Napoleon stood in silence and then said, "Certainly a people which has mourned the loss of their Temple for so long will survive to see it rebuilt!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Eternal Riddle Songs of a Jew by P. M. Raskin ISRAEL, my People, God's greatest riddle, Will thy solution Ever be told? Fought never conquered, Bent never broken, Mortal immortal, Youthful, though old. Egypt enslaved thee, Babylon crushed thee, Rome led thee captive, Homeless thy head. Where are those nations Mighty and fearsome? Thou hast survived them, They are long dead. P.M. Raskin Nations keep coming, Nations keep going, Passing like shadows, Wiped off the earth. Thou an eternal Witness remainest, Watching their burial, Watching their birth. Pray, who revealed thee Heaven's great secret : Death and destruction Thus to defy? Suffering torture, Stake, Inquisition Prithee, who taught thee Never to die? Ay, and who gave thee Faith, deep as ocean, Strong as the rock-hills, Fierce as the sun? P. M. Raskin, 1914 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PRAYER TO COMMEMORATE THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MASSACRE AT THE 1972 OLYMPIC GAMES IN MUNICH (To be read out on Shabbat 28th July 2012) Almighty God: We, the members of this holy congregation, Together with members of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, Join our prayers to the prayers of others throughout the world, In remembrance of the eleven Israeli athletes Brutally murdered in an act of terrorism, At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Because they were Israelis, Because they were Jews.