Parashat Terumah (Exodus 25:1-27:19)

Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

As early as the experience at Mount Sinai, Jews were prepared to be mobile and wander.  Immediately following Torah portions about God’s revelation to the Israelites, read over the last two weeks, this week’s portion instructs our people to construct a portable sanctuary and all the sacred items for use within it.  We read (Exodus 25:10-40) about maintaining the transportable ark for the tablets of the commandments, the menorah lamps, ritual tables, utensils for the sacrifices , and other holy accessories, each of which played an important role in the worship of God.

Alice Mann, a consultant at the Alban Institute, writes that every synagogue can look at these different items the ancient Israelites used in the desert, and likewise “identify the portable treasures of faith that [it as a] congregation has been given by God – the beliefs, practices, and values that you carry… and always express our deepest identity as God’s people.”  Every group of Jews moves through changes in time.  As a group, however, our congregation has a constant set of sacred treasures: our own values and characteristics that distinguish us as Temple Sinai.  These endure even as we enter new eras of growth and change, welcome new members and create new experiences.  Our sacred features will always be an essential part of who we are as a community as we move through time to new destinations.

Sinai Update –February 5-11, 2006

Parashat Yitro (Exodus 18:1 – 20:23)

Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

In the midst of this week’s reading of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-13), the medieval commentator Nachmanides points out that the sixth commandment “Thou shalt not murder” (Exod. 20:12) gives us a positive way of acknowledging “in our hearts and actions” that God is the source of all Being.  Nachmanides (1194-1270, Spain) also teaches that this sixth commandment follows directly from the fifth, “Honor your father and your mother,” who are God’s partners in creation.  He emphasizes that murdering is a denial of God’s existence, as well as the destruction of the most precious human achievements, the creation of new human life.

This week, I would ask Temple Sinai members to act on this mitzvah regarding the enduring crisis in Darfur, where genocide continues.  We are called to action by the sixth commandment and by a similar verse from Leviticus, “You shall not stand idly by while your fellow bleeds” (Lev. 19:16).  Since the start of this genocide, over 400,000 people have died, and over 2 million have been displaced from their homes. (To learn more, go to the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, www.rac.org .)  It is our religious duty as Jews to act and ask our government to step up its efforts and build alliances with other nations to stop the violence in that part of the world.  (To send a letter to President Bush, click to www.millionvoicesfordarfur.org .)  Murder, we learn, is the denial of all that Judaism values, of all that we have learned as a people since the Holocaust, and ultimately, of meaningful human experience which we express with the word God.

Sinai Update –February 5-11, 2006

Parashat B’shalach (Exodus 13:17 -17:16)

Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

A famous Midrash based on this week’s Torah portion tells us of the worth of all human life, even that of our enemies.  The Israelites cross the Sea of Reeds and see the waters close on Pharaoh and his army, and the Torah tells us that God placed a column of cloud between Egypt and Israel, who “did not approach one another [lo karav zeh el zeh] the entire night” (Exodus 14:20).  In the Talmud (Megillah 10b) Rabbi Yochanan offered a subversive teaching based on the word-choice of this verse.  He imagined that the angels on high began to celebrate as Egypt drowned, singing to one another as they did according to the prophet Isaiah, “v’kara zeh el zeh,”  “they sang to one another” (Isaiah 6:3).  In his creative play on words, however, Rabbi Yochanan pointed out one key difference between the two verses – “Lo!” – this was no time for singing and celebrating.  Hearing the angels’ cries of delight as seeing Egypt drown, God admonished them and said, “The works of my hand are dying, and you want to sing a song!?”  His message is clear to us:  All humankind originates as God’s creation; all human life is sacred; and, all human life is mourned, and we do not rejoice when human life is lost, even if it is our most bitter enemies.

Sinai Update – January 29 – February 4, 2006

Parashat Bo (Exodus 10:1 – 13:16)

Reflections on the Jewish World – Rabbi Andrew Davids, Executive Director of ARZA

I want to share with you the comments of Rabbi Andrew Davids, executive director of ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America, on last week’s Palestinian elections.  We offer our own prayers for hope and peace in the Middle East, even as the dream of peace seems more distant after these most recent developments, and re-commit ourselves to helping Israel achieve a meaningful and lasting peace.  – Rabbi Andy Vogel

“The Palestinian people have spoken through a democratic process and have chosen to be lead by a party committed to Israel’s destruction.  We cannot place our hands on our ears and pretend not to hear. Unless Hamas takes immediate steps to demonstrate in both word and action that they are prepared to assume leadership in this volatile region in a responsible manner, we believe they do not truly serve the needs of the Palestinian people.

“It is far from clear what message Palestinian voters made by selecting Hamas.  Clearly, frustration with the corrupt Fatah regime was a major factor.  While Hamas placed women and non-Muslims on their slate and focused much of their campaign on the need to fight corruption within the Palestinian Authority, they continue to reject the peace process, reject Israel’s right to exists and legitimize violence and terrorism.

“The Bush Administration's response to the Hamas victory mirrors our own.  We call upon the United States Administration to be … unbending in holding the new Hamas leadership accountable for word and action.  They must demand commitment on the part of Hamas to a new agenda, or withhold all political and financial support for the Palestinian Authority.

“While we counsel the leadership of Israel to be cautious and not take any rash actions, we stand with her during this time of difficulty as she waits to see if the new leadership will engage in dialogue as a partner or will maintain its rejectionist stance.

“We know that progress which is so important to the Palestinians (and to the Israelis) is a distant hope until Hamas immediately take steps including the striking of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic language from their Charter, the immediate acknowledgement of Israel’s right to exists with safe and secure boundaries and the fulfillment of all obligations that the Palestinian Authority committed to related to the peace process.

“As Jews, we are not strangers to distant hopes.  Many times in our history, as today, they are precisely what sustain us. There is no question as to what Hamas is and what Hamas must become. We hope and pray that the path towards peace is quickly sought and selected by the new leadership of the Palestinian people.”

- Rabbi Andrew Davids, executive director of ARZA, Association of Reform Zionists of America