Deuteronomy is a summation of the previous four books. Coming from a Greek word meaning, *second telling,* Deuteronomy recounts the history of the Israelite people. When talking about our fifth book of the Torah, I always think of the comedic movie “Airplane,” where a character is told, “Tell me everything that’s happened up until now.” This is akin to Deuteronomy. Moses goes through a second telling of our history.
In a few weeks, Jews around the world will commemorate Tisha B’av. The name of this day is a specific date, the 9th of Av. On this day, the 9th of Av, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed not once, but twice: first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and again by the Romans in the year 70 CE.
Elie Wiesel, a famous and beloved Holocaust survivor, passed away last Shabbat. As the New York Times wrote, he was a “champion of human rights, a symbol of hope, a writer of unmatched eloquence and the very conscience of the world. But above all else, he considered himself a witness who fought humanity’s most dangerous enemy, indifference.”
They were killed, and all they did was take pride in their identities – they were dancing, celebrating, socializing. In fact, what those 49 were doing in Orlando is not too dissimilar to what we do here – we gather together in celebration, we socialize, we pray. We are here to display our pride – our Jewish identity.
Earlier this week, on Monday morning, fifty Jews became B’nei Mitzvah.
As Natalie [Bat Mitzvah girl on bima] knows, any Bar or Bat Mitzvah is an extraordinary celebration of Jewish life, commitment and continuity. But this celebrationion was different.
It was different because these 13 men and 37 women were not able to celebrate a Bar or Bat Mitzvah when they were 13. When they were teenagers, some of them lived in concentration camps. Some were penniless and could not take time away from difficult laborious jobs to train and tutor. Others hid their Jewishness out of fear. All 50 of these adult B’nei Mitzvah are Holocaust survivors.
In Numbers chapter 12, Miriam harshly criticizes her brother Moses for marrying a Kushite woman. Following that, she is quickly punished. As the Torah tells us, Miriam became leprous, white as snow.
Almost immediately, Moses cries five words to God, El na r’fa na lah. – Please God, heal her. These 5 words are the only words uttered by Moses in this Torah portion. Each of these short words ends in a vowel, as if Moses is crying out, shouting to God with all of his strength. Saying the words, you can almost feel the deep longing of Moses’ words.
(sing) I wanna sing sing sing I wanna shout shout shout I wanna sing I wanna shout, praise the lord! Praising the Lord, giving thanks…
Now that we are free, the real work begins. … This Torah portion of P’kudei concludes the building of the Tabernacle. The Israelites left Egypt,…
51 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. led three marches between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama. These marches were meant to highlight the social injustices against African-American citizens. Specifically, black Americans wanted to highlight the unconstitutional injustice of not being able to vote.
When I turned 14, I was excited to get my first job at Publix. I bagged groceries until just after my 18th birthday.
For the most part, I enjoyed interacting with people on the short walk to their cars. But around mid-December, I’d be filled with anxiety during my chats with customers. They’d ask about holiday plans, and then talk about their holiday plans. So far, so good. But then they’d say two words. And despite the dozens of interactions that ended with these two words, I never knew how I should respond.