Parashat Shoftim (Judges) Deuteronomy 16:18 - 21:9
HafTorah Isaiah 51:12 - 52:12
Dear friends,
צֶדֶק צֶדֶק תִּרְדּף "Justice, Justice, Shall You Pursue" Deuteronomy 16:20 opens the Torah portion of Shoftim, and is the emphasis of this week's incredibly timely relevant T orah reading. The Children of Israel on the brink of entering the Holy Land are admonished to value justice over all else (this is why "justice" is emphasized by being repeated צֶדֶק צֶדֶק and to seek leaders who are honest and will not use the office for any personal gain, be it possessions or power. As we prepare for our own national and local elections, we must keep the lessons learned from Shoftim uppermost in our minds. The examples offered in the Torah (not having too many wives or horses or amassing gold and silver) but the inference has been relevant for all time and continues today. Let's keep this in mind as we select our future leaders and most of all, let's make certain to exercise the right to vote for them. And as the Prophet Isaiah instructs us in this week's Haftorah portion (the 4th of 7 Haftorahs of Consolation between Tisha B'Av and Rosh Hashanah), we must follow up the lessons of
Shoftim to "plant heaven and establish the earth for our children".
As we are now into the last Hebrew month (Elul) of the year, the preparations for the High Holy Days grow more intense. So for the next three weeks we will be emphasizing one of the three major themes of Rosh Hashanah, those of Malchuyot מלכויות (Adonai as the true leader), Zichronot זכרונות (remembrance), and Shofarot שופרות (revelation).
This week, I am thinking of Zichronot as I recall the lives of my parents and others who have meant so much to me. Together with Chris, my sister, and my brother-in-law, we Zoomed into a fascinating lecture on the long history of the Jews of Puglia, the part of Italy that encompasses the "boot" in the southeastern part of the country. After surviving the Shoah, my father resided in one of the several Displaced Persons (DP) Camps in that region for several years. It was here that he and many others who had lost everything began to recover from the trauma and restart their lives. We hope to follow in his footsteps and travel there in the near future in an attempt to walk in his footsteps and learn how his experiences helped shape ours to this very day. As if this wasn't rewarding enough, we learned from the lecture and follow-up study that Puglia was critical to the rebirth of Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple and the expulsion of Jews from the Holy Land. In the year 70 of the Common Era, the Romans expelled most of the Jews from Jerusalem and sent them by boat to Puglia where they were generally well received by the natives and built strong communities until the late medieval period when most left for villages within the Ottoman Empire and eventually throughout Europe. Then incredibly many returned to Puglia centuries later having survived the Holocaust and, on their way back to Israel after being exiled for nearly 1,900 years!
Every one of us has a history, and I hope you will use this important time in our calendar to revisit it, learn from it, and be inspired by what we discover. On Sunday, September 29th just before Rosh Hashanah, we will be visiting the cemeteries (Beit Olam in Trinity, Grace Memorial in Hudson, and the National Cemetery in Bushnell) to remember all who came before us and share family stories.
Let's continue to help build the momentum of the season by attending services between now and Rosh Hashanah to pray together and study the concepts of justice and leadership in the Book of Deuteronomy and the words of Isaiah tonight and every Friday at 7:30 pm and tomorrow and every Saturday at 9:30 am in-person or on Zoom to help make our minyan and enhance the experience of community in our shul.
Shabbat Shalom,
Ron Becker,
Spiritual Leader
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FRIDAY:
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