In this week’s double parashah, B’har/B’chukotai, we read of the mitzvah to observe the yovel, the fiftieth “Jubilee” year. Leviticus 25:10 tells us that the yovel: “shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to your holding and each of you shall return to your family.”

For a year (actually two because the 49th is the sabbatical year) the land is to lie fallow. Nothing is to be planted, and God promises the Israelites that enough food will grow for them to eat and stay healthy until the harvest returns after their resumption of planting in the fifty-first year. And, as the text demands, every Israelite is to return to the original tribal land that was parceled out during Joshua’s conquest of Canaan.

Commenting on this passage, Rabbi Yitzkhak Nafkha (third century CE) looked at Psalm 103:20 (“Bless the Eternal, O God’s angels, mighty creatures who do God’s bidding, ever obedient to God’s word.”) and wrote, “This is referring to those who observe the mitzvah of letting the land lie fallow. Why are they called ‘mighty creatures’? Because while it’s common for a person to fulfill a commandment for one day, for one Shabbat, or even for one month, can one do so for an entire year? This person sees his field and trees ownerless, his fences broken and fruits eaten, yet controls himself and does not speak. Our rabbis taught, ‘Who is strong? One who controls passion.’ Can there be a mightier creature than a person like this?”

In reflecting on this passage I cannot help but to think about the frenzied age we live in, where the passage of one day or one hour, is seen as important. We are in a time where the expression 24/7 is carried as a badge of honor. Twitter, Facebook, email, cell phone, laptop: these are the instruments of our constant interaction with – what?

Wired. That is the one word in the lexicon unleashed by the computer age which perfectly captures how we feel, whether we like it or not.

We have realized the dream of the futurists, those mostly Italian artists in the early 20th century who glorified the themes they saw associated with the future: speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city.

The founder of futurism, Filippo Marinetti, gives us a taste of the dream in this quote from 1909: “Time and space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have already created eternal, omnipresent speed… …(we will sing of) the vibrant nightly fervour of arsenals and shipyards with violent electric moons; greedy railway stations that devour smoke-plumbed serpents… …deep-chested locomotives whose wheels paw the tracks like the hoves of enormous steel horses.”

Even of we have become virtual cyborgs, however, we nevertheless have our humanity – a humanity that calls us to long and very long tasks: like raising our children, honoring our parents, loving our spouse and building our house of worship.

It’s springtime. And for many of us it is the time for planting. Whether it is a flower or vegetable garden, or maybe just a few new shrubs for the landscape that surrounds our home, we love to plant things and watch them grow. Once they are grown and bear fruit or flowers, we pause and give thanks for the bounty. Good rains, fresh air and lots of sunshine, all provided by God, make this garden beautiful.

Our Ancestors were an agricultural people. Planting, tending and harvesting gardens were not only for enjoyment, but a necessity. And many of our Jewish holidays are based on agricultural themes. So it is in our nature that we have an innate wish to see things flourish, to populate a barren piece of land with color and sustenance.

Temple Shirat Shalom began its short existence with just a handful of seeds. Like the seeds we plant in our garden, we watered and nurtured them. We watched the seeds multiply and branch out to bring a new life to an otherwise dry patch of land.
After many months of nurturing our garden, we pause and give thanks. Did we have rain? Of course we did. And we needed the rain to make our roots that much stronger. Did we have fresh air? Yes … a fresh new start enabling us to maintain our faith and strengthen our bonds. Did we have sunshine? There was lots of sunshine. The sunshine brought us warmth, light and laughter and showed us the path to a new way to worship. We were given all that we needed to grow our Temple. Where once there was a dry landscape, we now have a beautiful garden where God dwells.

D’var Torah for Parshat Vayikra & Parshat Hachodesh March 23rd, 2012
This week’s Parshah is Vayikra, the first section of the book of Leviticus. This Shabbat also coincides with Rosh Chodesh Nissan (the new month) and Parshat Hachodesh, the time when the new month of Nissan is arriving, signaling the start of Passover preparations. The main theme of Vayikra is about the different kinds of sacrifices that could be offered at the Temple, but the details of this ritual may be difficult for us to relate to in the modern day. As we all know, there is no Temple, animal sacrifices are not performed, and these practices may be seen as archaic and cruel to animals. I do believe that the description of the biblical ritual of ‘sacrifices’ contains themes that are relevant to our lives today and teach us how to live as modern Jews who are engaged in our community.
The most important consequence of the sacrifice ritual, at least after the Temple was destroyed, is that Jewish prayer developed and replaced animal sacrifices. In fact, organized Jewish prayer within synagogues flourished after the second Temple was destroyed, and the traditional number & order of prayers follows the sacrifices that were given in the Temple. It is important to realize that the replacement of the sacrifice ritual is the origin of Jews getting together for an organized Shabbat service, as we are doing tonight. Depending on the tradition of one’s prayer service, much of the rabbinical liturgy is modeled off the Temple sacrifice ritual. In fact, some prayers include the actual description of the sacrifice of that day, and this directly connects us to our ancestors who were practicing biblical Judaism at that time. It is also interesting to note that most sacrifices involved both the priests (Kohanim) as well as the laity in the preparation and ritual of the sacrifice. We tend to follow this model in our prayer services as well, as the clergy functions to guide and inspire us in our prayers, interact in a down-to-earth manner with the congregation, and give us spiritual leadership. For these reasons, the themes contained in the sacrifice ritual, although the details may seem irrelevant to us now, do contain messages which are applicable to leading a Jewish life and constructing a Jewish prayer service.
The traditional reading for this week includes the biblical story of the preparation of the Passover offering, as the reading begins by describing the 2 weeks before Passover when the new month of Nissan arrived. The Torah describes that a goat would be chosen for the offering and would be watched for 4 days before being slaughtered for the Passover offering, and its blood would be placed on the Jews’ doorposts so the angel of death would pass over these houses. While this ritual is not categorized as a Temple sacrifice, it is actually the first sacrifice that the Jewish people made as a nation. It is true that these offerings were made by each family separately as they were about to leave Egypt, and they did not involve a priest, but there is still a strong link between the Passover offering and the Temple sacrifice ritual. In fact, the Seder that we celebrate today is based largely on the Passover offering that was made, as we were instructed at that time to eat Matzahs, bitter herbs, and not to eat leavened bread (or Chametz) for the Passover holiday. So when I think about the ancient sacrifice ritual, the ideas of community, organized prayer with devoted leadership, and connection with our ancestors come to my mind. In addition, the foundation of one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays, namely Passover, included a sacrifice, the Passover offering. I would doubt that most Jewish families today, when they sit down to their Passover Seder, think about ancient sacrifices. They are probably more concerned with hosting their guests and watching the amount of time it takes to complete the Seder ritual before eating the festive meal, but it is important to remember the biblical origin of the holiday rituals.
When discussing sacrifices, I believe it is important to think about linking the term ‘sacrifice’ from the past to the present. In ancient times, the animal was sacrificing its life for the Jewish people to worship appropriately, but now, we all must make our own sacrifices, especially when we come together to organize worshiping in this synagogue. I can only imagine the time and effort that was dedicated by numerous individuals to make this synagogue function properly and allow the Jews of our community to worship with spirituality, friendship and joy and have all the associated services of a synagogue. All of us have to sacrifice something to build the community and when everybody does their small share of the work, the whole community can benefit. I would hope that we can continue the spirit of communal giving, just as the Jews who were leaving Egypt did during the first Passover. We can continue the ancient tradition of sacrifice in a modern way in our own prayer community, and learn from the past practices to benefit us for this special Shabbat and upcoming Passover holiday. I want to thank the Cantor for asking me to give this D’var Torah, as I learned quite a bit while preparing it and I hope everyone here learned something new as well. I wish you all a Shabbat Shalom and a healthy and happy Passover to you and your families.

Serene, warm and comfortable describes the mood at last week’s Shabbat Service. The celebration took place at the home of Don and Judy Belmont who have, on more than one occasion, opened their home to the congregants of Temple Shirat Shalom.

This intimate Shabbat setting served as the backdrop for our weekly Sermon given by Marcia Berkow. Marcia states, “The Torah tells us that God commanded that each of us bring to the building what our heart commands us. The Torah goes on to say that each of us brought more than was needed. In this way no one can say this part of the Tabernacle was built because of what I gave.”

How appropriate these words are for the congregants of our new Temple. How relevant the message, given to the Israelites thousands of years ago, is to us today as we build our new spiritual community.

Each member has brought with them a special gift from their hearts; a donation, or an inherent talent or precious free time. There are those who teach our children or lead lectures for the adults, the ones who schlep the Holy Suitcase to each Service, those who prepare or shop for our Onegs, give a Sermon at Shabbat Services, serve on committees, play an instrument or sing in our home band, The Wandering Jews, set up and clean up after each event, bring flowers for High Holy days, organize fund raisers, attend fund raising events, build an ark, donate money and/or time and, finally, attend a Shabbat Service whenever they can. All of these actions, and many more, are the gifts each and every one of us brings to the place where God dwells among us.

Marcia concludes her Sermon with, “Here at TSS we have yet to build the physical structure of God’s dwelling place. But, with our shared values, vision and faith we have started on the road that our ancestors started for us.”