Emanuel Updates - Week of June 20

Date: June 20th 2008

Share your synagogue with your friends who are not yet members.

There are some fun activities coming up including

Sing It Yourself Shabbat this Friday June 20^th (with potluck following),

the annual Swim Party and BBQ at the JCC on Sunday, August 17,

In this Update:

- Upcoming Services

- In the community

- Silicon Valley Duck Race (supporting Jewish Family Services and Temple Emanu-El)

- JCC Summer Classes

- Torah Portion

UPCOMING SERVICES

Friday, June 20: 6:30 PM Sing It Yourself Shabbat with lots of music

Tot Shabbat starts at the same time. After the blessings and some songs, those families will move to the patio between the education building and Temple House for potluck dinner and play time.

Potluck Dinner for the other families in Temple House following the service.

Saturday, June 21: 9:00 AM Shabbat Morning Minyan led by Cantor Intern Meeka Simerly

Friday, June 27: 6:30 PM Kabbalat Shabbat Service, led by Jonathan Hirshon and Becca Bronstein.

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IN THE COMMUNITY…

Silicon Valley Duck Race: THIS SUNDAY!! June 22^nd

Come on down for the festival, food and games, beginning at 11:00am. Bring the entire family! Jewish organizations in the South Bay are cooperating in this quacky fun day, sponsored by Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley, which provides social, vocational, counseling, crisis intervention, refugee resettlement services and programs for seniors.

The best way to adopt your ducks is online at www.siliconvalleyduckrace.org. Go to the right of the home page and click on “Temple Emanu-El” as your team, and your synagogue will receive $2 for every $5 donated.

JCC SUMMER COURSE LIST

For more information:
Rabbi Joshua Fenton, Director of the Center for Jewish Life & Learning, rabbifenton@svjcc.org or 408.357.7413

1. Creating a Jewish Home Crash Course

In just 6 weeks we will investigate what Jewish living is and what it means to build a Jewish home. Topics will include Shabbat, Keeping Kosher, Family, Charity, Jewish Holidays, and the Synagogue.

Mondays 12:30-2:00 6/30-8/4

$45.00 members; $55.00 non-members

No Hebrew Required

2. What is a Good Life?

Drop in and learn a little with Rabbi Fenton. In this informal study session we focus on the question, “What is ethical living?” as we investigate what classical Jewish texts have to say on the topic.

Wednesdays 11:00-12:15

Ongoing. Free. No Hebrew Required.

3. Silicon Valley Beit Midrash

The APJCC and participating local Synagogues are excited to announce the opening of the Silicon Valley Beit Midrash. Join local Rabbis on Thursday mornings in study and discussion.

9:00-10:00 Introduction to Jewish Thought Through Text

10:15-11:45 Advanced Talmud Study

Location: Congregation Sinai of Willow Glen

Ongoing. Free.

4. Hebrew Reading Crash Course Part II

Take your Hebrew reading skills to the next level with this course that promises further instruction in Hebrew reading with an added focus on comprehension. This course begins where Crash Course 1 leaves off.

Tuesdays 12:30-2:00 5/20-7/1 (no classes on 6/10)

$60.00 members; $75.00 non-members

Instructor: Rabbi Simcha Green

5. Summer Hebrew Intensive

Have you always wanted to spend some time and focus on improving your Hebrew skills? Join the APJCC Summer Hebrew Intensive. This 12 course program lasting 6 weeks will focus on practical Hebrew skills: conversation, strengthening reading and comprehension, and expanding vocabulary.

Some Hebrew required/Graduates of the Crash Course are welcome

Tuesdays and Thursdays 7:30-9:00 pm 6/24-8/7

$110.00 members; $125.00 non-members

Instructor: Sheryl Wit

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Refuah Shleymah – we pray for the following individuals – that they will be returned to good health in short order so they can resume a full life with their loved ones.

- Arthur Cagan

- Judith Siegel

- Eva Stanley

- Joelle Wolf

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Torah Portion of the Week from www.urj.org

Sh'lach L'cha, Numbers 13:1−15:41
Shabbat, June 21, 2008 / 18 Sivan, 5768
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pp. 1,107−1,122 ; Revised Edition, pp. 977−997 ;
The Torah: A Women's Commentary , pp. 869–892
Haftarah, Joshua 2:1−24
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pp.1,262−1,264; Revised Edition, pp.998−1,000

To listen to this commentary, please click here.

D'VAR TORAH |

Sh'lach L'cha: Half-Way through: Promises of Home
Sue Levi Elwell

The portion begins with Moses's deliberations about who should represent each of the twelve tribes on the scouting expedition to Canaan. Moses chooses twelve men whose names surprise the reader because of their unfamiliarity. At the time they were chosen, these men were considered appropriate representatives of their respective communities. We may assume that Moses chose them because they were known to be thoughtful, responsible, and responsive individuals whose presence would reflect the tribe's strength and pride. Yet the newness of these names for the attentive reader casts doubt on the success of their shared venture; indeed, as the portion proceeds, we discover that this select group of chieftains lacks the courage and vision to guide the Jewish people onto the next step on their journey. Professor Nili Fox writes, "The text reiterates their leadership status, probably to underscore their ultimate failure as leaders and to highlight their faithlessness" ( The Torah: A Women's Commentary, Commentary, ed. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi [New York: URJ Press, 2008], p. 871). Why do they fail? And does this portion also include directions for alternative routes to success?

Can a collection of individuals, however gifted or talented, act together if they do not know one another? One of the lessons of history that we learn again and again is that even "all stars" need to practice together, learning one another's strengths and weaknesses in order to achieve a shared goal. The text reveals nothing about the scouts' process or their work to become an effective search and assessment team. Without shared time and experience, how can these men choose the future home for the Israelites' settlement?

The twelve men go forth, and as often happens, the experience of the journey is vastly different for each individual traveler. As we reflect on a shared experience, how many of us marvel at how substantially different our perspectives and responses to encounters and situations are from those of our traveling companions? In this case, the majority of those who went out into the land to measure and assess both its potential and its population return frightened by the vastness of the land and the size of its inhabitants. Only two men, Joshua and Caleb, representing the tribes of Ephraim and Judah, bring back a positive report. It is they who encourage the people to enter the land and to follow God's direction to take it as their own.

Reading this parashah as a discrete unit, its conclusion may hold two keys to mitigating the terror of both the scouts and the people with whom they share their assessment of the land that "devours its settlers" (Numbers 13:32). Joshua and Caleb challenge their compatriots' assessment of Canaan because of their surety, in spite of the obstacles they have encountered, that the Holy One will deliver the land into their hands: "Have no fear then of the people of the country, for they are our prey: their protection has departed from them, but the Eternal is with us!" (Numbers 14:9). The modern reader may be troubled by this text. Yet it also shows how Joshua and Caleb reject defeatism and fear-based decision making, remembering God's promise to give this land to the Israelite people, a commitment that is reiterated throughout the Torah and is repeated in the opening sentence of this parashah (Numbers 13:1–2). But finally, this portion positions Joshua and Caleb as leaders who are guided by faith and not fear, men who are able to maintain a vision of a shared future even when others insist that the mission is impossible.

The portion concludes with what Nili Fox labels, "An insertion of a miscellany of laws" (p. 870). Two of the laws that are introduced here are not miscellaneous; rather, they can be read as providing a framework for a long and successful tenure in the land.

The first of these laws is sometimes referred to as “the law of challah," direction for the separation and blessing over a portion of the dough by those who prepare the community's bread. This seemingly simple act is grounded in both historic and contemporary time, for those who observe this commandment are remembering the ancient temple and its sacrificial rituals, while simultaneously acknowledging the essential role of bread in sustaining life. Only those who are settled can cultivate and harvest grain, build and sustain ovens, and regularly prepare bread. In a culture that makes a distinction between journey bread (matzah) and the bread of settled people (challah), the insertion of this directive in this portion challenges the difficulty of conquering the land with the benefit of creating and maintaining a culture that includes fulfilling this simple and essential commandment. "When you enter the land to which I am taking you and you eat the bread of the land, you shall set some aside as a gift to the Eternal. . ." (Numbers 15:18–19).

The laws of tzitzit that conclude the chapter also point toward both honoring the past and looking toward the future. Tzitzit, and the garments to which they are attached, both remind the individual wearer of the connection to the Holy One and signal the power of prayer in creating and sustaining community. Used throughout the life cycle, the tallit wraps infants when they are welcomed into the community of Israel with a b'rit ceremony, and tallitot are held over the heads of school children who are called up to the bima for blessing. The bar or bat mitzvah celebrant dons a tallit for the first time when called to the Torah, and often, the same tallit is used as a chuppah when the person gets married. In addition to being worn during daily prayer, the tallit is also used as a burial garment, after its tzitzit have been cut. The tallit, while it can be worn in private, is a powerful symbol of the continuity of a settled, God-centered community.

Professor Claudia Setzer teaches that Sh'mot Rabbah 7.5 mentions challah and tzitzit as mitzvot performed in cities that are rewarded by blessing. "While only men must fulfill tzitzit . . . rabbinic Judaism considered challah . . . to be specifically female ritual responsibilities" ( The Torah: A Women's Commentary, p. 1,211). By linking challah and tzitzit, Sh'lach L'cha reaches out to all members of the wandering community and points to the blessings of settlement.

On their journey through Canaan, the scouts forget home. They forget the smell and taste of fresh-baked bread that welcomes the traveler. They forget that coming together to share prayer—and planning—can be an essential source of strength. Disconnected, perhaps, from one another, they meet strangers and see them as threatening giants. Their fears overwhelm their memory of their destiny: to settle in a land promised to their ancestors, to them, and to their offspring. They forget that our people's covenant is one of hope and faith. Joshua and Caleb remember God's promise and speak their truth to the collective. They stand up to fear and speak of hope. When the voices of a frightened majority overwhelm us, do we remember to turn to one another for strength? Do we remember that no one can make us feel less than human? In Numbers 14:3 the Israelites cry out, "Why is the Eternal taking us to that land to fall by the sword? . . . . It would be better for us to go back to Egypt!" Do we, like our ancestors, plead for a return to slavery, forgetting that freedom demands taking risks? When the unknown dwarfs our sensibilities, can we remember the promise—and reality—of a shared, sustaining home?

Thanks to Professor Andrea Weiss, associate editor of The Torah: A Women's Commentary , for her continuing guidance and direction.

Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell , Ph.D., serves as the director of the URJ Pennsylvania Council and the Federation of Reform Synagogues of Greater Philadelphia and as co-president of the Women's Rabbinic Network.

DAVAR ACHER |

The Promised Land Awaits
Jeffrey J. Sirkman

What do the ten spies forget that prevents them from finding the faith to believe in the promise of their mission? What did the scouts see (or fail to perceive) that so clouded their vision and crushed their spirits? Consider three possibilities, each one speaking to us about journeys we've undertaken or missions that we must—but dare not to—perform, which could lead toward our "promised land."

To begin with, the scouts failed to fulfill the mission on which they were sent. Moses instructs them to "see what kind of country it is " (Numbers 13:18) to discover as much as they could about the life and livelihood of the inhabitants and the lay of the land. This they accomplish. But the spies' "show-and-tell" spirals into a "tell-all" as they douse their scouting discoveries with self-doubt, adding one unsolicited word that turns their positive report into a formidable forecast: Efes . . . ,"However . . ." (Numbers 13:28). As the Alshech understands, the spies tried to impose their own interpretation on the facts at hand—explaining away the truth (Rabbi Moshe Alshech, Torat Mosheh , on Numbers 13:28–33).

Not only did the scouts suffer from poor external vision, but they also lacked the inner vision to see themselves truthfully, saying, "We looked like grasshoppers to ourselves" (Numbers 13:33). Menachem Mendel of Kotzk asks, "What possible difference could it make for you to know or even care how you appear in the eyes of others?" (cited in Lawrence Kushner and Kerry Olitzky, Sparks Beneath the Surface [Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson, 1995], p. 188). When we look at ourselves in the mirror and don't much like what we see, it is unfortunate. But when we allow the projections of how others may perceive us to determine our own self-perception, that is unforgivable. The essential act of believing in yourself is to look in that mirror and see inside—a reflection of an Image that makes you somehow sacred.

Most importantly, Torah's shortsighted ten forgot how they got so far in the
first place! "It was taught: Rabbi Chanina the son of Rabbi Pappa said: With these words the spies spoke a horrendous thing, saying, ‘Ki chazak hu mimenu. ' Read it not ‘They [the inhabitants of the land] are stronger than we,' but ‘ mimenu— than He . ' Even the Master of the house cannot remove His furniture from it!" (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 35a). Falling prey to their own self-perceived inadequacy, they failed to remember the amazing redemption they'd experienced. Thinking themselves the ultimate determinants of B'nei Yisrael' s destiny, the scouts could not understand that the territory they'd just seen was indeed the Promised Land.

Sometimes, we just have to go on faith—certainly, faith in ourselves. But likewise, we need faith in something greater than who we are and what we see. How else do we ever expect to attain life aspirations far beyond our reach? Without that visionary faith, how will we confront the persistent problems that plague our world? Only Caleb and Joshua understood: becoming Israel means believing not only that we are more than ourselves collectively, but also that "we can reach higher," aloh naaleh (Numbers 13:30), for the Promised Land awaits.

Rabbi Jeffrey J. Sirkman is senior rabbi at Larchmont Temple in Larchmont, New York.