Announcements
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Wednesday, January 252:00-3:00pmThe Book of Exodus: Torah Session We will be doing a deep dive into the Book of Exodus. All you need to be part of the class is access to a Jewish Bible. It's a great way to prepare for Passover months in advance! We will be recording classes should you miss one. It's never too late to join! You can jump in and out any time. Please email Rabbi Linda if you are interested |
Rabbi's Message
January 20, 2023
27 Tevet 5783
PARASHAT VAERA
Exodus 6:2 - 9:35
Dear Friends,
At the burning bush, Moses tells God, I am not the man for this job -- three times. If we take a step back and look at the situation dispassionately, we see Moses, aware that he is on holy ground, able to recognize that he is in the presence of the Divine, yet able to get into a dialog with God. Before we look at the outcome of this interaction, it is important to understand what is being modeled for us at this moment. Despite the fact that none of us is Moses, we can still be strengthened by the knowledge that we can question what is being asked of us. Sometimes that very process of questioning gives us the strength to go forward and do that which seems impossible.
Parshat Va’era, “and I appeared” (Exodus 6:2-9:35), can be looked at as a portion that gives us insight into the power of the choices we make and the ways in which they can enable us to be our best selves or can lead us to rely on past behaviors believing ourselves incapable of change and growth.
When we look at Pharoah in Va’era, we see a man who is incapable of adjusting his line of vision and of letting go of past behaviors to find a new direction. Pharoah’s behavior from the start is that of a man used to getting what he wants no matter the cost to others. Increasing the labor of the Hebrews is a way of asserting his authority. He says no when the first 5 plagues come his way and his heart hardens as soon as the immediacy of the plague has subsided. So, when we are told that God hardened Pharoah’s heart at the 6th plague, Pharoah’s ability to change and truly see what was happening to his own people was no longer possible.
Mitzvah of the Week
This has been a week of talking to people about creating meaning.
Creating meaning out of the everyday, creating meaning by looking backward to understand our own journey seeing how far we have come and how much we have learned.
So often we are rushing headlong to the next thing on our path, that we fail to stop and consider where we are and how we got there.
Out of these conversations came a very important AHA moment --it is never too late. It is never too late to forgive, to see one another more fully, to set an old fear aside, or to take a deep breath and be grateful for what one has learned along the way. This week’s mitzvah is just for you. I invite you to take a deep breath and look at the plus column so that you can see the many ways in which you can love and care for yourself, enabling you to keep going. I share with you this interpretation of the Ahava Rabbah prayer. May it be a source of guidance.
Ahava Rabbah Prayer - Interpretation by Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg
What is a great love?
A love that reaches deep inside our hearts and minds and never departs.
An expanding, continually surpassing compassion that flows toward and within us.
Those who came before us were blessed to learn how it truly is.
So may we have the merit to be open to this learning.
Let us know that we are held in an embrace of infinite kindness.
Let us become still.
Still enough to hear,
Still enough to get clear,
Still enough to know suffering and its release.
May we embody this wisdom.
May it shine from our eyes
As the love that it is.
May our minds and hearts be unified to behold with love and wonder
That which is ever becoming.
No more victims, no more powerlessness, no more blaming or
shaming each other and ourselves.
For our faith in this ,
In this sacred this, makes us joyous.
Continually gathering peacefully from the dispersed and distracted
into this right here, our home.
We engage in an ever faithful and mysterious process of drawing
close to your name, what is, sacred love.
