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Shabbat Toldot
Genesis 25:19-28-:9
Candle Lighting Time: Friday, Nov. 9, 2007 4:25 p.m.
Back in 1949 Jack Wurm was walking along a San Francisco beach where he
came across a bottle with a piece of paper in it. As he read the note, he
discovered that it was the last will and testament of Daisy Singer
Alexander, heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. The note read: “To
avoid confusion, I leave my entire estate to the lucky person who finds
this bottle and to my attorney, Barry Cohen, share and share alike.
According to a columnist who reported this story in a column of his, the
courts accepted the theory that the heiress had written the note 12 years
earlier and ad thrown the bottle into the Thames River in London, from
where it had drifted across the oceans to the feet of a penniless and
jobless Jack Wurm. His chance discovery netted him over 6 million dollars
in cash and Singer stock. How would you like to have been making Mr.
Wurm’s footprints on that San Francisco beach? What a find!
Money is nice but it isn’t everything. We learn about a different and
more important kind of inheritance in this week’s Torah portion. Of
course, I am talking about our spiritual inheritance found in Isaac’s two
blessings of Jacob. Many people have recognized its inherent worth.
President Calvin Coolidge extolled this spiritual heritage of the Jewish
people when he wrote, “Every inheritance of the Jewish people, every
teaching of their secular history and religious experience, draws them
powerfully to the side of charity, liberty and progress. (The Spiritual
Foundation of America as quoted from “Lights from Jewish Lamps” edited by
Sidney Greenberg, page 272)” What a beautiful heritage and inheritance we
have. Money is nice, but if you want to feel rich, just count all the
things you have that money can’t buy.
Unfortunately there are Jews who disdain or deny our spiritual legacy just
as Esau did so long ago in this week’s Torah portion. Esau rejects the
spiritual treasures of the Jewish people. He sells his birthright to Jacob
for a bowl of lentil stew. After swearing to sell Jacob the birthright
the Torah goes out of its way to say that “… did Esau spurn the
birthright.” (Gen. 25: 34) By accepting the Torah and the mitzvot into
your lives, you become an heir of God. Your future is secure! Think
about what you have. Think about what it will mean to you and all your
future descendants. The psalmist said that this “inheritance shall be
forever.” (37:18) 6 million dollars doesn’t even begin to compare with our
spiritual inheritance!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Gary Greene
Services Schedule:
Friday night 7:00 p.m.
Shabbat 9:00 a.m.
Mon. & Thurs 6:30 a.m.
Sun. -Thurs night 7:30 p.m.
Announcements:
Thursday, November 8th Adult Education class 7:45 p.m. - 8:45 p.m. Genesis
taught by Dr. Carl Gussin.
Shabbat, November 10th, We celebrate the Bat Mitzvah of Stefani Greenstein
Sunday, November 11th 9a.m.-2p.m. Donate Blood at the Young Israel of New
Hyde Park. MJCC is one of the sponsoring institutions.
Tuesday, November 13th Adult Education classes, 10:00 a.m. The Book of Ezra,
no previous Hebrew or Bible classes required. 11:00 a.m. The Arab in
Israeli Short Story. This week we shall read A. B. Yehoshua’s “Facing the
Forests”
Board Social 7:00 p.m.
In The Community
Sunday, November 11 at 10:00 a.m. In the observance of Kristlenacht, Scott
Miller of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. is a JTS
graduate will be at the Israel Center for Conservative Judaism based on his
most recent novel on the St. Louis.
An unsolved mystery hovered over America for over sixty years – and that is
“What ever became of the passengers who sailed on the ill-fated voyage of
the refugee ship St. Louis?”
In May of 1939, the St. Louis departed from Hamburg, Germany, sailing for
Havana, Cuba, with 937 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism. The passengers had
purchased Cuban visas where they hoped to wait until their US visa numbers
were called and would be able to enter the United States. Upon arrival, the
Cuban government rejected the visas’ authenticity, and the ship then sailed
to the coast of Miami – its passengers hoping for early entry into the
United States. They were instead informed by the State Department that they
would have to “wait their turn” and sail back to Europe.
For sixty years their fates were unknown, until Scott Miller and a colleague
at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum launched an investigation to
identify what happened to every person on board. Scott Miller will discuss
how he put the missing pieces together – scouring archives, Jewish
communities, and cemeteries around the world, including those in Havana,
Europe, Jerusalem and New York City; went door-to-door in neighborhoods
populated by German-Jewish immigrants; and launched a worldwide media
campaign looking for clues – culminating in the discovery of what happened
to each of the 937 passengers and a re-telling of this tragic story in
Holocaust history.
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