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Shabbat
Yitro
Exodus 18:1-20:23
Candle Lighting Time: Friday, January 25, 2008 4: 46P.M.
In
parashat Yitro, the Jewish people stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai and
accepted the Asseret Dibrot, the Ten Commandments. Even without divine
revelation, we would have understood the need for the commandments,
don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, and don’t bear false
witness against your neighbor. But have you ever wondered why observing
the Sabbath was included in the mix? “Remember the Sabbath day and keep
it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh
day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God: you shall not do any work—you,
your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the
stranger who is within your settlements. For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and He rested on the
seventh day; therefore the
Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Ex 20: 8-11)
The answer is simple. The need for a Sabbath rest in our lives is a
physical law, interwoven with every nerve and sinew of the human frame.
If we obey it, we prolong our days. If we defy it, we wear out. The
French revolutionists, in their mad revolt against everything divine,
issued a decree that every tenth day should be observed. In 12 months
the nation was quivering in a nervous fever of exhaustion. That
sufficed, and the decree was revoked. The socialist and atheist Prudhon
once wrote, “If anything could persuade me of the truth of the
Scripture, it would be their anticipation of the scientific fact that
man requires an exact seventh of his life for rest.”
Get off the never-ending treadmill of work. Use the Shabbat to grow
spiritually by deepening your relationship with God through prayer and
study. Let your family grow stronger by allowing the Shabbat to be
family quality time that no T.V., video games, nor shopping trips to the
mall can intervene and interrupt.
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:
Saturday, January 26 Join us for our Second film in our Israel Film Festival
in honor of Israel’s 60th Birthday.
Donation of $5.00 in advance or $7.00 at the door. All donations will be
put towards refurbishing our lobby. Please make all checks out to MJCC with
a notation Israel Film Festival
Tuesday, January 29 Adult Education Classes 10 a.m. as usual. We are
studying the Book of Nechemiah in the Bible and reading Modern Israeli
poetry in translation.
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