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Shabbat Massai
Numbers 33:1-36:13
Numbers 28:9-15 (For Rosh Hodesh Av)
Candle Lighting Time: Friday, August 1, 2008 7:52 P.M.
The Children of Israel’s 40 year journey has come to an end. They stand on
the other side of the Jordan River ready to enter the Promised Land of
Israel. Moses reviews their 40 year itinerary. Rashi, citing Moses Ha
Darsham, calculates that if we omit the first and the last years, when the
Israelites were constantly on the move, there were only 20 stations during
38 years. (Etz Hayyim commentary below the line, page 954) That means the
pulled up stakes about once every other year. In other words, they were not
constantly packing and unpacking. Nevertheless, life was not always a
picnic for the Israelites in the wilderness. Sometimes they thirsted for
water and hungered for food. Other times they were attacked by enemies.
We can understand our ancestors’ journey from oasis to oasis as a metaphor
for our own life’s journeys. Similarly we face trials, tribulations and
challenges during our lifetime. Dr. Naomi Remen wrote, “Accidents and
natural disasters often cause people to feel that life is fragile. In my
experience, life can change abruptly and end without warning, but life is
not fragile. There is a difference between impermanence and fragility.
Even on the physiological level, the body is an intricate design of checks
and balances, elegant strategies of survival, balances and rebalances.
Anyone who has witnessed the recovery from such massive and invasive
interventions as bone marrow transplant or open heart surgery comes away
with a sense of deep respect, if not awe, for the ability of the body to
survive. This is as true in age as it is in youth. There is a tenacity
toward life which is present at the intracellular level without which even
the most sophisticated of medical interventions would not succeed… That
tenacity toward life endures in all of us, undiminished, until the moment of
our death.” (From “Kitchen Table Wisdom” pages 7-8)
Just as our ancestors made it through the wilderness to Promised Land with
God’s help, with God’s help we too will make it through our own life’s
journeys with its reward at the very end.
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.
Saturday, August 9, 2008 Joint Tisha B’Av services at Little Neck Services
Shabbat Mincha 6:30 p.m.
Pre-fast meal follows Mincha
Study Program 7:45- 8:30 p.m.
Evening Service with candle-light Reading of Eicha (Lamentations) 8:30 p.m
CLICK HERE FOR
Parshat Mase Rosh Hodesh Av
(Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4; 4:1-2)
August 2, 2008
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