Friday

6:15 PM

Shabbat Evening Services

In person and live-streamed

Saturday

9:30 AM

Shabbat Morning Services

followed by Kiddush Luncheon

In person and live-streamed

Saturday

10 AM

Babysitting

Saturday

10:30 AM

Learn to Lead

(For ages 7-12)

Sunday

9 AM

Shul School

Sunday

9:15 AM

Minyan with Men's Club

In person and available on Zoom

COVID-19 UPDATE

Our Health Committee update as of December 7, 2022 is as follows:



'Tis the season for respiratory viruses . . . A "tridemic" of COVID, influenza, and RSV is currently upon us. As a result, we strongly encourage you to stay up to date with your COVID and flu vaccines. Bivalent COVID boosters are available for those ages 5 years and older. Flu vaccine is available for those ages 6 months and older.  Please visit vaccines.gov to find a location near you.  We also encourage frequent handwashing and wearing a mask in crowded indoor spaces. And if you are feeling sick, please stay home to help reduce the transmission of virus to others. Zay gezunt! Be well!

Please click HERE to read our guidelines in full.

When you’re a locust, you’re a locust all the way, as the saying goes. Well, maybe you remember it differently, but you get the idea. The concept is that once you join a “brotherhood”, you never leave. Everyone functions as part of a unit, and each member acts only in concert with his brothers.

In fact, the difference between a locust and a grasshopper lies in whether or not the insect joins the group. A grasshopper is harmless, primarily because it is entirely solitary. Sometimes, when conditions change, grasshoppers become “sociable” and morph into locusts. They join large groups we know as swarms, and they are observed today with the same frequency as in antiquity.  These locust swarms are both massive and destructive. A recent swarm of locusts in Kenya in 2020 occupied an area as large as Manhattan, containing tens of billions of locusts, and devoured everything in their path. No wonder that this was the eighth plague, the third most devastating, due, if nothing else, to the scale of the disaster wrought.

Now why does a grasshopper sometimes remain a grasshopper, while at other times it becomes a locust? The biological explanation is that drought conditions and food scarcity lead to an increased production of serotonin in the grasshopper. This results in the changed social behavior of the grasshopper and its metamorphosis into a locust.

But for the Sages of the Talmud, there was another reason. Locust behavior was governed not by chemicals and climate, but by divine fiat. Consider this midrash (Tanchuma Va-era 14):

• Come and see how great the deed of G-d is: grasshoppers are placed in the land where no man sees them, and the grasshopper does not eat or drink, and he lives in the word of G-d. When the grasshopper is commanded to eat the crops of a land that angered him, he shakes and overcomes (morphs into a locust) to do G-d's mission.

Not only that, but G-d made sure that the Egyptians’ suffering was complete. Believe it or not, locusts are a good source of protein and were commonly eaten in the ancient Near East. So when the Egyptians thought they might at least get some benefit out of the eighth plague, G-d thwarted their plans:

• Rabbi Yochanan taught: When the locusts came, the Egyptians actually rejoiced. They said, “Let us gather the (dead) locusts, pickle them and put them in barrels.” The Holy One replied, “Scoundrels, how can you find joy in My plagues?” What did G-d do? He brought the dead locusts back to life, so that even those pickled and placed in barrels were able to fly away so the Egyptians would not benefit.

In other words, not only was G-d able to turn harmless grasshoppers into locusts, but even after the fact he was able to revivify them and deprive the oppressing Egyptians any residual benefit from their punishment.  

- Rabbi Scott Hoffman

Parashat Bo

Torah: Exodus 10:1 - 11:3

Maftir: Exodus 11:1-3

Haftarah: Jeremiah 46:13-28

The Torah reading for this week is in the panel above. If you do not have a Chumash at home, you can find it on the link below. We are reading Triennial Year 1, but you might like to read the full portion (“Full Kriyah”).

Our Shabbat brochure with yahrzeits and simchas for this week is attached. You might wish to take special notice of those who are sick, and take a moment to direct your thoughts towards them.

Thank you to all those listed below who performed the mitzvah of supporting our community this past week.