Shabbat Newsletter - July 29, 2022

Shabbat Shalom!

All Zoom links have migrated to our webpage! Click here to get there!

WWW.SHIRCHADASH.ORG

Kabbalat Shabbat

Friday, 6:15 PM

ON ZOOM ONLY

Shabbat Morning Services followed by Kiddush lunch

Saturday, 9:30 AM

In-person and live-streamed

Minyan with

Men's Club

Sunday, 9:15 AM

In person in the Chapel,

followed by breakfast.

Also available on Zoom.

COVID-19 UPDATE

Our Health Committee update as of July 15, 2022 is as follows:

In the last few months, we have been able to largely resume our normal programming (babysitting, indoor dining, etc.), and remove the strict limitations on attendance numbers and spacing. We also lifted our mask mandate, while keeping our vaccine requirement in effect.

In the last few days, however, local COVID-19 positivity rates have started to significantly increase. Unfortunately, local hospitalizations have begun creeping up again as well. As a result, we will be opening up the back of the sanctuary to allow for maximal ventilation during services. We also STRONGLY ENCOURAGE everyone to mask while indoors. Lastly, we suggest that anyone who is at high risk for serious infection consider staying home and joining us via Zoom for the time being.

Please click HERE to read our guidelines in full.

Haftarah Tidbits

כִּֽי־שְׁתַּ֥יִם רָע֖וֹת עָשָׂ֣ה עַמִּ֑י אֹתִ֨י עָזְב֜וּ מְק֣וֹר ׀ מַ֣יִם חַיִּ֗ים לַחְצֹ֤ב לָהֶם֙ בֹּאר֔וֹת בֹּארֹת֙ נִשְׁבָּרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יָכִ֖לוּ הַמָּֽיִם׃

"For My people have done a twofold wrong:

They have forsaken Me, the Fount of living waters,

And hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns,

Which cannot even hold water."

After this past year of living in Los Angeles, I have a renewed appreciation for water and its importance. It seems nearly everyone from L.A. knows instinctually that they must be careful about letting water run too long or even turning up the faucet to the highest pressure. Water is, in a word, precious and increasingly scarce in the western United States. For the prophet Jeremiah in our haftarah this week, water is no less precious—as God is pictured as the source of these living waters and the corrective to spiritual drought.

In the image Jeremiah paints, the people of Judah and Israel have turned their backs on the source of flowing water in favor of broken wells that can’t even seem to do the one job they are intended to do. The 18^th century commentator, Metzudat David, explains this metaphor of God as the source of water, writing, “That I am like a spring that pours out flowing waters, meaning that I cause good things to flow to them in every moment.” By contrast, the idols the people have chosen to worship not only do not give water by nature, but do not even “hold water” (giving us a new perspective on that oft-used expression).

This is the time of year when our tradition is beckoning us to begin to identify what we have clung to over the last year that neither provides us with spiritual sustenance nor allows us to hold onto it. Which habits, actions, or relationships are not providing us what we need to grow as people? On the more positive end, which of these elements have, in fact, provided us with “living waters” consistently and in our times of need? Jeremiah is reminding us to cling to those living waters and reject the broken containers which leave us dry and unsatisfied—for wherever we find that life-giving sustenance could be where we find God.

- Rabbinic Intern David Kaplinsky

A Prayer for Peace

May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease,

when a great peace will embrace the whole world.

Then nation will not threaten nation,

and the human family will not again know war.

For all who live on earth shall realize

we have not come into being to hate or destroy.

We have come into being to praise, to labor, and to love.

Compassionate God, bless the leaders of all nations

With the power of compassion.

Fulfill the promise conveyed in Scripture:

I will bring peace to the land,

and you shall lie down and no one shall terrify you.

I will rid the land of vicious beasts

and it shall not be ravaged by war.

Let justice and righteousness flow like a mighty stream.

Let God’s peace fill the earth as the waters fill the sea.

And let us say: Amen.

A Prayer for Our Country

Our God and God of our ancestors, with mercy accept our prayer on behalf of our country and its government. Pour out Your blessing upon this land, upon its inhabitants, upon its leaders, its judges, officers, and officials, who faithfully devote themselves to the needs of the public. Help them understand the rules of justice You have decreed, so that peace and security, happiness and freedom, will never depart from our land.

Adonai, God whose spirit is in all creatures, we pray that Your spirit be awakened within all the inhabitants of our land. Uproot from our hearts hatred and malice, jealousy and strife. Plant love and companionship, peace and friendship, among the many peoples and faiths who dwell in our nation. Grant us the knowledge to judge justly, the wisdom to act with compassion, and the understanding and courage to root out poverty from our land.

May it be Your will that our land be a blessing to all who dwell on earth, and may You cause all peoples to dwell in friendship and freedom. Speedily fulfill the vision of Your prophets: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” “For all of them, from the least of them to the greatest, shall know Me.” And let us say: Amen.

Click here to view in PDF form and print prior to Shabbat

Parashot Matot + Masei

Torah: Numbers 33:50 - 36:13

Maftir: Numbers 36:10-13

Haftarah: Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4

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 3, but you might like to read the full portion (“Full Kriyah”).

Brochure

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.