A Message from Our Rabbi
July 8, 2020

Two very different problems.
Two very different ways of solving them.

Our Torah portion, Pinchas , begins with the Midianites luring the Israelites into idol worship through the wooing of the men by Midianite women. When God makes it clear that this behavior is unacceptable, Pinchas takes things into his own hands, and the result is violence and death.

Later on we read the story of the daughters of Zelophehad, who approach Moses when their father dies without any sons to inherit the family property. The daughters argue that they should be able to inherit it themselves.
Moses listens, he seeks to understand, brings the daughters’ case before God, Who deems their cause just and right, and they are given the inheritance.

What connects these two different stories in one portion? What can it teach us about how we each respond when faced with a particularly challenging problem? Join us for our Kabbalat Shabbat service at 6:30 pm on Friday . (Zoom; click HERE for online siddur.)

As a special congregational welcome for our new Director of Education and Youth Programming, Jill Moghadam , we invite all of our families to make a welcome sign or to write out a short message to display during our Zoom service this coming Friday! 

Shabbat morning , I will be leading our Torah Study session beginning at 10:00 am (Zoom).

And, a heartfelt thank you to our M’kor Shalom Family for (virtually) wrapping your arms around me, and my entire family, this past week. There are no words to to express the amount of gratitude I feel, and the amount of comfort you provided, through joining us for the Memorial Service and for Shiva, for the emails and phone calls, the texts and food-deliveries, and so much more that we received from our Synagogue Community. Thank you for the virtual hugs and for holding us in your thoughts and prayers. We join with so many other families who have had to say “goodbye” to loved ones in unprecedented ways in these unprecedented times. And while we cannot be with our community physically, it has made the support of community feel all the more powerful. 

With my deepest thanks,

Rabbi Jennifer L. Frenkel