Ma Chadash?Bites
27 Nissan l Parshas Shemini l Apr 9

Shemini- Balancing Perspectives
For Year 2 of Parsha Lesson, I will be focusing on one practical middah, character trait, to think about in the week ahead and steps we can take to attain it.


Background
At the beginning of this week’s Parsha, Moshe commanded Aharon to take over as the Kohen Gadol, High Priest, and do the service of the Mishkan. For the first 7 days of the Mishkan, Moshe himself did the service of the Mishkan. On the 8th day, when the Mishkan began its regular functioning, Aharon was now commanded to take over and step into the role of Kohen Gadol.

Rashi tells us that Aharon was hesitant and embarrassed to step into this role of being the High Priest. Why? The commentators explain that since Aharon had had a role, albeit indirect, in the making of the Golden Calf, Aharon therefore felt that he was unfit for this awesome responsibility. Moshe told Aharon to ‘come and do the service, for it was for this service that you were chosen by G-d Himself.’

The R’ Henoch Leibowitz z”l explains that Moshe was framing this appointment for Aharon in a way which would encourage him to proceed with the service of the Mishkan and not be held back by his embarrassment. Moshe was setting the perspective for Aharon that despite having had some minor, inadvertent, role in the making of the Golden Calf, nevertheless Hashem chose him to be the Kohen Gadol. 

The Orchos Tzaddikim tells us that embarrassment, the correct type of embarrassment, is a lofty and beautiful character trait. It encourages beautiful middos and is a tremendous tool for a person to use to attain humility, and refrain from sin. The proper embarrassment is borne from wisdom and proper knowledge.

This embarrassment, of doing such prestigious service of Hashem on behalf of the whole Jewish nation, in spite of Aharon having had some part in the making of the Golden Calf, was certainly proper and appropriate! If so, what was Moshe telling Aharon? That he was chosen by Hashem for this job!? Aharon knew that. Aharon also knew that Hashem was choosing him despite his role in the Golden Calf. And Aharon also knew that it is appropriate to be embarrassed of even a slight, inadvertent role in the tremendous sin of the Golden Calf- which Moshe was not refuting! 

So what was Moshe solving? 

Answer
While it was true and proper for Aharon to have this embarrassment, which Moshe did not refute, nevertheless it was not proper for Aharon to be so focused on it right now. Right now, when it was incumbent upon Aharon to step up and assume the role of Kohen Gadol, he should not be thinking of his embarrassment of having had a part of the Golden Calf. 

Why? Because it was getting in the way of Aharon doing what he was commanded by Hashem to do. 

Since at this moment Aharon was having difficulty focusing on the embarrassment of serving Hashem in the Mishkan as the Kohen Gadol, while also carrying out his duties as Kohen Gadol effectively, that means that this is not the right thing to focus on right now. Rather, Moshe told Aharon, just focus on the fact that Hashem chose me to do this job.

Lesson
Having the proper perspective in life does not only mean seeing things accurately and not have a skewed and inaccurate view of things. The proper perspective means to have the proper mindset which enables me to do that which I know that I need to do, to do the right thing. 

There can be multiple true things that a person should focus on in any given situation, but they might not all be productive to be focused on at all times. It is therefore incumbent on a person to focus on one aspect over another in order to enable one to act appropriately. This does not mean that one is right and the other is wrong, just that one is helpful for this moment and the other is not.

First Step
The First Step is recognizing how a different perspective can really change how easy or hard it is for one to do something or to refrain from doing something. In order to be truly effective, this other perspective needs to be honest and true, not merely a trick. Tricks don’t work- particularly with one’s self. What a person needs to do is to focus on a different aspect, which is true, and see how that enables the person to behave properly.

For example, we know that it is important to love all Jewish people and how it is particularly problematic to have baseless hatred for other Jews. However, at times it is particularly difficult to adhere to this commandment. For example- when one sees another Jew acting different than those around them, so different in fact that they stick out and do not “fit in” to whichever environment they may be in, there are different possible perspectives one may have.

On the one hand this behavior may be looked at critically, and sometimes with a degree of hatred, as they are not conforming to society around them. While on the other hand this can be looked at admiringly as someone who is doing that which they believe is right- regardless of the social pressure! Focusing on one and not the other can completely transform one’s reaction and ability to act correctly.




Have a wonderful Shabbos!


Rabbi Eli Meir Kramer
 
What's happening...

Principal's Update


Mrs. Aviva Hoberman
My inbox held a pleasant surprise that I am excited to share with you. I received an email from Ethan Lippman, a Shalom Torah alumnus who graduated from the East Windsor branch in 2002, with a very generous offer. Mr. Lippman would like to sponsor shtenders for our seventh and eighth grade students to help make learning more comfortable for them, as he fondly remembers his own days as a student, balancing his sefarim and trying to learn. It is heartwarming to have a former student with such fond memories of Shalom who is memorably connecting and supporting our current students, and we greatly appreciate his generosity.
 
Our students returned to school from Pesach vacation with renewed enthusiasm and a freshness to get back to learning and routine! I hope you all had tremendous nachas from your children at the seder as they shared what they learned with your family.

Our Model Seder day, held the day before we went on Pesach break, was simply a beautiful experience for our students and helped them go into Pesach well-prepared and with eager anticipation. Rabbi Kramer led the seder for our elementary school classes, with questions, raffles, and interactive activities to make the seder come alive. Rabbi Friedman and Rabbi Jacoby each led the seder for their individual classes, and the boys had a chance to participate and gain at their level. Each preschool class went through the entire seder as well, complete with matza, maror, and all the rest! A big thank you to Mr. Abramov from Capri for catering the entire delicious meal.

We are looking forward to a busy and productive week next week. Our Middle School students have a trip to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park planned for Monday, as part of our Yom Hashoah unit, and it is certainly going to be a moving experience for them.

We are also looking forward to celebrating Yom Haatzma’ut on Thursday. Due to covid restrictions, we will be replacing our traditional parade with in-school celebrations.


Wishing you all a great Shabbos,

Mrs. Aviva Hoberman

Judaic Studies


Morah Malkie Zachai- Kindergarten
It was so nice to see almost all the smiling, adorable Kindergarteners back in school after the Pesach break. This week marked the start of a few new things in the Kindergarten. We learned a new vowel, the shoorook. We started our fresh books on Tuesday and we already read so many pages! We can't believe that we have only two more books to master after this one! As a fun review, we played an exciting, creative game with spoons in our kriah center. Our Morahs are so proud of how proficiently we are reading.

We also began singing the adon olam prayer in circle time. We are feeling really big and almost ready for first grade. In addition, we started counting the days of the omer, the counting between Pesach and Shavuos. We used an abacus to see how many days are in seven weeks. We then used stacking squares to make seven stacks of seven to help us see that there are a total of forty nine days. As we counted each day, we were able to calculate by using the abacus and stacks of squares, not only how many days have already passed, but also the total of how many weeks and days that have passed.

We had a great time using green finger paint to paint a large mountain for our classroom bulletin board which we will use to help us continue counting the days until we reach the holiday of Shavuos. There are always new and exciting activities going on in our Kindergarten classroom and we look forward to more action next week!

General Studies


Ms. Shulamis Shereshevsky- 6th Grade
6th Graders have been working together with their classmates to accomplish great things! 

During book club, sounds of collaboration are heard throughout the room, as we read to each other, share opinions about the characters' traits and types, authors' opinions and inferences. Students use advanced conversation skills as they listen carefully to others' opinions, paraphrase each others' words to show that they've understood, and then find evidence to add to the discussion.
 
During Science, we've teamed up with a friend to model how Earth's orbit affects our view of our circumpolar star, Polaris using mini globes, skewers, and even our "sun". 
 
Our teamwork has extended beyond the classroom, as we used some tips in an article we've read to build ourselves a mini shelter in the great outdoors! 

We get to see how teamwork makes the dream work!

Learning Center


Morah Nechama Green
We are hard at work on our kriah skills at the Learning Center. Many students have successfully mastered the aleph bais and nekudos and have begun reading words! Every day we learn and practice our reading in a fun and exciting way, whether with sand writing, motions, stories, or a variety of games! Our students are experts at helping themselves and are pros at creating hints to help each other remember what they learned. Looking forward to seeing continued success from all our students!


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