Shabbat Shalom from Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow
Shabbat
Bo
Torah - Exodus 10:1-13:16 / Haftarah - Jeremiah
46:13-28
“Together”
Dear
Friends,
In this
week’s Torah portion, the plagues are raging against Egypt and Pharaoh is
weakening. He offers to let the men of
Israel leave to worship God out in the desert.
Moses insists that the Hebrews will go “with our young and with our old,
with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds.” In other words, the Children of Israel are in
this together. We have been enslaved
together and we will leave together. With that, our ancestors left Egypt,
traveled through the wilderness, received the Torah at Mount Sinai and entered
the Promised Land - together.
This
principle has guided the Jewish people from that moment until this very
day. We are one community. We have no tradition of asceticism, of living
in isolation. On the contrary, our sages
have taught us “do not separate yourself from the community (Pirkei Avot).” We
go through life together.
In our
families, communities, at Shir Hadash, and within the Jewish community
worldwide, the same applies. Amongst our
seven core values of Shir Hadash are ‘Community’ and ‘Love for the Jewish
people.’ For us the value of ‘Community’
means that we connect all Shir Hadash members together in a caring and sharing
extended Jewish ‘family;’ we joyfully volunteer our time, talents and resources
to supporting and leading our Shir Hadash community, its activities and
projects. The lesson is clear. We are
one people and we stick together.
Shabbat Shalom,
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