6 —THE BULLETIN— Thursday, August 13,1992
SYNAGOGUE GAI^^
Fourth Commandment. Exodus. 20:8
■fin A
Cahdielighting: Friday, Aiigiist 14,8:12 p.m.
^ Sedra Ve*Ethchanan
/ Havdala ShaBbat ends
August 15, 9:13 pm.
Friday, August 21, 7;59 p.in. Sedra Ekev Hav<lala Shabbaf ends
August 22, 8:58 p.m.
. Beth Hamidrash (Seph-ardic Orthodox), 3231 Heather St. Rabbi Y.Benar-roch. Daily 7 a.mShabbat, Sun. and public holidays 9 am.;JFri. 7:30 p.m.; Sat. sunset. 872-4222 or 873-2371.
Beth Israel (Conservative), 4350 Oak St, Rabbi W. Solomon, Rabbi R.Cahana, Cantor M. Nixon. To rah reader D. Rubin. Choir S.
Pelman. Daily 8 a.m. (public holidays, 9 a.m.) and 6 p.m.; Fri.8:15p.m;Sat.9:15 a.m. and 6 p.m.. Sun. 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. 731-4161. .,:.
■.' *' '-^ ■ ■ *■• Beth Tikviah (Conservative), 9711 Geal Rd,. Richmond. Rabbi M. Cohen, Torah reader t. Wbllnsky. Mon. and Thurs. minyan 7 a.m.; Fri. 6 p.m.; Sat. 9:30 a.m. 271-6262.
Burquest Jewish munity (Traditional). Oneg Shabbat Services second Friday of each month, 8 p.m. 939-3119.
Relatives and Friends are advised that the
UNVEILINGOF
in loving memory of the late
will take place Sunday, August 16 at 11:00 am.
at the
Sahara Tzedeck
Rabbi M.Feuerstein will officiate
[Relatives and Friends are advised that the
In loving memory of the late
wril take place Sunday, August 16 at 11:30 a.m. at the
Idiaca l^deck
Rabbi M. Feuersteln will officiate
J.B: Newall Monuments
Hebrew Inscriptions Our Specialty. Established 1909 Personal attention paid to ALL ORDERS Fraser and 35th 327-1312
Chabad-Lubavitch (Chas-sidic), 5750 Oak St. Rabbi Y. Wiheberg. Daily 7 a.m. and sunset; Fri.sUnset; Sat. 10 a.m.; Sun. 9 a.m. and sunset. 266-1313.
Chabad of Surrey Community Centre (Chassidic), 210-6950 Nicholson . Rd., Delta. Rabbi M. Altein. Sat. 10 a.m. 596-9030.
-Eltz Chalm (Orthodox), 8080 Frances Rd., Richmond, Rabbi A. Feigel-stock. Daily minyan 7 a.m.; Fri. 8 p!m.; Sat. 9 a.m. and sunset; Sun, 9 a.m. 275-0007.
Emanu-EI (Conservative), 1461 Blanshard, Victoria. Rabbi V. Reinstein. Sat, 9:15 a.m. 382-0615.
Hat El (Conservative), North Shore JCC. 1735 I nglev\/ood Ave, West Van. Rabbi I. Balla, cantorlal leader R. Edel. Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 10 a.m. 922-8245 or 922-9133.
Louis Brier Home (Ortho-1055 W. 41st Ave. C. Kornfeld, D. Kornfeld, M. Fru m k I n, R. Rosenberg. Daily 4:15 p.m.; Sat. 9:15 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. 261-9376.
Or Shalom (Traditional Egalitarian). 561 W. 28th Ave. Rabbi I. Marmorsteih. Sat. 10 a„m.; monthly Fri. Oneg Sl^bbat,.87.2-1614.
Schara Tzedeck (Orthodox), 3476 Oak St. Rabbi M: Feuersteln. Rabbi S. Cran-dall, Cantor A. Katzir, Torah reader Rev. J. Marci-aho. Daily 7:15 a.m. and sunset; Fri, 7:30 p.m.; Sat. 9 a.m. and sunset; Sun. 8:30 a.m. and sunset. 736-7607,
Temple Sholom (Reform), 7190 Oak St. Rabbi P. Bregman, cantorial soloist A. "Guttman. Morning minyans; Sun. 9:30 a.m.; Mon. and Wed. 7:15 a.m.; Fri. 8:15 p.m.; Sat. 10:30 a.m. 266-7190.
If all men were students of philosophy, the social order would be quickly destroyed and the human race quickly exterminated. -Maimonides
It is the way of a dog that if he is hit by a stone he bites a fellow dog.
The Zohar
The thread on which the different good qualities of human beings are strung as pearls, is the fear of G-d. When the fastenings of this fear are unloosed, the pearls roll in all directions and are lost one by one.
A Book of Morals, 15th c.
JEWISH CALENDAR
5752-1992
TuB'Av Aug 14
Rosh Chodesh Aug. 29-30 Erev Rosh Hasharia Sept. 27
Rosh Hashana Sept. 28-29
Fast of Gedalya Sept. 30
Erev Ypm KIppur Oct. 6
Yom Kippur Oct. 7
Erev Succpt Oct. 11
Succot Oct. 12-13 Erev Shmini Atzeret Oct. 18
Shmini Atzeret Oct. 19
Simchat Torah Oct. 20
Erev Chanuka Dec. 19,
Chanuka Dec. 20-27
By SHLOMO RISKIN ... .■- ^--'—--■-: ■ ^ .
OF THE Lubavitcher Rebbe ShHia
''The moon He ordered that she should renew herself as a crown of beauty .. . and they will, like it, be renewed in the future and magnify their maker."
In a beautiful flight of imagery recited during the blessing of the new moon, the Jewish people are likened to the moon.
Just as the moon tempore arily wanes from her glory, but is restored and renewed again, so will the Jewish people be restored from the present darkness of exile, and will be renewed again as a bright and shining luminary.
However, the cdmparison of the fate of the Jews to the phases of the moon seems faulty. The Jews in exile really are small; they really
SIDRA VO-ESCHANAN THE NEW MOON .
are "diminished."
Their suffering is actual and real; but the phases of the moon are only apparent ^ not actual!
With respect to the moon itself there- really is no
Relatives and Friends are advised that the
OF
In loving memory of the late
will take place Sunday, August 23
_ _at4:J5p^.m.
at the
Rabbi W. Solomon and Cantor M/Nixon bfficiaite
change in shape or size or brightness: Theonly distinction between the new moon and the dark phase just prior to the new moon is the manner in which the mopnis viewed p« the earth.
In other words, prior to the new moon, it isn't seen at all here. During thie first phase, the moon then becomes visible to us — but the moon itself has never really changed.
The pbrtion of the moon which faces the sun is.always illuminated; the portion of the moon which doesnH face the sun is alwdys dark. The different phases of the moon are only the difference in its appearance to those who look at it.
A deeper examination will, however, reveal that the comparison between the fat6 of the Jews and the changes of the moon is indeed an accurate comparison.
Torah is called Toras EmeS; the Torah of Truth. Torah looksat everything in the light of its true purpose and its true ""reason-for-being". Torah does not view the external appearance — but the true raison d'etre and function of the thing.
When describing the moon's phases, therefore, Torah deals only with the internal truth of the matter:
In the description of creation, the Torah says "And the L-rd said let there be lights in the firmament of
the heavens. . . and let them be for lights... to illuminate the earth "
Thus, the function and true purpose of the moon (as well as the sun etc.) for ; which it was created ^ was to illuminate the earth.
From this it can be understood that even when the moon is materially complete : and is physically perfect in length, width and depth -^if it does not fulfill its missipn of illuminating the earth, it is, according to Torah, non existent. ••;
The true reality of the nidon, then, exists only when it illuminates. If it illuminates with one quarter of its potential, it is called a quarter moon; if it illuminates fully, it is called a full moon. If the moon only lights up a small fraction of the earth, its essence, its raison d'etre {% only a fraction of the whole. When the rnoon does not shine at all, in essence it isn't there; it is essentially in a state of pre-paratibn — preparation for renewal and for ultimate fulfillment of its real purpose — to illuminate the earth.
Now it can be understood why the Talmud uses the phrase: "For they (the Jewish people) in the future will be renewed like her",
Physically speaking, the Jews always exist. Jews are eternal because they are a portion of their Creator who is eternal.
But as long as they are in exile, in golus, they cannot properly fulfill their essential function—to serve their Creator. In exile, Jews are like the "invisible" moon which tho.ugh existing materially, is not fulfilling its mission of illuminating the ' earth. ''■:-'..::r^
Of course a Jew in go I us can be materially wealthy and endowed with many possessions arid riches. But he complains; to The Alii EBBE-Page 10
P&rtTwoj>f Two
Open Letter to Shulamit AlonI, Minister of Education, $tate of Israel (See Part One — JWB Aug, 6).
I believe that we must begin by emphasizing that what unites us Jews in our Jewish homeland is far greater than anything that divides us. And that you Shulamit — specifically as a respected spokesperson of secular Israel — are in the unique position of giving expression to those unifying factors and implementing them within the cuf riculum of our schools so that indeed* while respecting the differences of the various groups, we nevertheless succeed in educating one nation, undivided.
Granted that secular Israel has difficulty with theconcept of G-d, and refuses to accept a system of law niandating ihdividual practices from the time one gets upin the morning to the time one goes to sleep at night, cradle to grave.
But clearly secular Israel does recognize the grandeur and wisdom of our Jewish national literature* the Bible, the Talinud, the legal codification of our morality, the mystical flights of our visionaries, and the ethical pietistic works of mussar and hassidut.
But this appreciation of the historically honored Jewish texts as a unique and timeless literature, which was once the legacy of every Israeli student in elementary and high school, has now been radically reduced because of political poison in the air, and a general disdain for all things religious.
One of the prices being paid for the tensions betweenthe religious and the non-religious is that the secular student body throws a veil atop the great Mount Everest of Jewish thought and literature, and doesn't want to have anything to do with it, leaving it to the Tibetans.
An anti-^toli climate, whether justified or unjustified, backfires when the young of our nation can no longer relate to the riches and symbolic truths contained in the civilization of Judaism. Through anger and fear, they are robbing themselves of their own birthright.
The recently departed Yaakov Hazzan said that we had dreamt of creating in Israel a generation of apiAcorsim (heretics), but instead all we've managed to create is a generation of amaratzim (ignoramuses).
Why shpuld the day not arrive when every Jewish child will quote Jsaiah by heart, albeit one believing he is mouthing the word of G-d, and the other believing he is quoting a great sage and seer who represents the highest of human achievements.
Ultimately, if parents, teachers and administrators themselves do not appreciate what is genuinely unique to Jewish civilization as it developed throughput our history but teach their 'Jewish' subjects as a matter of form at best and an object of derision at \yprst, we are condemning the next generation to a cultural Alzheimer's long before their time.
Perhaps the secular Israelimay not believe that G-d mandated every Jew to build a succahand live in it from the 15th to the 22nd day of Tishrei, or to make the blessThg over the wine every Sabbath and festival eve. But thesuccah isalso a symbol of the preservation of our people, despite thousands of years of exile, and the Sabbath is a cultural expression of our yearning for perfection within a far from perfect world, of our ability to create an "oasis in time" which provides for family togetherness and a day dedicated to the miind and the spirit. If every Israeli no matter his ideological background, will be inspired to build a succah ^ the religious as an expression of G-d's command and the secular as art expression of his encounter with his own history — we will be going a long way towards establishing the meeting place to which we ail aspire.
What I've written here Shulamit is only the first step. It says nothing of how to create mutual respect for differing opinions, of how to prevent mindless fanaticism on either side; of how to produce the unique teachers for such a unifying enterprise, and of how to provide creative dialogue between the sectors.
The Talmud teaches that it is more difficult for The Almighty to bring a man and woman together in marriage than it was for Him to split the Red Sea. My wife once explained the words of the Talmud in the following manner; For the religious the splitting of the Red Sea ntay be a great miracle, but in the end it was an act of division in which a sea was split into twelve dry areas for each of the tribes to pass
throug[h. . "v",. . ■ -"^v-
-But when a man and woman come together in marriage, two separate people with separate lifestyles and back-ground^are being merg,ed into one new entity, and such an act is far more difficult and far more important than any division, no matter how miraculous, can ever be.
Shulamit, you have become minister of education during the most fateful period of our history: A religious minister of education would be condemned for missionizing were he to begin making changes in how we teach our children Jewish civilization. ;' - Believe me that missionizing is not at all my goal.
I am concerned with the unity of our people, the unique message of freedorn and brotherhood which we must teach the world. . '^'-l \-
I would like to believe that it may well have been for this ;purpose that you have achieved your exalted position. Per-SHABBATSHALOM PagelO