Weekly Newsletter

Week of March 20, 2020 / 24 Adar 5780
Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei/HaChodesh

SERVICES ARE CANCELED THIS SHABBAT

Please take good care of yourselves. If there is any way the Stanton Street Shul community can support you and your loved ones during this difficult time, please email us at  chesed@stantonstshul.com.

We hope to see you again soon, in person, in good health, for simchas.

• All in person services and programs at the Stanton Street Shul are canceled until further notice.
  
  
• Refuah shleimah to Rabbi Aviad and Lindsey Bodner. 
  
  
• Refuah shleimah to Jeff Katz.
  
  
• ​Thank you to all who attended and contributed to our successful and fun Pre-Purim Benefit honoring Jackie & Andrew Klaber, Malka Percal & the Women's Tefillah Group, and Risa Gerstein. Check out our ad journal! For those who couldn't make it to the event or have not yet made a contribution, you may still do so by clicking here.
  
  
• Thank you to Jeff Katz, Rabbi Levi Welton, Rabbi Howard Handler, and Rabbi Robert Jacobs for contributing words of chizuk and divrei torah to strengthen us this week. (Scroll down to read the letter and divrei torah- or consider printing before Shabbat, to read during Shabbat.) 
  
  
• ​​​​​​​This Shabbat, Adar 25, is the 109th Yahrzeit of the young women, girls, and men killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. (The English anniversary date is March 25, 2020.) The names of the victims are listed here. The Hebrew names of some of the Jewish victims are included in this article. May their memories be a blessing.

Chavi, Dovid, and Rabbi Levi Welton at the Stanton Street Shul
Pre-Purim Masquerade Ball. Photo credit: Peretz Berk.

Sundays at 7:30pm, from March 22 until April 5

The Stanton Street Women’s Tefillah Group presents a new virtual learning opportunity- study Shir HaShirim, the book of Tanach that we read on Pesach. Facilitated by Chavie Sharfman-Sosa.  

Join Zoom meeting online at: https://zoom.us/j/634006420
To participate by phone: 1 (929) 205-6099 
Meeting ID: 634 006 420

Mondays & Thursdays at 7:00-7:45 pm, from March 23 until April 2 (4 sessions)

Have you always wanted to leyn haftorah? This class, which is for people who can read Hebrew fluently, will teach you the basics of haftorah reading in just a few weeks. No previous experience with leyning is necessary.
Taught by Rachel Zohn Mincer.

Join Zoom meeting online at:  https://zoom.us/j/462951021
To participate by phone: 1 (929) 205-6099 
Meeting ID: 462-951-021

The Sanctuary of Our Time - Rabbi Levi Welton

In these unprecedented times of social distancing, it is strange that the Torah reading which “randomly” falls out this upcoming Shabbat is one whose very name - “Vayakhel-Pekudei”-  literally translates as “Public Gatherings.” Yet, our teacher the Baal Shem Tov taught that “Every single thing one sees or hears is a lesson for [how to] serve Hashem.” (Sefer HaYom Yom: Iyar 9). So what is it that our Parasha is teaching us that can uplift us during these trying times?

The Torah-way is often to answer one question with another question. (Someone once asked me, “Why do Jews always answer questions with another question?” I smiled and replied, “How should they answer?”) In this tradition, I’ll ask you why the Parshiot of Vayakhel-Pekudei even exist? Vayakhel-Pekudei (Exodus 35:1 - 40:38) details the details of building the Mishkan, the traveling Sanctuary built years ago in the Sinai desert. But these same exact steps were already covered previously in the Parshiot of Terumah-Tetzaveh (Exodus 25:1 - Exodus 30:10) with the only difference being that each verse there stated “And they make…” and each corresponding verse here states “And they made…”

For a Torah that is notoriously scrupulous about avoiding the superfluous, the very existence of our Parshiot begs for understanding. This is even more remarkable when you consider that there is only one chapter in the Torah covering the Creation, three chapters covering the Giving of the Torah, and no less than thirteen chapters covering the construction of a Sanctuary that was only used way back in history?

My spiritual mentor, the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l, once explained that the Sanctuary was not a historic relic of those days but is a construction of divine service which we build every day. This is why the word “Mishkan” (Sanctuary) is etymologically related to the word “shochen” (“to dwell”) and also forms the shoresh (root word) of Shechina (“Divine Presence”). For it is through our daily actions of goodness and righteousness that we build a world in which the Divine Presence can truly dwell. 

This is why the verse states “They shall make for Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell in them." (Exodus 25:8). The Creator does not say "I will dwell in it," in the Sanctuary, but rather, "in them." The Kabbalists explain, this means that the Creator dwells in the heart - and through the daily actions - of each one of us (Maamar Bati LeGani ch. 1.). Additionally, the spiritual Sanctuary that we build daily here on earth mirrors a spiritual Sanctuary that exists eternally in Heaven (see Rashi on Talmud, Sukkah 41a). The Rebbe explains that the Torah lists both the command to build the Mishkan in Terumah-Tetzaveh and the account of it actually being built in our Parshiot to highlight that there will always be two versions of the Mishkan: the ideal version, as it exists in Heaven and was described to Moshe Rabbeinu and the manifested version, as it actually exists in our physical lives. 

In this lives a powerful lesson that we need to hear now more than ever. Serving the Creator means never giving up on translating the ideal into the real. Even when we are having difficulties building the ideal Sanctuary of Terumah-Tetzaveh, we must never give up on actually building the Sanctuary of Vayakhel-Pekudei. 

Perhaps this is why Rashi, the famous 12th century Torah commentator, writes on the very first verse of Vayakhel that the word “Vayakhel” itself is “...is a hiph’il [causative] expression [i.e., causing someone to do something], because one does not assemble people with [one’s] hands [i.e., directly], but they are assembled through one’s speech. Its Aramaic translation is וְאַכְנֵשׁ.” 

Even if we can’t build the Sanctuary of gold and silver, we can still build the Sanctuary of words of love and sisterhood. Even if we can’t gather together on this Shabbat, we can allow the spirit of Shabbat to unite us as one. As Rav Yosef from Bnei David recently said about the Coronavirus: “Every hand that we don't shake must become a phone call that we place. Every embrace that we avoid must become a verbal expression of warmth and concern. Every inch and every foot that we place between ourselves and another must become a thought as to how we might become of service to that other, should the need arise."

I’d like to conclude by pointing out that this Shabbat will also be “Shabbat Hachodesh” which commemorates the Creator’s historic communication regarding the Jewish calendar to Moshe Rabbeinu on the 1st of Nisan many years ago. What makes the Jewish calendar unique is that it grants the people - mortal human beings - the power to control that most precious commodity, that most elusive and ever-moving force, that which we would otherwise have no control over - time itself. Through the power invested in us by the Creator, we can transform a random Thursday into a “Rosh Chodesh”, into a holiday infused with Divine light and gifts.  As the famous Jewish poet Ahad Ha'am famously said: “More than Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.”  It is my prayer that as the virus seeks to destroy our bodies, we refuse to let it destroy our souls. As we close our doors physically to one another, may we open our hearts twice as wide to each other. May the Creator give us the strength to transform what could be a jungle of the survival of the fittest into a veritable Garden of Eden with peace, harmony and unity for all. 

Shabbat Shalom!

Lessons from Rabbi David Golinkin - Submitted by Rabbi Howard Handler

Whenever faced with a personal or national crisis, it is my custom to go “back to the sources” for comfort and inspiration. Allow me to share with you a number of biblical and rabbinic insights about the current crisis.
 
Prayer: When Jacob was about to face Esau after many years of estrangement, the midrash (Tanhuma Buber, Vayishlah 6) tells us that he did three things — and the first was to pray. When our biblical ancestors were faced with a crisis ויצעקו אל ה’, they cried out to God. When Jews are faced with a health crisis, they recite Psalms such as chapters 121 and 130 and the Mee Sheberakh prayer for those who are ill. 
 
Jewish Unity: We are told in the Talmud (Shevuot 39a) כל ישראל ערבין זה בזה — “All Jews are responsible for one another”. This has always been the strength of the Jewish people, how much the more so in times of crisis. 
 
We are all in the same boat: “Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught: It can be compared to people who were in a boat and one of them took a drill and began to drill under his seat. His fellow passengers said to him: ‘why are you doing this!’ He said to them: ‘What do you care? Am I not drilling under me?’ They replied: ‘Because you are sinking the boat with us in it!’” (Vayikra Rabbah 4:6, ed. Margaliot, pp. 91-92). The entire world is in the same boat. If we do not help each other, we are in danger of sinking the entire boat. 
 
Leave no one behind: We read in Numbers chapter 12 that Miriam was “shut out of camp for seven days [with leprosy] and the people did not march until Miriam was readmitted” (v. 15). From this we learn that when one person is quarantined, the rest of the community must wait for them until they recover. 
 
Talk to each other: In Sotah 42b there is a discussion of the verse (Proverbs 12:25): דאגה בלב איש ישחנה – “If there is anxiety in a man’s heart, let him —“. The question is, what does the last word mean? One rabbi says that he should put the anxiety out of his mind, while the other says that he should discuss it with others. Indeed, some people deal with a crisis by putting it out of their mind, but most people find comfort in talking about it with other people.
 
Hope: From Rosh Hodesh Elul until Hoshanah Rabbah, Ashkenazic Jews recite Psalm 27 twice a day. The final verse says קוה אל ה’, חזק ויאמץ לבך, וקוה אך ה’ – “Hope in the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage, yea, hope in the Lord.” Indeed, it is not an accident that the Israeli national anthem is called Hatikvah, the Hope. Let us carry these insights with us as we all work together to overcome this deadly virus as quickly as possible.

Shabbat Vayakhel-Pekudei/HaChodesh - Rabbi Robert A Jacobs
 
If you have been maintaining ‘social distance’, as I have this past week, this busy, confining Shabbat offers much to think about. It raises important questions about time, space and interactions within the created world.

The obvious is the very detailed instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle—that unique and sacred space for the offerings and intercessions of the Kohanim, assisted by the Levi’im. The details, dimensions and specified materials to be used are derived from n’deivot—free will gifts—for the purpose of the Divine Service. It became community property.

In other years, in parallel to the sedra we would read the Haftarah for Pekudei, in which the dedication of Bayit Harishon by Shlomo is set forth. This year, we are driven by the calendar to read the preparatory material for Hag Pesach [Consider the Haggadah paragraph ‘yachol mirosh chodesh…’] in Shemot 20 as Maftir, and from Ezekiel as Haftarah. The coming festival is proclaimed, the necessities of leyl sh’murim—the night of watchfulness—are set forth.
 
There is a pattern here—the guidance of Torah for living. Time and space are to be consecrated. Needs for the sacred are to be met. They are a treasured possession of the community.

It would all be so easy if that were all the cookbook required for living as Jews. But it is not. Without the sacred space of Temple, or these weeks, even the consecrated one of beit Knesset, it is the ma’asei—the sacred deed—that stands out. It is mitzvot shared which maintain the sense of community.
 
These days of plague known as Covid19 or nouvelle corona virus challenge us to vigilance, to distance as a means of avoiding contamination and to changes in lifelong patterns of living that often began lifnei dor dorot—before many generations. How are we to manage that without losing our sense of unity and participation?

By its nature, Judaism calls us to be part of a community; in these days, it might be solely high tech, but that is our pathway to offer the mitzvot of chesed and gmilut chasadim. Observe this Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh Nisan in a way that leaves open the possibility of observing many Shabbatot to come in public and as a community.

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