In an effort to streamline communication about BA Shabbat, Minyan and Holy Day Services, beginning today, we will be sending our Congregation an email each Friday that will contain times, links and other important details regarding Services happening that week.
Lifelong Learning information including Adult Education classes and youth/family programming as well as Men's Club, Sisterhood and other BA community events will be sent in a separate email each Monday.
A Kosher Torah must be written and maintained with great care. If even one letter is missing or blemished, the Torah scroll is Pasul, meaning it is not considered Kosher for use in a religious service. Yet, in a tiny number of instances, oral tradition conveys small but significant deviations in the writing of a Torah scroll. We find one example of this phenomenon at the beginning of this week’s Parshah. After his violent act of zealotry, Pinchas is lauded for turning away divine wrath and halting the plague that endangered the Jewish nation. For this he is given the reward of Brit Shalom—the “Poet of Priesthood for All Time…” (25:12-13) When one looks carefully at the word Shalom in this verse, we find that the Vav in the word Shalom is severed in the middle. Tradition requires the scribe (Sofer) to write this word differently; the “peace” is cut off in some way.
One could view any number of Torahs in St. Paul, Minnesota, St. Petersburg, Russia, or St. Louis, and each of them would be identical. Each with 304,805 ornate letters, and each with the Vav severed in the middle. (More commonly known is the Ayin in the Shema and the Dalet in Echad; both are enlarged in every Torah, worldwide. But that is another subject for a different time.)
Twentieth century scholar, Rabbi Berel Wein, explains that the blemished Vav conveys the fragility of peace and the need to make sacrifices to achieve true peace. He writes, “The idea that I wish to advance regarding the split Vav is very simple, but I feel it to be the essence of truth. Namely, that peace is very fragile, almost always difficult to maintain, and it requires great effort to keep it together. All of human history bears this out. True peace, whether in the home, the family, amongst neighbors, in the synagogue, in the community and certainly among nations, is very hard to achieve and even more difficult to maintain. The Torah wishes us to be aware of the difficulty in achieving and maintaining peace. Peace is not achieved with glib phrases, populist slogans or even with good wishes and sincere intents. It requires great sacrifices, sensitivity to others, patience and vision for the future and the possible consequences of current behavior, speech and decisions.”
The severed Vav in Parashat Pinchas reminds us just how fragile Shalom can be and how hard it is to achieve and maintain, especially in an atmosphere of hatred, incitement and murder. My hope and prayer for us this Shabbat is that we are all able to find the Shalom we all seek. We live in turbulent times, but if we make those sacrifices to each individual around us, we can find our own personal inner peace, as well as striving for the larger peace for which we endeavor in our world.
Virtual Friday Evening Services, Shabbat Services and Havdalah
Friday, July 10 Shabbat Shalom at Home with Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham and Family: 5:15 pm This program is geared towards families with children in 2nd grade and younger, but all are welcome to attend via Zoom or on our BA Spot to Share and LRECC FB Pages. Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89217288756 Meeting ID: 892 1728 8756
Shabbat, July 11 Tefilah with Cantor Sharon Nathanson: 9:00 - 10:30 am D'var Torah with Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham: 10:30 am via Livestream and FB Live (only)
Evening Services with Rabbi Neal Rose, Zakai and Ellior Rose: 8:00 pm via Livestream and FB Live (only)
Sunday Morning Minyan will take place virtually at 9:00 am Monday - Friday Morning Minyan will take place virtually at 7:00 am via Zoom, Livestream and FB Live Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/97189645201 Meeting ID: 971 8964 5201 This Zoom link is for all morning Minyan Services
Virtual Evening Minyan
Sunday - Thursday Evening Minyan will take place virtually at 6:15 pm via Zoom,Livestream and FB Live Zoom Link:https://zoom.us/j/97924715014 Meeting ID:979 2471 5014 This Zoom link is for all evening Minyan Services
MAZEL TOV TO... Mark & Robin Shulman, Alan (Cindi, z”l) and Linda Baron and Jan & Richard (Z"L) Baron on the birth of their grandson and great-grandson, Edison Ross Baron. Proud parents are Carolyn & Josh Baron. Big brother is Coby Maxwell. Edison is the nephew of Sarah Shulman and Brent (Amanda) Shulman.
WE MOURN THE LOSS OF...
Rita Mae Rennard; beloved wife of Leon Rennard (Z"); dear mother and mother-in-law of Robyn Rennard and Gordon (Mindy) Rennard; dear grandmother of Melissa (Phillip) Block, Lauren (George) Nicely, Bridget Rennard and Gabriel Rennard; dear great-grandmother of Nathan, Rachel and Cameron Block and Lucas Nicely; dear sister of Maurice Edelstein and Sara Doris (Sanford Z"L) Willick; dear sister-in-law of Sidney (Z"L) (Nancy Z"L) Rennard, Dr. Marvin (Mimi) Rennard, Dolores (Marvin Z"L) Kling, David (Charlotte) Rennard and Sandra (Sanford) Brickman; dear friend of Maxine and Wally Cohen. Our dear wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother; great-grandmother and friend of many.
We have another exciting week of New Adult Education classes starting with Cantor Sharon Nathanson's new class, Blessings For The Bayit (Home). Please click HEREfor more information and to register.
Congregation B’nai Amoona 324 South Mason Rd St. Louis, MO 63141
