This Week's Torah Portion is
PARASHAT MATOT-MASEI
Life Is a Sacred Journey
If you have been paying close attention to the social media or to the advertisements on television, you have noticed that as summer began, more and more people returned to traveling. This is due, in large part of course, to the fact that overall people in the United States are getting vaccinated and seeing an overall decline in the deadly effects of the COVID-19 virus, the slight uptick in cases involving its latest strain. More and more people are feeling freer to follow the advice of Southwest Airlines and to travel about the country, though taking proper precautions as they do so.
A number of friends and family have been taking road trips instead of flying and have been sharing the pictures of the sights that they have visited. Some, such as one of my brothers, have shared maps of their journeys, highlighting the stops along the way as well as the route taken. It has been very enjoyable to travel with them, even if vicariously.
The last portion of the book of Bamidbar (Numbers) is part of this week’s double Parashah, Mattot-Mas`ei. Mas`ei means “the travels of” and is a travelogue of the forty-year journey that the Israelites took from Egypt to territory just outside of the Promised Land. It lists the places at which the people stopped and camped as well as the significant events that occurred along the way. Long before the postings to Facebook or the movie/slide/picture shows in living rooms, the Torah was able to relate the journeys of our ancestors through detailed descriptions.
Why is this sacred literature? Each part of the journey had already been chronicled in the preceding two books of the Torah. Why is it repeated here as a running account? It may be that this review of the nearly forty-years journey was a reminder to those born in the wilderness of the trials and tribulations, the triumphs and the failures, and everything that contributed to the maturation of the people Israel from the time that they exited the narrow place of Egypt, born as a nation out of slavery. It is important for members of one generation to tell of their journey through life in order to teach those who follow, in order to demonstrate that what is now taken for granted was hard won, in order to pass on the meaning and purpose that they found along the way.
It is also important for individuals. Recounting the journey, even as we continue to experience new legs of it, enables us to appreciate where we have been, what we have learned, how we have grown, and it informs us regarding future stops and starts along the way.
Most importantly, however, the Torah and we today recount the places and the events along the way of each part of our journey through life. It is true, even if cliché to say, that it is not so much the destination that is important, but the journey along the way. Life is a journey with many stops and starts along the way. Each day offers new experiences, new lessons, and new opportunities. We travel, we sojourn, we travel again. Even if we never physically leave the community in which we were born, nevertheless, our lives are a journey.
This week’s Torah portion, “These are the journeys of...,” is sacred because everyone’s journey is sacred. Each is unique; each is valuable; each is the tale of a life that is lived. Share your journey with your family, with your friends, with anyone who cares to hear it. Take pictures along the way; record your impressions, your feelings, your life lessons. Life is a journey, a sacred journey.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Josef Davidson
Shabbat Candlelighting Times & Service ScheduleShabbat Candlelighting:Friday, July 9 at 8:10 pm
Havdallah, Saturday, July 10 at 8:58 pm
Friday, July 9
Friday Evening Services with Andy & BelleAnne Curry in the Guller Chapel: 6:00 pm
In-Person, Livestream and FB Live
Saturday, July 10
Tefillah with Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham in the Main Sanctuary: 9:00 am
In-Person, Livestream and FB Live
Torah For Today with Rabbi Neal Rose in the Guller Chapel
Violence in the Name of Heaven?: *10:00 am
In-Person, Livestream and FB Live
Kolot: Hear our Voice! Rosh Chodesh Av Program in our BA Gallery: 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Engaging Us as Community: We will enjoy an opportunity to connect and learn from each other as we strengthen our community. This program is for females in our congregation of all ages. As we learn and read about the destruction and devastation of the Temple in the month of Av, let's focus our efforts to build up our Kehillah (community) as we come together.
This program will take place in-person in our gallery. Please remember to wear your mask.
Shabbat Afternoon/Evening Services with Rabbi Neal Rose and Dr. David Kantor in the Guller Chapel: 7:30 pm
- Torah Study with Rabbi Neal Rose
- Torah read by Jeffrey Arbeit
In-Person, Livestream and FB Live
Havdallah: 8:58 pm
Our Shul doors have opened! We are thrilled to invite you to pray, learn and grow with us B'yachad, together, during in-person Services. Registration for Services will no longer be required - simply come as you are.
Our face mask and social distancing protocols will remain in effect for the health and safety of our Kehillah. Click HERE for more information.
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Tishah B'Av at B'nai Amoona
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Erev Tishah B'Av Services, Saturday Evening, July 17, 2021
Eicha (Book of Lamentations) and Elegies will be led by BA members with a song between each chapter.
7:00 pm: Shabbat Minchah Service with David Kantor
7:45 pm: Meal
8:10 pm: Birkat Hamazon
8:15 pm: Study Session with Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham
8:45 pm: Ma’ariv for Tishah B’Av with Cantor Sharon Nathanson and Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham
In-Person, Livestream and FB Live
Tishah B'Av Morning Services, Sunday, July 18, 2021
No Tallit or Tefillin to be worn
9:00 am: Shacharit with Rick Mazur, Cantor Sharon Nathanson and Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham, Eichah (Book of Lamentations) chanted by BA members.
In-Person, Zoom, Livestream, and FB Live
Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/97189645201
Meeting ID: 971 8964 5201
Tishah B'Av and Afternoon Services, Sunday, July 18, 2021
Tallit and Tefillin worn for Minchah
7:30 pm: Minchah - Cantor Sharon Nathanson
- Torah reader: Harvey Greenstein
- Haftarah reader: Enid Weisberg-Frank, Isaiah Ch. 56
8:15 pm: Study session with Rabbi Neal Rose
8:30 pm: Ma’ariv - with Cantor Sharon Nathanson
8:39 pm: End of the fast
In-Person, Zoom, Livestream, and FB Live
Tishah B'Av is generously sponsored by
Enid Weisberg-Frank & Bruce Frank and Family.
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WE MOURN THE PASSING OF...
Leona Stein; beloved wife of Seymour Stein (Z"L); dear mother and mother-in-law of Nancy Firestone (William), Marsha Stelling (Michael), and Robyn Stein (Z"L); dear grandmother of Andrea Kaletta (Michael), Lindsay Hoosack (Todd), Melissa Rocha (Enrique), Laura Steinbrueck (Greg), Kevin Stelling, and Kelly Stamper (Ryan); dear great-grandmother of Harper, Greyson, Sasha, and Isabel; dear sister and sister-in-law of Martha Thal (Z"L) (Morton Z"L), Herman Seidel (Z"L) and (Agnes Z"L). Dear wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister and sister-in-law and friend to many.
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Todah Rabbah To The Jewish Federation of St. Louis
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It's a Mitzvah: Covid-19, Vaccinations and Community
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Jewish tradition teaches “Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Bazeh,” meaning that we are all
responsible for each other (B.Talmud Shevuot 39a).
Our B'nai Amoona Klei Kodesh is proud to join other local Jewish spiritual leaders in issuing THIS STATEMENT in favor of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, continuing to wear a mask and practice social distancing as recommended by the CDC and other medical and other public health authorities.
As more people receive the Covid-19 vaccine, we encourage you to download and print the prayers below. We recommend you say them when you receive your vaccination. |
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Congregation B’nai Amoona
324 South Mason Rd
St. Louis, MO 63141
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