Shabbat Shalom GRJC
Weekly Emails to the Congregation
Parshat Lech Lecha 2007
Shabbat Shalom to the GRJC family,
We light candles this evening at 5:52
PM. Friday night services will begin at 8 PM, and Saturday
morning services will begin at 9 AM. Dina Finkel will become
a Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat. We wish an early Mazel Tov! to
the whole family.
A word on Bar/Bat Mitzvah…Each Bar/Bat Mitzvah is a simcha, a
celebration, for the entire GRJC family. It’s a time to
recognize and celebrate that a young person is becoming an adult
in the eyes of the Jewish community, a future leader of our
people. It’s a time to support and empower that young person
so that he or she will have the inspiration and motivation to
continue to learn and be involved in the Jewish community.
Please join us this Shabbat as we celebrate Shabbat with songs and
prayers and as we share this community simcha together.
This Shabbat we will be reading from parshat Lech Lecha in the
Book of Braysheet, the Book of Genesis. At the beginning of
this parasha, God says to Avram (who later will become Av’ra’ham),
“Lech-lecha…”, “Go forth…”. Avram hears these words and goes
on a journey to the land that God will show him.
God, however, does not tell Avram where he must go. Several
verses later, Avram is heading toward Canaan, but the Torah does
not tell us how Avram figured out that was where he was supposed
to go. Bible scholar Nahum Sarna points to chapter 11, verse
31, in which Avram’s father Terach set out on a journey to Canaan
and stopped in Haran. This verse could lead us to believe
that Avram simply continued his father’s journey westward, and
then God informed him that he arrived at the right place in
chapter 12 verse 7. Sarna suggests that the journey now came
under God’s guidance, and was no longer simply a family move.
Rather, it became a journey filled with divine inspiration and
potential for the future of God’s people.
We make so many journeys in our lives. Moving from city to
city, or from house to house, is one of the more stressful of
these journeys. When we think about what it takes to move,
we can appreciate how difficult it was for Avram and Sarai to move
their whole family and all their possessions hundreds of miles
without knowing what the new land would have in store for them.
There are many ways to bring God into our major journeys in life:
By saying the Traveler’s Prayer when we leave, by setting up our
mezuzot when we come to a new home, by getting involved in the
Jewish community, by finding a good bagel place in town…anything
we can do to help us to feel more connected to others and to God.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
--JUNIOR CONGREGATION! Saturday morning at 10 AM. Join us
for an exciting new program for students and families.
--ADULT EDUCATION – My adult education class will begin Sunday
morning at 9:30 AM in the alcove off the main lobby. The
first class will be, “Black fire on White fire: The How and
Why of studying the Torah.” Join our learning community as
our youth study downstairs and our adult learners study upstairs.
No Hebrew knowledge required.
--PHOTO DIRECTORY – Please use the website
www.grjc.org or
call the Center at 201-652-6624 to schedule your photo session.
Wishing our whole community a happy and restful Shabbat,
Rabbi Tow
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