Glen Rock Jewish Center

Torah portion: Re'eh (Deut. 12:26-16:17)

SERVICES WILL BE HELD THIS SHABBAT AT 739 HARRISTOWN ROAD
TWO BLOCKS FROM THE SYNAGOGUE IN THE DIRECTION OF ACKERMAN AVE.

We light our Shabbat candles at 7:38 pm

Shabbat evening services begin at 8 pm

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Saturday morning services will begin
at 9 am

Shabbat ends at 8:39 pm on Saturday.

HAMAKOM YINACHEM:
May God grant comfort to Sandra Alport and her entire family on the recent passing of her mother Mildred Klairfield z"l.

The funeral and burial took place in Houston, Texas.

There will be a shivah minyan at the Alport residence, 99 Chadwick Place in Glen Rock, Monday evening, August 18 at 8 pm.

May the entire family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

THE ISRAEL TRIP IS ON!
After a successful opening meeting, we're moving forward with the Israel trip that's scheduled for February 6-16, 2010. We have the proposed itinerary available as well as the costs.

A general interest meeting will be held at GRJC on Thursday evening, Sept. 10 at 7:30 pm. All are welcome!

In the meantime, please contact Rabbi Tow (rabbi@grjc.org) or Roann Rubin (roann@grjc.org) to learn more about this exciting Israel opportunity! This trip offers a maximum Israel experience at the most affordable price available today--a unique opportunity!.

*See Tel Aviv, Haifa, the Golan, the Galilee, Jerusalem, Masada, the Dead Sea and more...
*Participate in an archaeological dig and planting a tree in Israel

*Dinner with members of a Masorti/Conservative congregation in Rehovot.
*Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial
*Wine tasting in the Golan Heights Winery
*See where King David lived
*And so much more...

Join us on our Israel adventure!

She'elah u'Teshuvah, Q & A, with Rabbi Tow

Q: In the days before a printed chumash (volume that contains the five Books of the Torah), how was it that the congregation could follow along and understand the reading?

A: In the days before the mass-market printing of chumashim, there were two major ways in which people came to be able to follow along with the public reading of the Torah on Shabbat and holidays.

First, the practice developed that each person was to read the weekly portion three times: twice in the Hebrew and once in Aramaic "Targum", or Aramaic translation /interpretation of the portion into what was the spoken language of Jews beginning in Babylonia (ca. 525 BCE) and through the seventh century CE. Jewish writings such as the Targum, Talmud, and even portions of the Bible were written in Aramaic.

This "homework" reading, which is still a practice done today, prepares the individual to hear the reading of the portion in synagogue on Shabbat. The Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law tells us that the commentary of Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo ben Isaac, 1040-1105, France) counts in place of the Targum-after all, we do not speak Aramaic anymore but we can read Rashi's commentary that appears in Hebrew and in English translation today. However, from what we will discuss next, not everyone had the ability to read the Hebrew and to then be able to follow along on Shabbat morning.

During the Torah reading, there was a tradition of offering a verse-by-verse translation, a tradition that has largely disappeared in the Jewish world. An individual with the title "Meturgeman" (translator-Note the similarity to the word "Targum") would stand by the Torah reader and after the reader completed each verse, the Meturgeman would recite the Aramaic Targum/Translation for the congregation to hear.

The job of the Meturgeman, then, was to help people who did not understand the Hebrew to be able to follow the content of the Torah reading. The Shulchan Aruch, written in the 16th century, tells us, "We no longer have the custom of the Meturgeman since the people will not understand it." In other words, most people at that time would not have been able to follow the Aramaic translation. It was in the seventh century that Arabic became the main spoken language in the Middle-eastern communities including all the Jewish communities there. By the 16th century, Jews were speaking any number of local languages and/or Jewish versions of those languages. Aramaic only existed for Jews as a written language in texts for study. The Rema, Rabbi Moshe Isserles (Polish Rabbi who wrote a commentary to the Shulchan Aruch) brings an opinion that we should not translate into our local language, e.g. English, since the Aramaic translation was "divinely inspired".

Despite the opinion brought by the Rema, I have been at two services -- one in Massachusetts and one in London -- at which there was some form of translation into Engl ish that occurred while the Torah was open. We could ask though whether the almost simultaneous translation might add something to the reading of the Torah, or whether it might offer more distraction than help since our chumashim already have a running translation and commentary.

What do you think?

With blessings,
Rabbi Tow

ATTENTION

All GRJC Families with College Students

The GRJC wants to keep in touch with its young men and women

Please email

your student's

college snail mail and email addresses to

roann@grjc.org

or call College Outreach Chair

Robin Rubinstein

202-652-6680

We'd like to start with

delivery of a 5770

High Holiday package

so please don't delay!

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