Bulletin Vayikra

Welcome • ohtcv ohfurc
Shabbat Shalom • ouka ,ca
Shabbat Vayikra / Zachor
9 Adar II 5782 • March 12, 2022
trehu
Purim Party!
March 16 th at 6:00 p.m.
Join us for a "live" fun-filled
Evening with food, merriment featuring
The "Alta Rockers"
& the Megilah Reading
Please call or email the office to let us know you are coming!
Beth Tikvah Annual Membership Meeting
The Annual Membership meeting is called for
March 20 th at 10 a.m.
(in person & via Zoom)
Roberta Miller
Secretary of the Board

A
Mar 11
Mar 12
Mar 13
Mar 14
Mar 18
We mourn the passing of
Stephen Brazina k ”z
Beloved husband of Rhonda Brazina
May His Memory Be for a Blessing • lurc urfz hvh
Birthdays
Donations in his memory may be made to the
Beth Tikvah Chesed Fund.
Ruth Bier
Roberta Miller, Genesis Sando
Aaron Cohen
Arlene Sobol, Jill Valesky
Alex Wertheim
Kiddush Sponsors
Bob & Shelley Goodman,
In honor of Shelleys's Birthday!
Michael & Sharon Gertz,
A
jna ,skuv ouh
In honor of the wonderful Congregants of
Beth Tikvah. Thank you for being so warm and
welcoming!
Kiddush Maven Linda Scheinberg
Assisted by Rosalee Bogo, Judith Chaloff, Sue Hammerman,
Evelyn & Larry Hecht, Elaine Kamin, Judy Levitt,
Paulette Margulies, Shep Scheinberg & Dave Sivakoff
To sponsor a kiddush, please contact Linda Scheinberg
missus205@gmail.com
– Shelley Goodman
Do you make plans? Do you expect them to be actualized?
Living with Covid-19 taught all of us how fragile plans
really were. If asked in March 2020 what we had planned
for summer 2020 we all would have been wrong. Our experiences
validated that we are “Living in the Unpredictable.” Come and
listen to my journey, the skills I learned and now practice in order to
not only live – but rather thrive in a time of unpredictability.
Lecture Series: Tuesday March 29 th at 7:30
Please join us for Minyan
Friday, March 18 th at 9:00 a.m.

Torah & Haftarah Readings:
Shabbat Vayikrah / Zachor: Leviticus 4:27-5:26 (Etz Hayim p. 599)
1. 4:27-31 2. 4:32-35 3. 5:1-10 4. 5:11-13
5. 5:14-16 6. 5:17-19 7. 5:20-26 M. Deut. 25:17-19 (p. 1135)
Haftarah: Samuel 15:2-34 (Etz Hayim p. 1281)
Torah / Haftarah Summary
D'var Torah:
Moshe, Hillel and Frederick the Mouse
Ilana Kurshan
In the transition from Exodus to Leviticus, the Torah shifts from describing
the construction of the Mishkan to describing its operations. At the end
of the book of Exodus, Moshe was in charge of the Mishkan, transmitting
God’s architectural instructions and ensuring that the structure was built
“in accordance with all that God commanded Moshe.” Now, with the start
of Leviticus, the Mishkan becomes the domain of Aaron and the priests,
who are responsible for the system of sacrificial worship. No wonder, then,
that the rabbis imagine Moshe standing off in the wings at the start of our
parashah, unsure of his role and reluctant to resume center stage until
summoned by God. God’s call to Moshe at the start of our parashah is read
by the rabbis as a lesson in the value of humility, which is surprisingly more
about self-assurance than about self-effacement.
The rabbis (Leviticus Rabbah 1:5) pick up on an apparent redundancy in the
opening verse of our parashah: “The Lord called to Moshe and spoke
to him from the Tent of Meeting” (1:1). If the Torah tells us that the
Lord “called” to Moshe, why does it also have to state that the Lord “spoke”
to him? Aren’t these verbs essentially synonymous? The midrash explains
that Moshe was standing off to the side and thus God had to first call him
over before speaking to him, saying, “For how long will you keep yourself
low? The time waits but for you!” The rabbis contend that this is the same
posture Moshe adopted at the burning bush, when he hid his face from
God; as per the midrash, it is also the posture he adopted at the Red Sea,
when God said, “If you do not split the sea, no one else will,” and then again
at Sinai, when God had to call Moshe up the mountain. The rabbis present
Moshe as a model of humility, concluding that one ought to “go two or three
seats lower and take your seat. Better that people should say to you: Come
up, come up, and not say to you: Go down, go down.” They compare Moshe
to Hillel, who was also famous for his self-effacement, arguing that it is better
to underestimate oneself than to err on the side of self-aggrandizement.
And yet the midrash suggests that as Moshe stands outside the Mishkan
with his head bent and his hands in his proverbial pockets, God has grown
somewhat exasperated with him: “For how long will you keep yourself
low?” This does not seem to be the humility that God desires.

The rabbis explain that Moshe was reluctant to come forward because
he was uncertain as to what he could contribute. He has watched as the
Israelites donated gold and precious stones to the Mishkan, and he doubts
what he can add. “Everyone has brought their voluntary offerings to the
Mishkan, and I have brought nothing” (Leviticus Rabbah 1:6). God, seeing
Moshe’s despondence, said to him, “As you live, your speech is more
beloved to me than all.” Moshe thinks he has nothing to offer, but God
assures him that his eloquence is valued most highly. He is like the mouse
named Frederick in Leo Leonni’s eponymous picture book, whose gift is
not the corn and nuts and wheat and straw that all the other mice gather for
the winter, but the beautiful poem about blue periwinkles and red poppies
which he composes to sing to the other field mice once the days have grown
gray and dark.
Moshe, who has always doubted his powers of speech, is perhaps being
once again reminded that his gifts are not just a reflection of his own innate
talents, but of what God has instilled in him: “Who gives man speech?
Who makes him dumb or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”
(Exodus 4:11). If Moshe denigrates himself too much, he risks denying and
depriving the others of his God-given gifts. After all, it is the very same
Hillel—famous for his humility—who would arrive at the festival of the
water-drawing on Sukkot and say, “If I’m here, everyone is here” (Sukkah
53a). Hillel realized that if he, in spite of his humility, could share his gifts
with the world, then surely everyone else could as well. We are not meant to
lay low and downplay our talents, but to use them to enrich those around
us – like Frederick, who responds to the other mice’s plaudits—“Frederick,
you are a poet!”—by blushing, taking a bow, and saying shyly, “I know it.”
The construction of the Mishkan is frequently analogized to the creation of
the world, with the Mishkan imagined as a Garden of Eden (see, for instance,
Tanchuma Pekudei 2). If so, then we might read God’s first call to Moshe
in our parashah as analogous to God’s first call to Adam in the garden:
“Where are you?” An omniscient God has no need to ask Adam about
his whereabouts; rather, God is asking Adam to take responsibility for his
actions. God does not want Adam to hide away shamefully, just as God
does not want Moshe to stand off to the side with lowered head. Adam,
instilled with the knowledge of good and evil, is being called to repent for
his wrongdoing. And Moshe, instilled with divine powers of speech, is
being called to continue to be a conduit for God’s word. Both must come
forth and own up to what is expected of them.
Like Adam, every human being is created in God’s image and furnished
with God-given gifts. If we can learn neither to flaunt nor to suppress those
gifts, we will internalize the message of the book of Leviticus, namely that
sacrificial worship—like all religious worship—is about giving the best of
ourselves and, in so doing, drawing closer to God.

D'var Haftorah
Can God Change? - Bex Stern Rosenblatt
In the Dvar Haftarah for Ki Tisa, we thought about whether it was possible
for humans to change, how a person could change themselves. In this week’s
haftarah the same question is posed about God. Can God change? Is the
essence of eternity and divinity to never change or to be constantly evolving?
The question of God’s ability to change is posed around the word 'nehem.'
It’s a hard word to translate, a word with many variable meanings. It is used
to mean to have compassion, to be sorry, to regret, to repent, to comfort,
and to be comforted, among other things. The word appears three times
in our haftarah portion, opening and closing the portion and once in the
middle. We read, in verse eleven as translated by Robert Alter: “I repent that
I made Saul king, for he has turned back from Me, and My words he has not
fulfilled.” Likewise, the haftarah closes with verse thirty-five, as translated
by Alter: “the LORD had repented making Saul king over Israel.” But in
between these verses we get a most curious statement. We read in verse
twenty-nine, as translated by Alter, “And, what’s more, Israel’s Eternal does
not deceive and does not repent, for He is no human to repent.”
The story tells us twice of God repenting (or regretting, etc. depending on
how you choose to translate it.) And yet the story also tells us that God does
not repent, that repentance is a uniquely human quality. A repentant God is
a God who changes, a God who can be constantly evolving. In the story of
the haftarah, this makes sense. God had chosen Saul as the first king of Israel
and is now changing course, to anoint David as king. It is a very awkward
transition, with the succession pangs providing most of the material for
the book of Samuel. Surely there could have been a better way to do this. If
God had always wanted David to be king, perhaps God could have skipped
Saul. One could conclude that God must have initially wanted Saul and then
changed God’s mind when Saul failed to do as he was ordered.
So why are we also told that God does not repent, does not change God’s
mind? This creates an image of a God who always had everything in a
divine plan - a God who intended for Israel to go through the mess of Saul’s
kingship in order to get to David’s kingship. This is the sort of God we refer
to when we say things like “everything happens for a reason.” This is the
all-knowing God who has the world’s best interests at heart. But this is not
a God who is responsive to us, who hears humanity and adjusts the divine
plan.
Our haftarah tries to have it both ways - both the responsive God and the
all-knowing God, the flexible God and the fixed God. There is something
wonderful in this paradox, something Godlike, something bigger than we
can understand. The essence of divinity can hold both never changing and
constantly evolving, even if we cannot.

Scholar in reisdence Weekend with
Rabbi Abraham Skorka
April 1 st & 2 nd
Rabbi Abraham Skorka was
born in Buenos Aires. He
holds a PhD in Chemistry
from The University of Buenos Aires, and
graduated from Midrahsa HaIvrit and the Latin-
American Rabbinical Seminary. He was the Rabbi
of the Benei Tikva synagogue for 42 years and the
rector of the Rabbinical Seminary for 20 years.
Rabbi Skorka has been fully committed to
his work in interfaith dialogue. The author of
numerous articles and books, particularly – On
Heaven and Earth - which he wrote with the
Archbishop of Buenos Aires Cardinal Bergoglio,
who is currently Pope Francis.
In addition to many distinguished awards, he has received honorary
doctoral degrees from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina,
Jewish Theological Seminary and Sacred Heart University.
Rabbi Skorka will address some of the topics
closest and dearest to his heart, during a special
Shabbat of growth and learning:
Friday Evening After Dinner:
"THE PERILS OF POLARIZED
PUBLIC DISCOURSE”
Saturday Morning:
"THE INFLUENCE OF THE PANDEMIC
IN SYNAGOGUE LIFE"
Dinner will begin at 5:30 p.m.
RESERVATIONS FOR THIS EVENT
ARE A MUST!
Cost per person $36 – payment must be received before 3/28
Call Gillian at the office to let her know you are coming!
Beth Tikvah of Naples
1459 Pine Ridge Road
Naples, FL 34109
(239) 434-1818
Visit us online at
bethtikvahnaples.org
or scan the QR code
to go there directly