Bulletin BALAK

Welcome • ohtcv ohfurc
Shabbat Shalom • ouka ,ca
Shabbat Balak
12 Tammuz 5783 • July 1, 2023 ekc
SPECIAL MINYAN REQUEST
Sunday evening, JULY 2 nd
8:30 p.m.
In memory of Rabbi Chezi Zionce k ’’z

Yahrtzeiten
120 sg
vfrck oburfz
June 30 • 11 Tammuz Bill Morgan – Father of Jay Kaye
Albert Barber – Father of Martin Barber
July 1 • 12 Tammuz Haskell Nemeroff – Father of Judith Adelman
Bertha Hecht – Relative of Arnold Bresnick
Solomon Wasserman – Father of Mark Wasserman
Lois Levin – Wife of Samuel Levin
July 2 • 13 Tammuz Morris Zoldan – Father of Jack Zoldan
` Mason Kronick – Father of Carol Mest
July 3 • 14 Tammuz Rabbi Chezi Zionce – Friend of Arleen Sivakoff
Bernard Alpert – Husband of Fran Alpert
July 5 • 16 Tammuz Helen Kramer – Mother of Nancy Garfinkel
July 6 • 17 Tammuz Rebecca Fant – Mother of Ray Fant
Birthdays
June 30
July 2
July 3
July 5
July 6
July 7
jna `skuv ouh
Sarah Castro
Jay Kaye, Ammos Chorny, Lawrence Macks
Michael Sobol
Ilya Prizel
Kathy Greenberg, Debra Antzis
Ellaine Rosen
Shabbat Kiddush Sponsored by:
Arleen Sivakoff and
Shelly & Bob Goodman
In loving memory of Rabbi Chezi Zionce
Linda & Shep Scheinberg
In honor of Rabbi Chorny’s Birthday
Mavens: Steve Chizzik
Assisted by: Kathy Abrams, Linda & Shep Scheinberg,
and Jill Valesky
Sponsor a
Kiddush
Contact Arleen Sivakoff:
dsivakoff@aol.com • 239.455.8811
k’’z

Torah & Haftarah Readings:
Shabbat Balak: Num. 22:2-22:38 (Etz Hayim p. 894)
1. 22:2-4 2. 22:5-7 3. 22:8-12 4. 22:13-20
5. 22:21-27 6. 22:28-30 7. 22:31-38 M. 25:7-9 (p.908)
Haftarah: Micah 5:6-6:8 (Etz Hayim p. 915)
Torah Commentary
D’var Torah:
The End of a Generation - Bex Stern-Rosenblatt
Two weeks ago, in the story of the spies, we learned that the generation of Israelites
who left Egypt would not survive to enter the land of Canaan. The epic journey
they had made would result in freedom for their children and in death for them.
As God reiterates a number of times, their “corpses will fall in the wilderness”
rather than reaching the promised land.
By the time we stand on the Plains of Moab to listen to Moses recite Deuteronomy,
that first generation seems to have died off. After all, the listeners, the audience, in
Deuteronomy seems to be the second generation, the generation who will enter
the land. Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 2:14 that 38 years have passed, that “the
whole generation, the men of war, came to an end from the midst of the camp as
the LORD had sworn concerning them.”
Accordingly, somewhere or some time in the Book of Numbers, there should be
a record of the deaths of the first generation. We should learn that the moment
has come when God’s word has been fulfilled, when the last of the corpses of the
first generation has fallen and we, the next generation, are ready to enter the land.
It seems like a moment that should be, if not celebrated, accompanied by a bit
of fanfare. At the very least, it seems like it should be mentioned. But there is no
such moment. The Torah makes no mention of the point at which that transition
is completed.
Some people point towards the two censuses in the Book of Numbers, the one
that opens the book and the one that occurs in Numbers 26 after the Baal Peor
incident. Different people are recorded in each. Therefore, the first generation
must have died before the second census. But when? Did the incident of Baal
Peor happen to the first or second generation? Likewise, did Balaam open his
words of praise, “how beautiful are your tents, oh Jacob” about the first or
second generation?
The one verse, Deuteronomy 2:14, points us towards a place at which it happens,
saying that the last of that generation died at “the time that we went from Kadesh-
Barnea until we crossed the Wadi Zered.” That moment occurs in our parashah,
in Numbers 21. This chapter is a long list of our wilderness wanderings and it is
notoriously difficult to locate these places on a map. Nonetheless, the Wadi Zered
of Deuteronomy 2:14 appears. We read in verse 12, “from there they journeyed
onward and camped at Wadi Zered, and in verse 13, “from there they journeyed
onward and camped across the Arnon.” Using the verse from Deuteronomy,

we would believe that between verses 12 and 13, the last of the generation
that left Egypt perished. There is not so much of a hint towards this seemingly
monumental moment in the text. The subject does not change, the journey goes
on. There is no mention of a grand statement, no “as God had commanded
concerning that generation for what they had done when…” The text merely
continues.
This may be intentional. There is never a concrete point when one generation
ends and the next generation begins. The idea that the second generation was
separate, different, from the first is blatantly false. Their actions mirror each
other. The punishment of the first generation, their death in the wilderness,
was no different from the mortality of all humans, our foretold ending since
the Garden of Eden. We die. Rather, the blessing for the first generation is that
their people continue. Their children and their descendants will enter the land.
The promise that God made to their ancestors will be fulfilled for generations
to come.
The continuity of the Israelite people and the irrelevance of the passing of the
generations is thrown into stark contrast with the other nations in Numbers 21.
We read all that is left of the civilization of Moab in the Song of Heshbon, “Woe
to you, Moab, You are lost, O people of Chemosh,” the remnant of an entire
nation remain as just a footnote, an echo of an ancient song, recorded in our
living text. We need not mention the moment of the passing of a generation of
Israelites because there will never be a point at which we disappear, remaining
only in song.
Join Rabbi Chorny
✺
for his weekly discussion
group, Tuesdays at
12:15 p.m. via
and IN Person
Office Hours:
Weekdays
from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m
Gillian can be reached at
(239) 434-1818
Rabbi’s Office Hours:
Tuesdays and Thursdays
from 10 a.m. to noon.
Or call his cell (239) 537-5257
to make an appointment.
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