Bulletin SHOFTIM

Shabbat Shoftim
2 Elul 5783 • August 19, 2023
Welcome • ohtcv ohfurc
Shabbat Shalom • ouka ,ca
ohypa
Monday, September 26 | 7:30 p.m. After Nehila
RSVP by September 21 | Cost $25 p/p

Yahrtzeiten
120 sg
vfrck oburfz
Aug 18 • 1 Elul Sadie Rubenfeld – Relative of Susan Barad
Perry Kaye
– Fathert of Stuart Kaye
Aug 19 • 2 Elul Benjamin Epstein – Father of Ruth Jason
Ida Hecht
– Mother of Larry Hecht
Aug 21 • 4 Elul Robin Lewis Lebowitz – Sister of Ron Lebowitz
Aug 23 • 6 Elul Max Ponter – Grandfather of Alan Rosenberg
Birthdays
Aug 19
Aug 23
Aug 25
Anniversaries
Shep Scheinberg
Stuart Kaye
Fran Alpert
Aug 15 Donna & Alan Rosenberg (54)
jna `skuv ouh
Shabbat Kiddush Sponsored by:
Mitchell Eil
in memory of his father Dr. Harry Eil k”z
Maven: Steve Chizzik
Assisted by: Sue & Joe Hammerman,
Elaine Kamin, Fran Kaufman, Shep & Linda Scheinberg
cuy kzn
Sponsor a
Kiddush
Contact Arleen Sivakoff:
dsivakoff@aol.com • 239.455.8811
“...rautn vhfnu`u vc ohehzjnk thv ohhj Jg”
“She is a tree of life to those who embrace her;
those who hold her tight are happy…”
Remember Lunch-N-Learn with
Rabbi Chorny life’s Tuesdays joys & celebrations
12:15 P.M.
Prov. 3:18
Dedicate new leaves in commemoration of
Please contact the Synagogue office or Harvey Rosenthal: HAROSENTHAL80@GMAIL.COM

Torah & Haftarah Readings:
Shabbat Re’eh: Deuteronomy 16:18-18:5 (Etz Hayim p. 1088)
1. 16:18-20 2. 16:21-17:7 3. 17:8-10 4. 17:11-13
5. 17:14-17 6. 17:18-20 7. 18:1-5 M. 21:7-9 (p.1106)
Haftarah: Isaiah 51:12-52:12 (p. 1108)
Torah Commentary
D’var Torah:
You Ain’t Never Had a Prophet Like Me - Bex Stern-Rosenblatt
Moses is unique. We read, at the very end of the Torah, right after the successful
transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua, that Moses is special - “But
no prophet again arose in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face-toface,with
all the signs and the portents which the LORD sent him to do in the
land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and with all
the strong hand and with all the great fear that Moses did before the eyes of all
Israel.” Moses has a relationship with God that no one else will have and Moses
had a job to do, an exodus to lead, that no one else will copy.
Our parashah is Moses’s explanation of how we will function without him. He
presents to us four overlapping branches of government, four types of leaders -
judges, kings, priests, and prophets. Each of these types replaces part of Moses’s
role. He is dividing his job up and making it more manageable by hiring more
people. This division of labor is very much in line with the sentiment expressed
at the end of the Torah - Moses is irreplaceable, it’ll take a whole group of people
to do the job he did alone.
Yet there is one verse in our parashah that seems to contradict this sentiment.
We read, in Deuteronomy 18:15, “A prophet like me from your midst, from your
brothers, the LORD will raise up. Him shall you heed.” Moses tells us that God
will elevate a prophet like Moses himself. Yet the Torah ends by telling us this
never happens. And in our parashah, Moses seems to be making arrangements
so that a prophet need never again bear all the responsibilities alone for leading
a nation that Moses bore. So what does Moses mean when he says that God will
raise up a prophet like him?
The context of the quote is Moses trying to explain to us how to recognize a
true prophet. He makes clear that prophecy is something different from the
abhorrent practices of soothsaying or practicing magic in which the Canaanite
nations engage. We are given two signs for how to recognize a true prophet. The
first is that a false prophet who pretends to speak in the name of God will die,
although we are not given a timeframe for this prophet’s death. The second sign
is that the things that a true prophet of God prophesizes will come true, while
those of a false prophet will not.
With this as context, Moses perhaps is explaining his own death and his own
loyalty. Moses did in fact act as a prophet in a manner that was not sanctioned

y God. When Moses insulted the nation and struck the rock at Meribah, he
seemed to be acting under God’s auspices while in fact he was transgressing
them. For this, God condemns Moses to death, to not reaching the promised
land. So when Moses says that God will raise up another prophet like him,
perhaps he is being humble. That any prophet God raises up will be human,
will be fallible, just as Moses has been. Of course, water did indeed come out
from the rock, the second sign that Moses was a prophet held true. Even in the
moment when Moses transgressed God, God did not abandon us to our thirst.
Now, in Moses’s final speech, Moses lets us know that we are responsible for the
actions of our prophets. A prophet is God’s messenger to us. But we are the ones
who are able to choose whether or not to receive that message. When Moses
transgressed God, calling us out as rebels, perhaps we should have stood up and
rejected that message. If Moses, the best of prophets, can fail, then all prophets
can fail. All prophets can be like Moses. It is up to us and the other balances on
prophetic power to determine right and wrong, to find truth even when it is
hidden in human foibles.
5784 – 2023-2024
Selichot with Cantor Brody
Saturday, September 9 th – 8:00 p.m.
Rosh Hashanah
Friday, September 15 th – 6:15 p.m.
First Day:Saturday, September 16 th – 9:00 a.m.
Second Day: Sunday, September 17 th – 9:00 a.m.
Yom Kippur
Kol Nidre: Sunday, September 24 th – 6:00 p.m.
Monday, September 25 th – 9:00 a.m.
Yizkor – 11:30 a.m.
Please send your High Holiday Forms ASAP
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