Family Shabbat Table Talk for March 11-12th, Shabbat Vayikra

From the URJ's Table Talk resources, from 5759:

Vayikra, Leviticus 1:1–5:26
The Torah: A Modern Commentary pp. 757–778
Haftarah, Esther 7:1–10; 8:15–17CYCLE ONE

SUMMARY
This Shabbat we begin reading the third book of the Torah, Leviticus. Leviticus contains many of the laws and precepts of Judaism. It also contains a description of the system of sacrifices which was, for the Israelite community of the time, the primary way of worshipping God. In Hebrew this book and its first portion are called Vayikra meaning, "And [God] called." The parashah opens with God calling to Moses and explaining the various sacrifices. Five different sacrifices are described: the burnt offering--olah; the meal offering--minchah; the sacrifice of well being--zevach shelamim; the sin offering--chatat; and the guilt offering-asham.
Olah means "that which goes up." The entire animal except for the hide was burnt on the altar. The olah had to be male without blemish and could be a bull, a sheep, a goat or birds, depending on one's financial means.
The minchah was an offering of unleavened flour in the form of cakes or wafers. Part of it was burnt on the altar and the rest given to Aaron and his sons.
The zevach shelamim offering could be a male or female cow, sheep, or goat. A part of it would be burnt on the altar, a part given to Aaron and his sons and the rest would provide a festive meal for the one bringing the sacrifice and his or her guests.
The olah, minchah, and zevach shelamim were voluntary sacrifices.
The chatat offering was brought by an individual or a community which had unknowingly sinned regarding one of the commandments. These sins included: failure to testify, touching an unclean animal or carcass, coming in contact with human uncleanness, or failure to fulfill an oath. If the offering was made by the whole community or an anointed priest a bull had to be sacrificed. If it were a tribal chieftain a male goat was brought as the sacrifice. If it were a ordinary Israelite a female goat or sheep was offered. The animal brought for sacrifice depended on the place in society an individual occupied.
The asham sacrifice was brought by a person who had sinned by committing robbery or fraud. The guilty person had to give back the stolen item plus an additional one fifth of its value and then sacrifice a ram or give the equivalent in money. Depending on the financial means of the individual female sheep or goat, birds or choice flour was sacrificed.
COMMENTARY
Sacrifice was the way ancient Israelites worshipped God. In Hebrew the word for sacrifice is korban. It is based on the Hebrew letter root koof-resh-bet which means to "draw near." Making a sacrifice was the way an Israelite could draw near or come close to God. Specific sacrifices demonstrated specific feelings: to show a belief in God, the olah or the minchah offering, to give thanks to God for the good things in one's life, the zevach shelamim or to show God that one was sorry for doing something wrong, the chatat or asham offering. Sacrifices could only be offered at the Temple in Jerusalem and the rituals could only be performed by ordained priests.
This last offering raised concerns among the prophets who thought an individual might commit a deliberate wrong and then offer a sacrifice to square the account (The Torah: A Modern Commentary p. 768). The prophets criticized the people for behaving as they pleased, breaking Jewish laws, and then offering a sacrifice to repent for their behavior. The prophets felt that this kind of offering was superficial and did not lead the people to change their behavior or to be close to God. The prophets also criticized the people for fulfilling their ritual obligation to offer sacrifices, while at the same time treating people unjustly. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah condemned the people for offering sacrifices while continuing to behave wickedly.
When the second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E., the sacrificial cult ended. Prayer, study and the doing of good deeds were considered acceptable substitutes for the sacrifices which could no longer be offered.
TABLE TALK

1. The sacrifices expressed religious devotion and the people's love for God. How do you show your devotion and connection to Judaism? In what ways do you show your love for God? How does this make you like our ancestors? In what ways do modern Jewish rituals express the things our ancestors tried to express through the various sacrificial offerings? In what ways do our modern rituals distinguish us from our ancestors?
2. Our ancestors encountered many difficulties in order to fulfill the commandment to go to Jerusalem to bring sacrifices. The trip was long and the cost of arranging the appropriate sacrifice was significant. What kinds of sacrifices does Judaism require of us today? In what ways is practicing Judaism difficult? In what ways is it easier than at the time described in the Torah portion?
3. After the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the rabbis decreed that prayer, Torah study and acts of loving kindness replace sacrifices. When have you participated in prayer? In Torah Study? In acts of loving kindness? How do these things move you closer to God?
4. Imagine that the prophets were speaking to you. What does their message of meaningless sacrifice and unethical behavior mean to you? What did the prophets want the people to do? What does their message tell us about our own behavior?

DID YOU KNOW...that the Shehecheyanu is a blessing which thanks God for good things in our lives. It is recited for many different occasions including the first day of holidays, for a special event like a bar/bat mitzvah, a baby naming, an anniversary or birthday, a special trip, when one hears or witnesses good news, when one builds or buys a house or purchases new clothing, when one eats fruit for the first time in a season and when one sees a friend one has not seen for 30 days or more. This week be on the look out for your Shehecheyanu moments. (The Shehecheyanu: We praise you Adonai our God Ruler of the universe, for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this season.)

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Table Talk for Shabbat Tetzaveh, February 11th-12th, 2011

Follow this link to a wonderful discussion about light, sparked by this week's torah portion.  (Get it? Sparked?):

http://urj.org//holidays/shabbat/intro/exodus//?syspage=article&item_id=4265


Shabbat Shalom!

Shabbat Shablog--Tu B'shvat, Jan 19-20, 2011

Next wednesday evening, the holiday of Tu B'shvat begins.  Tu B'shvat means the 15th of the month of Shevat, and it is the "birthday" or the "New Year" of the trees.

Jewish tradition actually teaches that we have three Jewish "New Years."  The first is the one that we all first think of:  Rosh HaShanah, which occurs in the Fall and is one of the High Holy Days.  We know that the name Rosh HaShanah means the "head of the year."  "Rosh"="head", "Ha"="the" or "of the," and "Shanah" ="year."

The second is the month of Nissan, which usually falls somewhere around late march or early april for us, which is the month that contains the holiday of Passover.  This also can make sense to us because it begins a new agricultural season during which the wheat harvest occurs in the land of Israel and we count the Omer, the time until the barley harvest.  But also in a different way, it makes sense to us that the Spring could be a "New Year."  The darker time of the winter has ended, the days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer.  We can feel and sense the transition happening.  New plants begin to sprout, buds grow on trees, things begin to bloom, and the world does indeed feel fresh and new.

The third "New Year" is the new year for the trees: Tu B'shvat.  The original purpose of this day was actually for "taxation" purposes, you could say--this was the turn of the year when counting the lifespan of trees, which told you if you had to tithe (give ten percent of) the fruit of the tree to the priests in the temple in Jerusalem during the time of ancient Israel.

Now, Tu B'shvat has become sort of a "Jewish Arbor Day," a time for us to contribute to planting trees in the land of Israel, which you can do here, and to connect ourselves (at least mentally and spiritually) to the land of Israel.

It has also become a time to remind ourselves of the joys of the fruits and natural products of the earth, a time to remind ourselves that spring is on the way.  Just like on Groundhog day, the Punxatawny Phil is supposed to come out of the groundhog hole and look for his shadow, and based on the result we can know we are in for six more weeks of winter or whether spring is on the way.... Tu B'shvat also reminds us that though it is still certainly winter here in the United States, in Israel the tides are beginning to change, the rains of the winter will give and have begun to give way to regrowth and rebirth of the fruitfulness of our land.

Tu B'shvat is also a wonderful time to work to help heal and protect our environment.

One particularly beautiful tradition is one that was taken from the Kabbalists of the city of Tzfat in the land of Israel, who created a Tu B'shvat Seder modeled on the ritualized festival meal of the passover Seder, but focusing on the spiritual connection to God through nature.

I encourage you to make use of the resources I have linked to below to find a way to include learning or observance of Tu B'shvat into your week to come.  I promise that it will be a worthwhile and uplifting effort.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Tu B'shvat,

Rabbi Segal

 blessings of enjoyment

history and meaning of tu b’shvat

for families with very young children, ages 0-6

tu b’shvat seder created by the RAC and NFTY

Table Talk for Shabbat Bo, January 7th-8th, 2011

This week's Torah portion jumps right in to the middle of the story of the Exodus from Egypt.  Last week took us from Moses's birth, through his rescue from the river Nile, to the time when as an adult he saw an Egyptian task master beating an Israelite slave and he killed the man, covering the body in the sand.  We saw Moses flee to the land of Midian where he became a sheep hearder and encountered God at the burning bush, who told Moses to go down to Pharaoh and demand that he let the Israelites go free.

When Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go, we also saw in last week's Torah portion the first seven out of the ten plagues:

Blood
Frogs
Lice
Flies
Cattle Disease
Boils
Hail

And then this week we find the last 3 plagues:

Locusts
Darkness
the Death of the Firstborn.


While there are many theories about why these specific plagues were chosen, what is certainly true is that they made it extremely hard to live in the land of Egypt.  They really disrupted the way of life in Egypt.


The question for discussion this week is, what "plagues" could happen today, in our modern world, that would make it very hard to live, and really disrupt our way of life?  What would make it hard to function?


Shabbat Shalom!