Rabbi Safman's Weekly Message
Dear Friends,
As we join together to celebrate Shabbat we invite you to bring a kiddush cup or any glass filled with wine or grape juice and join together with us at the end of services to share in a l'chayim.
I look forward to celebrating Shabbat with you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chol Hamoed Sukkot 2024
In a farming community a little girl went to church with her father. It seems like nothing out of the ordinary, except it was on a weekday in the late spring. She turned to her father and asked why it was imperative that everyone in the community attend the service. Her father responded that there hadn’t been enough rain. If we want our crops to grow we need rain. If we want to eat, if we want to provide to the yield of our crops for others to purchase then we need to pray for rain.
The little girl turned to her father and said: “I don’t believe that you or others here are serious in your prayers. The father answered: “How can you even say that, you know how religious we are and all of us are hoping that God answers our prayers.” The little girl responded: “Then where are your umbrellas?”
We may not live as farmers, but we need to offer similar prayers in this season for wind, rain and snow to revitalize the earth at the end of this year’s harvesting season. And our prayers and actions must be consistent.
In our Torah reading for this Shabbat, a reading specific to the Sabbath of festivals, Moshe turns to God and posits a similar kind of question to God as that little girl. Moshe turns and says: “See, You say to me, ‘Lead this people forward,’ but You have not made known to me whom You will send with me. Further, You have said, ‘I have singled you out by name, and you have, indeed, gained My favor.’ Now, if I have truly gained Your favor, pray let me know Your ways, that I may know You and continue in Your favor. Consider, too, that this nation is Your people.”
Perhaps that little girl’s question might provide us with an understanding of what Moshe is asking from God. Moshe needs some kind of reassurance that what God is stating is real.
Hashem responds that “I will make all of my goodness pass before you…and the grace that I grant and compassion that I show.”
As we give Thanksgiving for the harvest of the year past, our prayers turn to that of the harvest of the year to come. We are asking that God show goodness to us for the next harvest. In that regard, in just a few days, on Shemini Atzeret, our prayers will include the words “mashiv haru’ach umorid hagashem.” We are requesting that Hashem provide us with winds and rain in this season in a most compassionate way. We want not too little rain, and not too much rain. We are praying for just the right amount of wind and rain that will allow our fields to once again be renewed with moisture, so that once again our fields will yield bountiful and healthy crops.
If one looks carefully at the Hebrew word הגשם, hagashem, one will note that the beginning and the end of the word are ה Ha and שם shem, which is one manner in how we refer to God – השם, Hashem. It is similar to the E and T in the name of Elliot in Steven Spielberg’s ET. Just as ET will always be surround and be a part of Elliot, we pray that Hashem will be with us in providing his compassion and grace to us in the rains, הגשם Hageshem during the season ahead.
And why do we wait until the end of the Sukkot to pray for rain? Remember the little girl’s question about the umbrella? If we pray for rain while we are in the Sukkah, then is our prayer sincere? Do we want the rains to begin to fall while we are sitting in our Sukkot? So, we wait until we have completed the mitzvah of sitting in the sukkah before offering our prayers and hopes for winds and rains that will bring to us what we hope will be a bountiful agricultural season in the spring. Today, that is our hope not only in Israel, and not only in America, but around the world, since we live in a world where we are sustained by global farming and crops.
I hope that you will join together with us this coming Thursday morning as we add these words for the first time in our prayers in a joint community Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah service at Temple Emanu-El.
Shabbat shalom and Moadim L’Simcha (which is how we greateach other during the intermediary days of festivals.)
Am Yisrael Chai!
And Bring them home NOW!
Rabbi K