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RCA Updates
- RCA-Ematai Advanced Directive: New Instructional Video!
End of life conversation can be difficult for rabbis and baalei batim alike. But they are most important to ensure that one’s wishes, and the wishes of one’s loved ones are heeded. To that end, the RCA has teamed up with Ematai to produce a new Ematai-RCA Halachic Advance Directive and conversation guide.
This video provides Rabbis with the basic tools to make the healthcare Advance Directive more accessible. Thanks very much to our chaveirim Shlomo Brody and Jason Weiner for pioneering this initiative and presenting this video for our chaveirim.
- Another new initiative from the RCA: Elevate & Inspire: The RCA Scholar-in-Residence Initiative for Smaller Communities
The program will bring outstanding Scholar-in-Residence experiences to synagogues, by connecting talented Rabbis from smaller shuls with congregations hungry for inspiring guest speakers. Click Here for more information. Thanks to Ira Ebbin and Wes Kalmar for their initiative on this program.
- RCA-Barkai Rabbinic Exchange Program
The RCA and the Barkai Center for Practical Rabbinics have joined together once again for the. See below for the flyer.
Thank you to our Chaver R. Yitzchak Blau for leading our Hebrew Chaburah. Recordings can be found here. Additionally, we are happy to announce an upcoming program on Monday night, February 24: Connection & Conversation: Behind the Scenes of the Haredi Community at the Yishi Moshav. See flyer below for more information.
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In Our RCA Family
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We share our condolences with the Blau family on the petirah of R. Elazar Mayer Teitz, z"l, brother of Dr. Rivkah Blau. R. Teitz was the longtime leader of the Jewish community of Elizabeth, NJ.
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We also express our condolences to Shlomo Yaffe and his family on the passing of his father, R. Chaim Yaffe, z"l.
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Partnered Content
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Dayanut Programs for Rabbis in North America! Eretz Hemdah & The Montefiore Endowment, in collaboration with the RCA, are offering two specialized, part-time Dayanut tracks for qualified rabbis. See below for more information
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Chomer Lidrush
Some ideas to turn your gears heading into the parsha.
1) This is My God and I Will Understand Him
What exactly did Bnei Yisrael witness at Kriyas Yam Suf that amounted to such a singular revelation? In one comment, Rashi quotes a view that God’s “kavod” appeared to the people; other sources in Chazal explain that newborn babies craned their necks to see the waters; the gemara in Sotah depicts the people seeing an actual “picture” of God Himself!
Rashi’s view, that the “kavod” of Hashem was visible, palpable, parallels a request made of Hashem by Moshe in parshas Ki Tisa: Hareini Na es Kevodecha – let me see Your Kavod! To which God answers, No person can see My face. The mefarshim explain that Moshe was asking to “see” – to understand – the ways of God; God’s answer was that He cannot be understood “head-on”, looking at the “face”, but rather only looking backwards, with the hindsight of history, will He be “seen.”
This is what was seen at the Yam Suf – the kind of recognition that would typically only come with much time passed. Before Kriyas Yam Suf, there was no Shira – because until this moment, there had never been a process of suffering – of slavery, hardship – that could be viewed with the hindsight of “seeing God” in it all; there had never before been an appreciation of God’s ways, the same ways that, in the moment, felt difficult and impossible to grasp.
(Rav Soloveitchik suggests [Mesoras HaRav Chumash, 12:29, based on Exalted Evening, pp. 75-76] that Makas Bechoros functioned in a similar way. 80 years prior, the evil ruler of Egypt decreed that the Jewish babies be drowned. People forgot. The twisted edict faded away, no longer practiced, and even those Jewish parents had forgotten about their nightmare. But God did not forget. They would pay with their lives, and do so again – middah k’neged middah – in the Yam Suf.)
2) Shabbos of Song
“Music can be magical and transforming, if you but listen,” writes R’ Mark Verman in his classic, The History and Varieties of Jewish Meditation. In our parsha, with the shirah, music transforms – and also shows the transformation that occurs within Bnei Yisrael after Kriyas Yam Suf (the first instance in history where someone thought to show their gratitude to God with song).
By the Yam Suf, Bnei Yisrael achieve a unique level of prophecy through song. In this excerpted chapter, R’ Verman explores the different kinds of singing throughout our faith, delving deeply into each one. Great material for a shiur or your personal exploration of a fascinating topic.
3) Mitzvos of Marah
Rav Elchanan Adler, Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS, put out a brilliant sefer on the mitzvos and happenings between Marah – the beginning of Am Yisrael’s Midbar journey – and Sinai, Matan Torah. Inside is a great chapter on the mitzvos given at Marah, following Kriyas Yam Suf, according to the Ramban. Great for a shiur!
Parperet
Leftovers!
Do you eat Shabbos leftovers during the week?
It could be that those leftovers are best eaten on Shabbos - right at the end...
It’s accepted and widely known that the three-fold mentioning of “hayom” in the context of Shabbos in our parsha teaches at least the d’oraysa concept (Aruch HaShulchan) of eating three meals on Shabbos.
R’ Yaakov Kamenetsky suggests yet an additional source from this pasuk. Presumably, the people knew that they would not (or should not) be able to collect the Man on Shabbos – they ask, what will be if we cannot collect today? How can we finish what we have now, if we don’t know how we will get more? In other words, they were asking if they had to hold on to leftovers!
This is the challenge of the Man: to rely fully on Hashem. He will provide! And, perhaps, this is the same message and challenge of our third Shabbos meal – we go out of our way to eat that “leftover” meal, to convey that we do not feel the need to save for Sunday; this food is for Shabbos and Shabbos alone. Hashem will provide.
We have to find or make our own “shalashudos”, in our greater lives – a time when we can say that everything else can wait, those worries or things I need to figure out can be pushed aside for a moment. In their place is a moment where I can focus on what I really need – what will bring me close to Hashem and the faith that He will provide.
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Manning the Media
1) The Terrorist Who Murdered My Cousin Now Walks Free, Gideon Black, The Free Press
Lots of us have lots to say on the ceasefire-hostage deal; mostly, we agree that whatever our reservations are, we are nonetheless elated to see our answered tefillos with the return of every hostage freed. In his guest essay for The Free Press, Rabbi Gideon Black shows us the view from a much more emotionally complex perspective. Black’s cousin, Yoni Jesner hy”d, was murdered in a Tel-Aviv bombing in 2002 (Gideon himself was wounded in the attack). Black grapples with the excruciating moral dilemma of exchanging terrorists for hostages, while emphasizing the unbreakable bond within the Jewish community and the imperative to bring our people home.
2) President Trump Calls for US to Take Long-Term Control of Gaza, Five Takeaways from the Trump-Netanyahu Press Conference, in the Wall Street Journal
While we usually like to highlight worthwhile opinion or human interest pieces, sometimes it really is important for a rabbi to be aware of a news item – the explosive press conference between President Trump and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is something we should be read up on, and this breakdown from the Journal does a good job of parsing the story without too much editorializing. If you appreciate the Journal, they did a good job analyzing Trump’s plan of US annexation of Gaza, too.
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Read something that made you think? We’d love to read it, too – and then feature it! Drop us a line and let us know how we’re doing.
Did our chomer help you over Shabbos? Want to see more of less of an idea? Let us know!
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