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RCA Updates
- RCA Elections! As an RCA member you should have received your instructions and credentials to vote. Voting ends on Thursday at 12:00 Noon EST. The annual meeting, where the votes are ratified, takes place later that day at 1 PM EDT, 10 AM PDT and at 8 PM in Israel.
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Chavra chavra ees ley: In these difficult times for Klal Yisrael, we especially need to support one another through professional, personal, and family challenges. If you know of a chaver who needs support, or need assistance yourself with anything, please contact me at mpenner@rabbis.org or 646-660-6868. Shul rabbanim know that the desire to help others can often be hindered by a lack of knowledge of what can be done. Lean on the RCA and allow us to help
Opportunities
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If your shul has not yet signed up for the Dancing Through Tears Project by Mizrachi, what are you waiting for? The RCA is now co-sponsoring this beautiful project to dedicate a mantel on one of your sifrei Torah for Simchat Torah. This is a meaningful way to mark the yahrzeit of a Jewish brother or sister killed on October 7th while balancing joy and sorrow during Simchat Torah. For more information, visit www.TheSimchatTorahProject.org.
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A family is looking for a home for its Sefer Torah and a minyan where the Torah will be used at least occasionally. It has been computer checked. If your shul or school needs an additional Sefer Torah, please let me know. Note – the klaf is “mashuach” – and thus the Sefer is heavy. Please check with your posek as well on the kashrus of this klaf.
Chomer Lidrush - Chukas
- The First Parsha of the Wars of Israel
This is the parsha of war. War can be draining, deflating, and demoralizing – but it is nonetheless a means to aliyah, a part of a holy conquest that is a crucial component of our life mission as parts of the Jewish People. See the beautiful words of Rav Shlomo Aviner from Tal Chermon here.
The Torah skips 38 years in the middle of our parsha, (Gittin 60a). Was there nothing in those 38 years that was worth reporting? What’s more, the end of the 40 years in the desert seem very similar to their start – complaints, quarrels and mistakes – and it all seems that nothing has changed from beginning to end. In a timely piece, Rav Yehuda Herzl Henkin z”l (Shu”t Bnei Banim) explains that the constant for Am Yisrael’s stagnation in the desert was the desert itself:
How do you change a culture? Only through extreme movement – an end-to-end shift in lifestyle … as long as [Am Yisrael] were in the desert, there was no chance for them to better themselves.
Only a shift from the Midbar to Eretz Yisrael would provide a chance for them to reach full potential. Full piece here.
- Why is the Parah Adumah referred to as "Chukas HaTorah"?
Calling the Parah Adumah “Chukas HaTorah” (and not “Chukas HaParah”) implies that it is a “general statute relevant to all of the Torah”, and not something limited to “the function of cleansing those unclean”. Why is this particular mitzvah discussed on such a broad level? According to Rav Moshe zt"l, the Parah Adumah is not the exception for Jewish life. It is the rule. And it teaches us the need to emphasize different aspects of Avodas Hashem to different situation.
- Two Lessons from the Encounter with Death
We find inserted, in the space between the second year and the fortieth year, the parsha of Para Adumah, the laws of purification from the contamination of death – tumat meit. Fittingly [so], because the People of Israel also need to be cleansed of the "impurity" of the generation of desert dead … and enter the Land of Israel. What is the significance of purification with the mei chatas, the admixture made with the ashes of the Para Adumah?
Rav Moshe Ganz, formerly of Yeshivat Shaalvim, gleans from a beautiful piece in Shem Mishmuel to explain that an encounter with death (and the impurity it renders) can help shift our perspective to what matters. This can be applied not just to death, but feelings of desperation for the future. There are two responses - not just one - to a world that seems to be dissolving into chaos.
Wishing you, your families, and your kehillos and students a good Shabbos!
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