Kehillat Ohr Tzion

Rabbi Shlomo Schachter

Parashat Shemot

President Jeff Schapiro

18 Tevet 5785

Davening Schedule

Friday, January 17


Mincha & Kabbalat Shabbat: 4:50 pm

Earliest Candle Lighting: 4:13 pm

Candle Lighting: 4:50 pm

Sunset: 5:08 pm


Saturday, January 18


Shacharit: 9:00 am (sharp)


Kiddush is sponsored by KOT.


Pre-Mincha Class: after Kiddush 

Mincha: 12:45 pm

Havdala: 5:55 pm

Ma'ariv: 6:10 pm


Sunday, January 19


Shacharit: 8:30 am


Thursday, January 23


Shacharit: 6:45 am



Donations


No donations this week.


Please remember to bring in your donations for the Food Bank. See the Shul Note down to the right for further details.


Please remember to drop off your Dash's receipts in the bag in the shul foyer.



Contacts


President: Jeff Schapiro 

jefrs@verizon.net



Rabbi: Shlomo Schachter

rabbischachter75@gmail.com


Newsletter: Joseph Enis

je.jfed@gmail.com


Chesed: Mireille Schapiro

mireilleschapiro2@gmail.com


Fun/Fund: Beth Weiss

bmweiss516@gmail.com

 

Publicity: Phyllis Steinberg

phyllismksteinberg@gmail.com

  

Social Action: Phyllis Steinberg

phyllismksteinberg@gmail.com

 

Web Site: Karen Marks

ohrtzionwebsite@gmail.com

  

Kiddush Sponsorships: Cheryl Stein 

clslaw@gmail.com



Web Site: www.OhrTzion.org

*** KOT PLEDGES ***
KOT depends on Voluntary ATID pledges to ensure that we can provide for all of our expenses. If you have made a pledge, the Board of KOT thanks you for your generosity. If you have not made a pledge or have questions regarding the Voluntary ATID program, please contact Steven Weiss at kot613@outlook.com.
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It's Spring in Buffalo, and leaves are waiting to open on the Tree of Life at shul.

Have a leaf or a rock inscribed!
   $120 for a leaf
   $1000 for a rock

Kosher take-out available in Buffalo (Supervision by BVK):

BK Gourmet click here
Luscious by Lori click here

From the President:


Many thanks go out to Joe for his time and effort in getting the newsletter out every week for the past year and a half. Rav Shlomo has graciously agreed to take over this important job in a couple of weeks. Thank you Joe and thank you Rav!


This is the last week to put goods into the FeedMore barrel. Phyllis is arranging to have the barrel picked up next week. Thanks to all who have supported this most worthwhile cause.


Shabbat Shalom,

Jeff

 

From the Rabbi:



The book of Exodus as well as its opening Parsha is called in Hebrew Shemot, 'names'.


The Torah relates that we had descended to Egypt as seventy souls who were listed by name. By the time we get to this week's parsha we had been reduced to a swarm of nameless slaves. Two verses later, the description of Bnei Yisrael almost sounds like Tolkien’s orcs, a faceless, nameless hoard. (Ex. 1:7) ”The Children of Israel increased, multiplied and swarmed and grew exceedingly overwhelming, and the land teemed with them”. This sounds like an infestation, which is exactly how the Egyptians saw us.  


That’s what slavery does, it reduces people to a commodity of labor and denies their essential Humanity until they are just a swarm. Just as the Nazis (yemach shmam) gave us numbers instead of names to dehumanize us, to Pharaoh we were just pests to (1:10) “be dealt with shrewdly lest they continue to multiply”. That’s generally how people deal with their enemies. They dehumanize them, deny them names, faces and any trace of the beauty which is endemic to Humanity and treat them as subhuman vermin.  


Of course treating people this way doesn’t only deface the humanity of the victims. When we fail to recognize the Tzelem Elohim, The Divine Image inherent in all people, our own Divine nature becomes eclipsed and fades from memory. We become the evil we project onto others. So it was with Pharaoh in Egypt. He looked at us as subhuman, and in doing so sunk to the level himself The man who thought of himself as a god on Earth had become the ungodly bane of Humanity and remains enshrined in the Torah as the preeminent “bad guy” of the most widely read book in history. And unlike in Cecil B Demille’s film, in the Torah, pharaoh has no name. 


In the face of Pharah’ tyranny and oppression, we suffered quietly until two righteous women stepped up to begin the process of redemption. These two women are the first Jews since Yoseph died to be mentioned by name: Shifra and Puah, the Hebrew midwives (identified by Rashi as Yocheved and Miriam) that refused Pharaoh’s initial order to kill newborn Israelite male babies. (1:17) "The Midwives feared God and so they refused to do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, and they spared the children''. Seeing that his ruse to discreetly stamp out the infestation was foiled, Pharaoh abandoned any sense of decency and (1:22) “charged all his people, saying, “every boy that is born you shall throw into the Nile”. And they did just that. They would gladly see their own children die in order to hurt us. (Sound familiar?)


In the midst of this terrible decree, Yocheved would not be deterred from her fear of God and her love of life. She enticed her husband to renew family life and gave birth to a son. The infant boy was cast into the hand of God by his mother and sister, found in the reeds by a princess and eventually grew into the first Jewish boy in his generation to be called by name. Moshe.  


In the darkest of times the spark that ignited the redemption was not a finger pointing at pharaoh's wanton injustice. It was not our longing for freedom nor even our faithfulness to our traditions. It was our love of life and the appreciation of the unique value of each individual. That value couldn't be seen looking at the swarm of Israelite slaves. But in the intimacy of a loving family, the specialness of every child can be seen and nurtured.  


 If indeed The Jewish People are to bring redemption to the world, we must be the midwives of all Humanity, teaching the world to fear God by cherishing the unique faces of each member of the extended family of Adam.



Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Shlomo



Classes This Week


NOTE: The Thursday evening class is paused until further notice.





Shul & Community Notes & Events


Social Action Committee's annual food collection is underway! FeedMoreWNY has again left a barrel in the shul foyer. They are most in need of these items: cereal, peanut or other nut butters, canned tuna or chicken, canned soups, stews and chili, canned fruit and veggies, boxed mac and cheese, pasta and rice. Thanks as always for your generosity!


879 Hopkins Rd.
Williamsville, NY 14221