RELIGION
Note:
Listen to our soul’s deepest voice By Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Chabad of Greater Dayton Our holidays each bring out a very particular energy, each one appropriate to the time in which it comes. Yet that energy is meant to infuse us throughout the year. Thus, we do not stop thinking of freedom once Pesach is over, remove teshuvah (repentance) and atonement from
Perspectives our minds after the High Holy Days, or forget about joy when Sukkot and Simchat Torah have passed. We aim to be permeated by those sparks throughout the entire year. The holiday is just the day when that particular energy gets a focused recharge. So it is appropriate now, even after Shavuot, to reflect on that yom tov’s message and to internalize it. Called in the prayers The Time of the Giving of Our Torah, Shavuot speaks to us of the gift that the Torah is. But who thinks of the law as a gift? True enough, there are a lot of other people who need to be controlled, but we ourselves? Why not stop with the message of Pesach, liberty? Observing law is just the price we have to pay to benefit from human society. We generally accept law grudgingly: at least the laws that require us to do things we would rather not, or not to do things we really rather would do. So what’s to celebrate? And what’s to internalize? If we are forced, we are forced. The beginning of the answer has been noted often by the rabbis from two millennia ago in Israel and through these very pages in 21st-century Dayton.
Temple Beth Or Summer Kick-Off Shabbat June 25 Temple Beth Or will hold a Shabbat service in its parking lot at 6:30 p.m., Friday, June 25 to kick off summer. The musical service will include a “To-Goneg,” boxed snacks for all participants. Temple Beth Or is located at 5275 Marshall Road, Washington Township. For more information, go to templebethor.com or call 937435-3400.
guidance and coherence that As the story of the giving of has been put to the test as noththe Torah unfolds, the text in ing else through the millennia Exodus 19:2 says: “They traveled from Refidim of human history. For all of our mistakes and and they came to the wilderness for all of the horrors that the of Sinai and they encamped world has thrown there in the wilderat us, we are ness, and he encamped still here, and in there…” so many ways, As good teachers blessed as never point out, in the Hebrew before. original, the same word, It is not beencamped, appears first cause of a philoin the plural, as did all sophical idea the words in the verse alone, though the to that point, then sudTorah has plenty denly changes to the of those. It is not singular. merely because of Rashi, the great medieval commentator, Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin spiritual inspiration, though that summarizes the tradiis there to be found by all who tion’s insight into that switch. seek it. Why does it switch to speak What is extraordinary is that of the people as a single identhe Torah also gives us law tity? Because at that point they were: “As one person, with one that is able to guide us in every aspect of life. heart.” Who observes all of it True enough, our holy books are filled with stories of human- perfectly? And knowing the answer to that, why do we not kind’s misbehavior in general resent it or ignore it? and of Israel’s misbehavior in As long as law is conceived particular. But unlike at other of as forced impositions by times and places, other people, the great moment they bind us only of Sinai — the as much as we Giving of the feel vulnerable to Torah — began the enforcers. with the people But the Torah, together, profrom the start, foundly as one. has not relied on That is the external force, foundation and but on it being the underpinning of Torah, and why it has lasted. known to us as springing from the very same place as our own As with any good thing, it can self, and the self of everyone be misappropriated and misused. Anything that has a good else as well. It is what flows out of being use can also be abused. As the rabbis put it, the Torah itself can together, with ourselves and be an elixir of life or an elixir of with our people, as one. Its voice penetrates our isolation the opposite. and speaks to us of a oneness But the Torah has offered
We are still here, and in so many ways, blessed as never before.
June • Sivan/Tammuz Torah Portions Shabbat Candle Lightings June 4: 8:43 p.m. June 11: 8:47 p.m. June 18: 8:49 p.m. June 25: 8:51 p.m.
June 5, Shelach (Num. 13:1-15:41) June 12, Korach (Num. 16:1-18:32) June 19, Chukkat (Num. 19:1-22:1) June 26: Balak (Num. 22:2-25:9)
that brings us together with our own past and future, with all the imperatives that drive our own lives, and with every other person, who like ourselves, wants a wholeness within and without. This quality permeates everything in it. Each mitzvah springs from the same core. Even if one is only connected with one mitzvah, but goes to its heart, one is connected with them all. Without army or police to enforce it, the Torah speaks to us now as always of a law that flows from the source of all being. It unites inner and outer, shows how getting it right and good in our own life is connected with getting it right and good with others. It shows us the way of the flow of life that brought us here and it shows us how we can attain the deepest of all satisfaction in adding to and enhancing the life of which we are a part. “It all turns on affection,” E.M. Forster wrote a century ago in Howard’s End. We can’t do without love. It comes before and after all things. But Orwell showed us the terrifying darkness of a world — our world — where even love would be broken and enslaved to power: “He loved Big Brother.” In an age that has seen Orwellian horror time and again, we can see the immense power and hope of Torah. We are all greater than that which divides us, and love will never remain the slave of tyrants. Our Torah speaks that message again and again and connects us with the power to overcome and thrive. And it requires us only to listen to our own soul’s deepest voice.
Fast of the 17th of Tammuz June 27 Commemorating numerous calamities that fell on the Jewish people on this day, this fast is observed from dawn until dusk. Among the calamities were the breach of the walls of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. and by the Romans in 70 C.E. Marks the beginning of the Three Weeks, a period of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, culminating on the Ninth of Av.
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2021
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, worship schedules have been adjusted and some services are offered virtually instead. For the latest information, check with the organizations below via their websites, Facebook pages, and by calling them directly.
CONGREGATIONS Beth Abraham Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Joshua Ginsberg Cantor/Dir. of Ed. & Programming Andrea Raizen 305 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood. 937-293-9520. BethAbrahamDayton.org Beth Jacob Congregation Traditional Rabbi Leibel Agar Sundays & Wednesdays, 7:09 p.m. Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. 7020 N. Main St., Dayton. 937-274-2149. BethJacobCong.org Temple Anshe Emeth Reform 320 Caldwell St., Piqua. Contact Steve Shuchat, 937-7262116, AnsheEmeth@gmail.com. ansheemeth.org Temple Beth Or Reform Rabbi Judy Chessin Asst. Rabbi/Educator Ben Azriel Fri., June 25, 6:30 p.m. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-435-3400. templebethor.com Temple Beth Sholom Reform Rabbi Haviva Horvitz 610 Gladys Dr., Middletown. 513-422-8313. templebethsholom.net Temple Israel Reform Senior Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz Rabbi/Educator Tina Sobo Saturdays, June 5 & 19, 11 a.m. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-496-0050. tidayton.org Temple Sholom Reform Rabbi Cary Kozberg 2424 N. Limestone St., Springfield. 937-399-1231. templesholomoh.com
ADDITIONAL SERVICES Chabad of Greater Dayton Rabbi Nochum Mangel Associate Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Youth & Prog. Dir. Rabbi Levi Simon, Teen & Young Adult Prog. Dir. Rabbi Elchonon Chaikin. Beginner educational service Saturdays 9:30 a.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave. 937-643-0770. chabaddayton.com Yellow Springs Havurah Independent Antioch College Rockford Chapel. Contact Len Kramer, 937-572-4840 or len2654@gmail.com.
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