You are invited to witness the concluding passage of the first volume of Torah on Saturday Dec. 26. Beresheet (Genesis) is concluding and we begin to read Shemote (Exodus) next week! Please help us as a congregation fulfill this ancient ritual!
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We tend to prioritize special events over ordinary gatherings and holidays over regular days. For us, extraordinary time stands out as being more meaningful than any given Tuesday. It's understandable because Tuesdays come every week but an anniversary, a birthday or a graduation does not. When investing a great deal of energy into special experiences we sometimes forget that every day is equally important. By way of analogy, a pianist plays a great many notes but without the pauses between the notes, the sounds would be less melodic. Pauses give the notes significance. Similarly, ordinary days allow special dates to gain depth and breadth.
In this week’s Torah reading Father Jacob offers his final words to 12 sons and two grandsons. Each recipient most assuredly gave heed as he stood in the presence of the patriarch aware that future words would not be forthcoming. Grandfather Jacob-Israel famously says “By you Efrayim and Menasheh shall Israel offer blessings with these very words: ‘May God make each of you like Efrayim and Menasheh.’ ”
Patriarch Jacob-Israel is bequeathing a verbal inheritance to his descendants. As a grandfather distanced from his son Joseph and Joseph’s own children, Jacob-Israel sets down words which are nearly unrivaled in Hebrew and successive translations. 3,700 years later, Jewish parents today still invoke these famous words; blessings inherited from a grandfather who may have first coined this expression because of his own inability to offer them closely and routinely.
Ironically, these words bear incredible power precisely because they are now made routine; offered ritualistically every Friday evening by Jewish parents the world over. Once-in-a-lifetime words are now quoted by descendants of Jacob; parents who choose to sanctify their children with their own blessings added to Jacob’s parental charge. With our words, each of us bears the power to alter someone’s perspective on life and to influence the behavior of a family member or friend. Shall we not use our ordinary words to the fullness of their power?
May this Shabbat Vayechi, concluding the first volume of Torah and standing upon the edge of a new year, inspire us in how we use our ordinary speech and how we view our extraordinary events.
Shabbat Shalom.
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Please type in "synagogue mobile al" and scroll down till you find us! ahavaschesedsynagogue.org
Take some time to look around, as it all helps to get us higher!
LIKE/SHARE are also very important. We are very low on SHARE.
Everyone likes to share so let's do both!
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