“In many ways it is still October 7th. Time froze,” says Rabbi Ammi Hirsch, offering his perspective of where we are five months later, on the Shabbat before embarking for Israel with our synagogue’s mission. “The road ahead will be difficult and painful… my message to you is: keep the faith.”
“We as a community royally screwed up” when we built the golden calf, says Rabbi Dalia Samansky. “But it is what happens in this week’s portion that shows how we as a people grew from our experience. Mistakes and bad decisions happen. It’s how we respond, learn and grow after them that reveals our true character.”
In this week’s parashah, we read about “the eternal flame” — the lamp that burned continuously in the Tabernacle. “The light of the eternal flame, according to our Sages, is what we would call today ‘enlightenment’ — moral education,” says Rabbi Ammi Hirsch. “Those who do not think deeply about morality stumble in darkness. Enlightenment requires moral discipline — always, every day, all the time.”
Have you ever wondered why Jews were famously mercantile during the Middle Ages? Traders had difficulty communicating, explains Rabbi Tracy Kaplowitz, but Jews “have always maintained a facility in Hebrew.” Amid modern challenges to the idea of Jewish peoplehood, she argues we must rediscover — and teach the next generation — the ways we are all “bound to our God, to our Torah, to Israel and to one another.”
Taking a leap of faith is challenging for humans, acknowledges Rabbi Samantha Natov. But “if we waited to understand before acting, we might never take a step,” she says. “It is only through living that we gain wisdom.”