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Monthly Archives: March 2017
Vayikra
Last week there was a double parashiyot, namely Va-yakhel and P’kudei. In Ya-yakhel, the instructions given to Moses earlier on the building of the Tabernacle, the Ark and the other furniture, furnishings and devices to be used both as a place of sacrifice and an amazing mobile home for the presence of God begin to become a reality. What a wonderful transformation we have here after the dreadful sin of the golden calf and our earlier complaints and fears. Moses ask for offerings of skins, wool, fine linen, gold, silver and precious stones with which to build and weave the furniture and furnishings. He asks for volunteers to craft and form everything as it should be, and he is overwhelmed by the contributions and by the volunteers. So much is given that the architects and builders have to ask the people to stop bringing things. Sometimes one’s family can bring sorrow and pain, but here they bring joy.
What a wonderful ending to Shemot, the book of names and the story of the Exodus. “God’s glory filled the Tabernacle” and the people are ready to move on, as move they must. The journey will be difficult and sometimes painful. There will be backsliding and rebellion. Yet, slowly, we will grow in strength and, with God’s help, make ourselves ready. Chazak, chazak, v’nitzchazeik.
And so we come to Vayikra. God calls to Moses, speaking to him from the Communion Tent, and proceeds to instruct him in the intricate rituals of sacrifice. There are many kinds of offering, some freely made by any member of the community, peace and sin offerings, one for the High Priest, one for the King (though there is not yet a King to sin) those for the community and those for commoners. There is far too much for me to recount here. However, this week we will have a shabbat service that will be even more special than usual. We are lucky to have David and Hannah Jacobs visiting us, and David will be leading the service, together with our very own Liz Berg.
After kiddush, David Jacobs will lead a discussion. The topic will be Pesach and the Haggadah .
Don’t miss our most excellent day: Shabbat service, kiddush and discussion all rolled up in one super package.
COMMUNAL SEDER
Spring is coming and, with it, one of the most wonderful festivals of the Jewish year: Pesach. It is fitting that, at the same time as the world around us begins again to burst into growth, we celebrate the throwing off of the bonds of slavery. We clean our houses, looking for chametz and, in the process, sweep away the dust and crumbs at the back of drawers and cupboards, the grey cobwebs in the corners of our kitchens. Pesach is also a time to look inside our hearts and perhaps clear away a few dusty habits and modes of thought grown stiff with complacency. And it is a time to celebrate together the great gift of freedom and the coming together of the people of Israel in a shared covenant with God.
The first night of Pesach this year will be on Monday 10 April and Kehillat Kernow will be celebrating it in grand style. There will be the traditional story, given new life by the ever fresh reading of our Honorary Life President Harvey Kurzfield, the traditional seder plate, and a wonderful buffet lovingly cooked and prepared by some of the talented chefs of the community.
Our seder is a wonderful occasion for both children and adults. If you are visiting Cornwall during Pesach and wish to attend the seder, please contact Anne Hearle on 01736 731686 for details.
Ki Tissa
Please note that service reminders aim to build a bridge between the last Saturday service two weeks before and the one being announced. They will therefore often focus on the previous parshah rather than on the one in the title.
Moses is not mentioned in Tetzaveh, nor God in the Megillah, which we read for Purim, and which, this year, fell immediately after Shabbat. Is this for the same reasons? In the former, Aaron, the older brother takes centre stage. In the latter, Ester does. Are Moses and God absent? In a way they are and in a way they aren’t. Moses listens to God’s instructions for making the priestly vestments so that Aaron and his sons will be sanctified, giving honour to them, to the tribes of Israel and, of course, to God. Had Moses been made of another mettle, he might have wanted to be the High Priest himself. Had God wanted humanity to be puppets, He might have arranged everything hands on. As it is, Moses is happy to stand back and allow others into the limelight, but he is still there doing his job. Similarly, God allows courage and virtue to emerge in the human heart, but He is still there, weaving a delicate, living web of possibilities. For a more scholarly discussion of these themes, see Rabbi Jonathan Sachs: ‘Who is Honoured?’ – Covenant & Conversation: Tetzaveh 5777 and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis: ‘D’var Torah: Purim’.
Now Ki Tissa begins with instructions for a census, a ‘lifting of the heads’ and continues with more instructions for the building of the sacred space of the Tabernacle. Moses is absent from the camp, so the people, thinking themselves bereft of leader and of God, go to pieces. When discussing Terumah, Pat Lipert talked of the parallels between the creation of the sacred space and that of the just, social space. Both require order, direction and assumed responsibility. Without these disciplines, a people unused to organising itself creates that which is grotesque and absurd. Guided by God and Moses, they can craft the most beautiful Holy of Holies. Guided by nothing but fear and desire, they spew out a golden calf.
Fortunately, their sinful mistake is forgiven. They are given a second chance. More laws follow, and the divine glory rests on Moses, so that, when he descends, some of it is still visible to the people.
Come and be counted, lift up your heads this Shabbat at our nexr service, starting 10.30. Adam Feldman will forge insight and joyful song, and no golden calf will raise its hollow head.