Midway Jewish Center
57 Years Going Strong: 1953-2010 !
THE CYBERSHUL

330 South Oyster Bay Road
Syosset, NY 11791
www.mjc.org
cyber shul archives

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Shabbat	Beha’alotekha
Parashah	Beha’alotekha
Secular Date	May 29, 2010
Jewish Date	16 Sivan 5770
Shabbat Begins	7:58pm
Shabbat Ends	9:00pm
MJCyber Shul Minyan	1430 (keep on truckin')
Last Week’s Minyan	1428

TORAH READING

BEHA’ALOTEKHA

In parashat beha’aloteKHA, we learn how the menoRAH or lamp stand in the mishKAN (Tabernacle) is to be lit for maximum illumination. The levites (ages 25-50) who were to work in the mishKAN are cleansed. These levites formally replaced the firstborn who are no longer consigned to the service of God. The Passover sacrifice had to be offered in a state of purity and that barred those who were impure. They nevertheless wanted to participate. God tells Moses to let them offer the sacrifice in the following month on the fourteenth day at twilight, which today we refer to as Pesah SheiNI or the Second Passover. As long as a cloud rested over the mishKAN, the Israelites remained in place. But when the cloud lifted, the Israelites broke camp and followed the cloud. Two silver trumpets were blown by Aaron’s sons to signal a communal assembly, war, or travel. A travel plan delineates the order in which the tribes traveled with Judah always leading and Naphtali bringing up the rear. Moses asks his father-in-law, Hovav (previously identified as Yitro), to come with the Israelites as a guide. The Torah does not record Hovav’s answer, but his descendants do appear in Canaan (see Judges 1:16). In TaveRAH, a fire broke out presumably due to the people complaining. Moses’s prayers forced the fire to subside. The principal desert diet consisted of manna, which tasted like rich cream (yum!), but the people grew nostalgic and weepy over the good food they ate in Egypt. Moses felt like a babysitter and was overwhelmed. God then asked that 70 elders be gathered so that God’s spirit might descend upon them and they would assist Moses in his duties. God’s spirit also descended on Eldad and Medad, counted among the 70, but who did not gather with the others. A wind swept in a huge number of quail which the people captured for days. They ate meat to their fill but were later struck by a killer plague. The place became known as KivROTHata’aVAH, or Graves of the Craving. Miriam and Aaron complained about the Cushite woman that Moses had married. God reprimands them and strikes Miriam with snow-white scales. Moses prays for her and she is healed. has set us apart from other people.

A SHABBAT THOUGHT

You aren’t wealthy until you have something
money can’t buy.

~~ Anonymous ~~

ARE YOU A POTENTIAL BONE MARROW DONOR? YOU ARE, IF YOU AREN’T ALREADY REGISTERED…

Your bone marrow can save another person’s life—and that’s one huge mitzvah.

We have an opportunity to help a friend of the Conservative Movement, Matt Fenster, who was recently diagnosed with AML, acute myelogenous leukemia. He needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life and we are desperately searching for a marrow match for Matt.

Please consider making a contribution to the Matt Fenster Donor Circle to defray the costs of processing donor kits. Each donor kit costs $54 to process. The more kits collected and paid for, the better the chance of finding a match for Matt.

More information about this effort, including how to make a contribution can be found at www.mattfenstercircle.org.

If you have already been tested, please consider donating $54 to cover the cost of someone else's test. For more information or to volunteer to assist with this effort, please contact info@mattfenstercircle.org.

WEB OF THE WEEK

In memory of Lt. Miroslav "Steven" Zilberman
who sacrificed his own life to save three crew mates

AURAL TORAH

CAN A JEW BE CRITICAL OF ISRAEL?

(not this week, but check out writings of the rara below
http://writingsoftherara.blogspot.com/

The CyberRav would love you to join the blog and leave a comment… Let’s start talking Torah!

Who are these two women?

On the right, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Assembly;
On the left, Rabbi Gilah Dror, President of the Rabbinical Assembly.
For the first time in its history, the international organization of Conservative rabbis, some 1700 rabbis strong, is headed by two women—
Way to go Girls!

Honor or Memorialize Loved Ones for a New Lower Price

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For a Few Dollars You can Touch Someone in a Beautiful Way
A CyberShul Dedication—Only:

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Midway Jewish Center
330 South Oyster Bay Road
Syosset, NY 11791

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GOTTA QUESTION?
THE CYBER RAV HAS AN ANSWER AND GOOD NEWS--
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SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO rafirank@mjc.org
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DEAR CYBERAV… I’VE GOTTA QUESTION

MY ORTHODOX FRIEND GOES COLD

Dear Cyber Rav,

My friend, who is Orthodox, was in a non-kosher restaurant. She said if she ate a salad with a cold fork it would be O.K. Can you explain this to me?

Thank you—

Stymied

CYBER RAV ANSWERS

Dear Stymied,

I hope it was a good salad!

A lot of what we find to be kosher or not kosher is where we are going to draw the line. For example, within certain Orthodox circles, broccoli has been rendered treif. It is not because broccoli is treif per se, but it is because there are bugs in broccoli as there are bugs on any fresh vegetables. Now just about everyone agrees that the bugs are not kosher. But here is the difference-- I say, wash the broccoli and then you can eat it. Someone else might say, not good enough. And there is the difference. I draw the line in one spot, but someone who is more stringent will draw the line in another spot. I write "more stringent" because I do not see their pattern of observance as being more religious or more Orthodox. We are both observing the same law, but they demand a level of certainty which I think is burdensome for most people and counter to the spirit of kashrut. I wouldn't tell them that they are wrong, but I wouldn't promote their position as any holier or sacred than mine.

Now let's go to your Orthodox friend who claims that it is okay to eat in a nonkosher restaurant as long as she is only eating salad and the utensils are cold. Frankly, I think that her position is eminently defensible. Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, radish, etc. are all kosher. Is their treif on her fork? Not if it was cleaned the way most of these utensils are cleaned in diners. Is it a fork that I would bring into my kosher home? No. However, unless you want to use kashrut as a means of separating yourself from the community in which you live--which I don't think is its purpose at all--then the standards we adopt outside our home can be loosened in order to accommodate other equally important values like being able to share a meal with a friend, a business associate, or just plain going out once in a while.

Is this hypocrisy? Only for people who demand and insist on consistency in all situations at all times in spite of circumstances. And as we know from that great American poet and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson-- "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

So many of us that grew out of the Orthodox world have a hard time dealing with multiple options of equal Jewish value. I really have tremendous admiration for the passion and commitment so often found in Orthodoxy, but the notion that there is only one valid way to observe is an idea of little value and has no basis in the history of Jewish practice.

Rabbi Rafi Rank
CyberRav

Shabbat Shalom and uMo'adim LeSimhah

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