Shabbat Ki Tetzeh, 28-29 August 2015/ 14 Ellul 5775
Shabbat commences 19:45 ( earliest lighting18:34)
Shabbat evening service 19:00  followed by Oneg Shabbat.
Shabbat concludes tomorrow ends 20:49

In our dealings in life we are often put into dubious situations. We are often tempted to do things or to take things which may not belong to us. Indeed the Rabbis recognize this – in the text which we are currently studying on Tuesdays, it is assumed that an uneducated person may will rationalize the appropriation of something which they do not own, and the Rabbis therefore make him scared to do so by administering an oath.
 
This week’s Torah portion teaches us to be honest. We have to return lost property to a person when we find it. We must keep our promises, and maintain our obligations to our employees properly – particularly with regard to paying them on time and in full. We must not pervert justice merely out of feeling for a person’s plight. The whole stress of the parsha is on justice.
 
This is perhaps the greatest gift which Judaism has given to the world. The concept of justice and morality being hand-in-hand is a vital aspect of the rule of law. Things should be as they seem, openly and honestly. When people cover up reality and dress it up to suit their own interpretation, it causes pain and suffering to many others. The Rabbis teach us to be straightforward in our business dealings and in our relations with others. Even in the case of a captured woman, she is to be married for her own sake and not for the lust engendered in her captor (this was of course before the Geneva Convention!) and within the limits of the rules of war as practiced 3,000 years ago she was to be given dignity even in her sad situation.
 
In the run-up to Rosh Hashanah, when we examine ourselves and our own behaviour in the world, this parsha teaches us to look at our daily lives as much as our religious duties, to see whether we measure up to the high standards expected of us.
 
Shabbat shalom,
 
Rabbi Zvi.
 
This week’s article by Jeremy Rosen on refugees is available from
http://jeremyrosen.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-end-of-our-world.html

​Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of humans around the world are on the move, political refugees and economic migrants. They are already and will continue to radically change the character of the societies they are moving into.

Throughout history humans have always migrated, from land to land and from continent to continent. They were pushed by climate change, by poverty, and by unemployment to search for more fertile land, and sometimes they migrated out of a lust for conquest. “The barbarians are coming” has always been on our lips. Species, tribes, nations, and civilizations rose and fell. Such claims to territory as existed were just swept aside. A new thug or ruler brought a new set of laws and religions. You can roll off the list of conquerors, migrations forced and chosen, of empires won and lost. But the single most significant feature of all these migrations is that, in one way or another, they benefitted the places they ended up in.

Humans, being the shortsighted creatures that they are, thought they could rely on boundaries, laws, and treaties to protect themselves. For short periods of time they often could. But inexorably the tide turned, cities fell, cultures and empires collapsed. Out of their ruins new ones emerged and the cycle continued and continues today. We in the west now are no less arrogant than were the Greeks, the Persians, the Romans, the Catholics, the Muslims, the Marxists, and now the contrasting worldviews of socialists and capitalists. Each one had and does contain the seeds of its own destruction.

After the Second World War, Western Europe decided to try again. It determined to reduce the national rivalries, to share and work together rather than to compete with each other for dominance. Social welfare systems expanded dramatically. Across the globe a new order of human rights and moral obligations struggled to emerge. But none of this could eradicate the basic core of human greed, envy, and prejudice that remained like spores of a disease deeply embedded in society.

Postwar Europe needed workers. The locals no longer wanted or needed to work in unglamorous jobs. Immigrants were needed, as they had always been, to do the dirty work, run the buses, clear the refuse, and clean the houses. Did the populace welcome them? Not really. And as each new tide swept in from the old imperial empires, they were met with ungrateful segregation and disrespect. 

Now there is a massive influx into Europe of millions from the Middle East and Africa that is impossible to halt. It’s not just Europe of course (which is getting all the publicity at the moment), it is everywhere. Some may well be criminals, some dependent on support, but many come in the hope of a better life; they head to countries with the best welfare opportunities. And Europe needs them because of its aging population and decreasing pools of workers.

But essentially the migrants are coming because of the failure of their home countries, because of the ghastly worlds they live in, of political and religious oppression, obscurantism, and corruption. They try one route, and if that is blocked they try another. Those disgusting regimes will not go away, and so the stream will continue to flow.

Because Europe is now constrained by international conventions that only a few parts of world adhere to, they have no moral right or logic to stop those trying to escape human suffering from coming in. It is pointless and futile even to try. We Jews once were these hopeless refugees, and then the West, one by one, cut off the escape routes. Those who once tried to stem the flow of Jews now complain that Jews, having failed to get humane treatment elsewhere, have gone and set up their own refuge. But whereas most Jews never wanted to retain links with the places or cultures they left or wanted to impose their religion on others, and most quickly assimilated, that is not going to happen in this case. It is possible that assimilation might ameliorate this present doomsday prediction, and I hope so, but I am not optimistic.

The West all of a sudden is trying to shut the gates again. But, as with water, if you shut off one route, it will always find another. It can’t be done, aside from whether it should or should not. Just as you cannot end crime, so you will not stop people smugglers. In one way we have progressed morally. We know we cannot ignore human suffering the way we once we did. But the result may well be the end of Europe as we know it. 

A few years ago it was Israel that seemed the easy route out of East Africa. Israel is small enough to put up fences, even though it was condemned morally for it. The sci-fi film World War Z depicted Israel’s fence as the only thing that saved it from the zombies who invaded everywhere else. It’s a scenario that is proving true in the ISIS Middle East today. But, as the film suggested, it could not hold out alone forever. And, no, I didn’t see it!

The only alternative political model is a fascist dictatorship like Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Mao’s China, and many Islamic states. This kind of regime, like China and Russia today, tries to buy people’s quiescence while limiting their freedoms and ignoring human rights. It is possible that both models will coexist in a tense but accommodating symbiosis, trading commercially and sometimes putting money before guns. 

The USA likewise has this problem, though there is much dissimilarity too—not least, the differences in cultural background. But in the USA there are other threats to survival. The massive gap between the haves and have-nots will exacerbate the tensions between classes, religions, and races. For all the dreams of its founders, the USA now looks dysfunctional.

We are in the process of leaving a relatively peaceful and secure time for one of desperation and division. The next generation will experience a new and very different world. It will be one of science fiction, where huge numbers of people will be on the move because of climate change, terror, and relative poverty. They will use modern methods of transport, held off either by physical or natural boundaries. 

Open societies will be fundamentally changed, and I just do not have the confidence in democratic political systems to believe that they can stop it. If we fall back on survival, on “me first”, this will lead to anarchy. Bakunin was right. I am beginning to sympathize with the Russian nihilists. Only small inward-looking, self-protected communities will survive. But I wouldn’t want to live in one.

Perhaps that's why so many people believe in messiahs. If humans can’t make the world a better place, perhaps God will.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen.

Benny was talking to his best friend Harry.   “You know Harry, I can’t understand why you failed in business. You had such good ideas.” 
“Too much advertising was the main reason for my failure,” replied Harry. 
“But I can’t remember you spending a penny on advertising all your life,” said Benny. 
“You’re correct there,“ said Harry, “but all my competitors did.”

It was Christmas and Judge Levy was in a merry mood as he asked the defendant, "What are you charged with?" 
"Doing my Christmas shopping early," replied the defendant. 
"But that's not an offence," said Judge Levy. 
"It is if you do it before the shop opens," said the defendant.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the Shabbat morning service this past week a great success and ensuring a minyan.  Thank you to Liz and Mike Jacobs for sponsoring the kiddush (in memory of Mike’s father).
 
Rebbetzin Shira’s next Friday Night Dinner will be held on Friday 28 August.  Service at the Rabbi’s house 7:00pm followed by dinner.  Book your place today.   
Adults £15 Students/low income £7.50.  Children free.  Space is limited.

JCoB invites you to a Mid-Summer Barbeque.  Sunday 30 August, 4pm.  Donation £12 adults, £6 students/low income.  Children free. Book your place today.
 
The Berkshire Community Cheder resumes classes on Sunday 6 September.  Find out how we can help your child get the most of his/her Jewish identity.  Contact Cheder  For information on our GCSE class in Jewish Studies, contact Rabbi Zvi
 
To celebrate the wedding anniversary of Paul and Evelyn Grabinar, the next JCoB Shabbat morning service will be on Saturday morning 12 September.  If you wish to stay for lunch, please contact us.  Donation £5.  We can always accommodate a few last minute people but please book ahead of time if you can.  As always, Goldsmid Rd congregants are welcome to walk up the road and join us for kiddush and/or lunch.
 

Berkshire Council of Christians and Jews invites you to a talk by John Redwood MP.  Thursday 3 September 8pm at Maiden Place Community Centre, Lower Earley, RG6 3HE.  John Redwood is a dynamic speaker, guaranteed to be both entertaining and challenging, and there will be opportunity for questions afterwards.  For any further details, contact Gerard de Jong on 0118 987 1419 or email [email protected]
 
KOSHER FOOD NEWS

JustKosher.com will deliver to Reading on Sunday 30 August.  If you have a small order and wish to include it with the Rebbetzin’s, contact us. 

"You shall not move the boundary of your neighbour, which the first ones made his boundary when you inherited the inheritance in the land which the Lord your God has given you to possess it."
 
In ancient times people would put a stone between their land and their fellow's to ensure that there was no encroachment. This was a way of avoiding boundary disputes. Moving such a stone was a way of stealing the land, and is criminal.
 
In later years this was extended to other situations. Taking a person's livelihood away from him by setting up a business in competition is one form of what the Rabbis call הסגת גבול Hassagat Gevul or moving the boundaries. This may seem anti-competitive, but is designed to ensure that no person acts unfairly to drive their fellow out of business. In Hendon a supermarket recently opened up next to another and did exactly this. The original shopkeeper was driven out of business because the competition was cleaner and brighter. They were literally next door.
 
Similar offences would involve changing the terms of a contract without consulting the other party. This is another way of gaining a dishonest advantage. We are supposed to be honest in business.
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Rabbi Zvi
 
This week’s article by Jeremy Rosen on Rav Lichtenstein is available from http://jeremyrosen.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/rav-lichtenstein-zl.html

​Mazal tov to Mavis and Myer Daniels on a very special wedding anniversary. 
 
Berkshire Jewish Women are invited to celebrate Rosh Chodesh Ellul.   DATE HAS CHANGED!  Monday 17 August, 8pm.  Noya has kindly agreed to lead and we will be showing the film The Lady in Number 6.   Her ability to forgive is remarkable and something we should take with us as we approach the Yomim Noraim.  Contact us for location and/or directions. 
 
JCoB invites you to a Mid-Summer Barbeque.  Sunday 23 August, 4pm.  Donation £15 adults, £7.50 students/low income.  Children free. Contact us if you would like to attend.
 
The Berkshire Community Cheder resumes classes on Sunday 6 September.  Find out how we can help your child get the most of his/her Jewish identity.  Contact us for information on our GCSE class in Jewish Studies.
 
Berkshire Council of Christians and Jews invites you to a talk by John Redwood MP.  Thursday 3 September 8pm.  John Redwood is a dynamic speaker, guaranteed to be both entertaining and challenging, and there will be opportunity for questions afterwards.  For details, contact Gerard de Jong on [email protected]
 
Limmud In The Woods 27th -31st August 
Indulge and surround yourself in Jewish culture, religion, music and learning this summer at Limmud in the Woods! Take your friends and family on a journey of enlightenment over the August bank holiday. Ponder life under the stars, learn amongst some of the world’s greatest teachers then dance the night away at the silent disco.    Eager to make a difference? Volunticipate as a kitchen manager or Madrich at a reduced attendance price of £85!     Intrigued by what you read? Keen to find out more?
Check out our website for more information: http://limmud.org/woods/
 
KOSHER FOOD NEWS

JustKosher.com will deliver to Reading on Sunday 30 August.

This week’s Torah portion speaks about the temple which the Children of Israel are to build in the place designated by God. Why was the full worship to be limited to just one location? 

During their wanderings the people of Israel had already adopted the worship of God under the sacrificial system. The worship was limited to the Mishkan, where Betzalel and Ohaliab had created all the utensils and made a portable building. This moved around with them, but there is no mention of their worshipping in this manner anywhere else. 

In Egypt there were local deities as well as the National ones. There were temples associated with these local gods, and this caused fragmentation and disunity. Instead of recognizing one true God they recognized many, and the rivalries and differences exacerbated the splits between different cities. In Ancient Greece and Rome we also see how the focus on different deities – or even the different aspects of different deities – gave rise to divisions. Even in far-flung Britain, the Romans sought to superimpose their deities on the local Celtic gods, for example in Bath where the local water deity Suilis was associated with Minerva. 

The Jewish idea differs from this pagan theory by showing that we are all bound by the same laws and should relate to each other in a consistent and unified manner. Worshipping different aspects of God is as forbidden as worshipping different gods. Worshipping in different temples might have lessened the importance of the central location, and would have diminished the cohesion of a country based on one focal point for worship. The great pilgrim festivals and High Holy Days show us that we need a main location for all the pilgrimages and offerings. This was the Temple. 

There were times when sacrifices were offered to God in other places – notably on Mount Carmel, by the prophet Elijah. However these were exceptional and in no way detracted from the Temple in Jerusalem. Today, even when there is no Temple, we face towards the location of the Holy of Holies, in order to remind ourselves of the central stage of Jewish life, that small platform atop a low mountain in the hill country of Judea. 

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Zvi

​Mazal tov to Michael Drukker and his parents on his marriage to Alison Tureck. 
 
Happy birthday to Judi Lyons.  Kiddush this past Shabbat was in her honour.  Thanks to everyone who helped create a lovely service and an early minyan.  The next JCoB Shabbat morning service will be on 22 August.
 
JCoB invites you to a special Shabbat afternoon of songs, stories (and a little bit of food) on Saturday 15 August.  Minchah 7:00pm followed by Seudah Shlishit and havdallah (at around 9:30pm).  Bring your own song or story to share or just come, listen, and enjoy.  If you would like to sponsor this or a similar event, please contact us.
 
Berkshire Jewish Women are invited to celebrate Rosh Chodesh Ellul.   Sunday 16 August, 8pm at the home of Judi Lyons.  Noya has kindly agreed to lead and we will be showing the film The Lady in Number 6.   Her ability to forgive is remarkable and something we should take with us as we approach the Yomim Noraim.  Contact us for location and/or directions. 
 
Berkshire Council of Christians and Jews invites you to a talk by John Redwood MP.  Thursday 3 September 8pm.  John Redwood is a dynamic speaker, guaranteed to be both entertaining and challenging, and there will be opportunity for questions afterwards.  For details, contact Gerard de Jong on [email protected]
 
Limmud In The Woods 27th -31st August 
Indulge and surround yourself in Jewish culture, religion, music and learning this summer at Limmud in the Woods! Take your friends and family on a journey of enlightenment over the August bank holiday. Ponder life under the stars, learn amongst some of the world’s greatest teachers then dance the night away at the silent disco.    Eager to make a difference? Volunticipate as a kitchen manager or Madrich at a reduced attendance price of £85!     

Intrigued by what you read? Keen to find out more?
Check out our website for more information: http://limmud.org/woods/
 
KOSHER FOOD NEWS

JustKosher.com will deliver to Reading on Sunday 16 August. If you have a small order and wish to include it with the Rebbetzin’s, contact Shira.

This week’s Torah portion contains the second paragraph of the Shema.

The first paragraph speaks to us in the singular while the second paragraph speaks to us in the plural. What is this change in number telling us?

By talking in the singular the first paragraph echoes the Ten Commandments, which are in the singular. It teaches us that our relationship with God is an individual one, and that we each have responsibility for what we are doing. The second paragraph teaches us something additional. We are all responsible for each other, and are influenced by our fellows. When we come together to pray and practice our religious duties, then we help each other maintain the high standards which are necessary. Group activity helps us to realise that others are watching and ensures that we spur ourselves to higher levels of observance because we are overseen by others in our activities. 

This is the essential difference between individual and group observance. Only a truly saintly person can maintain that keen appreciation of Torah and Mitzvot without the spur of others. This is one reason why community is important, particularly in the manner in which we all encourage each other to higher and deeper engagement with our Jewish lives.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Zvi

​Mazal tov to Michael Drukker and his parents on his upcoming marriage to Alison Tureck.  Thanks to everyone who helped make his aufruf yesterday at Goldsmid Rd such a special occasion.  Particular thanks to JCoB guest Rabbi Ariel Abel and ba’al koreh Gavriel Solomons for helping out at short notice.
 
Thanks to everyone who helped make Shabbat dinner so special this past Shabbat, especially to guests Rabbi Ariel and Rebbetzin Shulamit Abel. 
 
In celebration of Judi Lyons’ birthday, the next JCoB Shabbat morning service will be on Saturday morning 8 August.  If you wish to stay for lunch, please contact us.  Donation £5.  We can always accommodate a few last minute people but please book ahead of time if you can.  As always, Goldsmid Rd congregants are welcome to walk up the road and join us for kiddush and/or lunch.
 
JCoB invites you to a special Shabbat afternoon of songs, stories (and a little bit of food) on Saturday 15 August.  Minchah 7:00pm followed by Seudah Shlishit and havdallah (at around 9:30pm).  Bring your own song or story to share or just come, listen, and enjoy.  If you would like to sponsor this or a similar event, please contact us.
 
Limmud In The Woods 27th -31st August 
Indulge and surround yourself in Jewish culture, religion, music and learning this summer at Limmud in the Woods! Take your friends and family on a journey of enlightenment over the August bank holiday. Ponder life under the stars, learn amongst some of the world’s greatest teachers then dance the night away at the silent disco.  
Eager to make a difference? Volunticipate as a kitchen manager or Madrich at a reduced attendance price of £85!  
Intrigued by what you read? Keen to find out more?
Check out our website for more information: http://limmud.org/woods/
 

KOSHER FOOD NEWS

JustKosher.com will deliver to Reading on Sunday 16 August. If you have a small order and wish to include it with the Rebbetzin’s, please contact us.