Florence Shaffer Memorial Fund
January 23, 2012
THE SISTERHOOD OF GREAT NECK SYNAGOGUE CARES
The Florence Shaffer Memorial Fund was endowed to provide
financial assistance to young women who would have difficulty
affording a college education or a post high school program. The
scholarship is intended to benefit girls whose families are members of
Great Neck Synagogue and face significant challenges in funding
post-high school studies. This year the Scholarship Committee is planning
to award one scholarship of up to $3,600. The Sisterhood is pleased
to announce that a generous anonymous donor has agreed to
match all donations that are made to the Florence Shaffer
Memorial Fund by February 29, 2012.Please help us show our
community that the Sisterhood of Great Neck Synagogue cares about
our young women. Any contribution to the Florence Shaffer Memorial
Fund would be appreciated so we can take advantage of the generosity
of our matching donor. Please make your checks payable to the
“Sisterhood of Great Neck Synagogue” and make a notation that it
is for the Florence Shaffer Memorial Fund. For further information, please
contact Cindy Hodkin at koshercookinggn@gmail.com.
Mikvah Shiur For Women
January 23, 2012
A North Shore Mikvah Association shiur for women given by Rebbetzin
Beile Block entitled, The Many Facets of Marital Intimacy, will take place
on February 28 at the home of Adam and Alana Gelnick - 55 Deepdale
Drive. Light refreshments will be served. Suggested donation - $36.00
Sponsorships - 100.00 For more information, please email
NSMikvah@gmail.com.
TU B’SHEVAT SEDER
January 23, 2012
Please join us for the 2nd annual Tu B’Shevat Seder on Wednesday,
February 8th hosted by Farangess Sedaghatpour and Cindy Hodkin
at Fery’s lovely home 26 Birchwood Lane. All are welcome at 11:00
am and the Seder will begin promptly at noon. Please rsvp to the
synagogue office 487-6100.
Sisterhood Program
January 23, 2012
Are You Suffering from the Sugar Blues?
Are you ready to end your sugar cravings?
Do you have low energy in the middle of the day?
Come join Pam Bilfeld for her signature SUGAR WORKSHOP
On Tuesday, February 7th, 8:30‐9:30PM
at Great Neck Synagogue
She guarantees it will CHANGE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH
SUGAR FOREVER!!!
RSVP:PBilfeld@aol.com
Sponsorships: January 28, 2012
January 23, 2012
Kiddush is sponsored by Great Neck Synagogue, with the addition of a herring table, sponsored by the Aryeh Family in memory of husband, father and grandfather Rafael Aryeh z”l
Hashkama Kiddush is sponsored by Mel Fox in memory of his late wife,Sally Fox z”l and his sister Leah Fox Solomon z”l.
Seudah Shlishit is sponsored by Sylvia & Norman Fisher for the yahrzeit of her mother Olga Esther Hirsh z”l, and by the Aryeh Family in memory of Rafael Aryeh z’l.
Within Our Family: January 28, 2012
January 23, 2012
Mazal Tov to Shulamit & Moussa Soleimani on the engagement of their son Jacob to Jaclyn Saxe, daughter of Gila & Keith Saxe of La Jolla, California.
Mazal Tov to Ellie & David Werber on the birth of a granddaughter born to their children Tovah & Josh Marmer.
Announcements: January 28, 2012
January 23, 2012
January 28 Shabbat Announcements
Parshas Bo 5772 Stephen Rabinowitz, MD
January 23, 2012
B”H
Parshas Bo, the third of the twelve parshios in Sefer Shmos, contains 105 verses, including nine positive mitzvos and eleven prohibitions. Chapter 12 contains the following verses (translation adapted from Rabbi Chaim Miller and based on Rashi (1040-1105)):
The Zohar (1st century C.E.) asks why this miracle was performed at midnight, instead of during the day, when all of Egypt could have seen it more clearly. R. Shimon bar Yochai answers that everyone was at home at night, and not in the fields. Furthermore, this spring night was illuminated as brightly as a summer day, so that the whole Egyptian people could witness the mighty hand of HaShem, as it says in Tehillim 139:12, “…the night shines as the day, the darkness is as the light.” The night brings punishment and calamity for the wicked, and mercy and salvation for the righteous.
Rashi (1040-1105), based on Midrash Tanchuma and Mechilta, notes that the phrase “every firstborn in the land of Egypt,” rather than “every firstborn of Egypt,” tells us that even firstborns of other nations who had the misfortune to be in Egypt on that date were struck. Paroh himself was a firstborn, but he was an exception, kept alive so he could witness further miracles at the Red Sea/Yam Suf. The firstborn of prisoners died because they enjoyed seeing Yisroel persecuted, and because, had they been spared, they would have attributed their survival and the punishment of the Egyptians to their own idols. Paroh arose at night, unlike other kings who usually sleep late into the morning. He got up before his servants and went personally to their houses to rouse them. He found that no house was without a corpse: if no firstborn male or female was in a house, the foremost person of the household died, and, the people were so promiscuous that some married women consorted with numerous bachelors, so that one woman had up to five children who were each firstborn to their father. The Sifsei Tzadik by R. Shmuel Avrohom Abba Hager of Horodenka (born in 1865, the 2nd Wischnitzer Rebbe’s son) remarks on the cold-blooded audacity of Paroh, to sleep when Moshe warned him of this terrible plague, after nine previous plague warnings had proven accurate. Midrash Tanchuma adds that the animals were killed because the Egyptians worshipped them, so it was necessary to include animals in the decree.
Ramban (1194-1270) adds to Rashi’s comments that HaShem instructed Yisroel to limit consecration for redemption/pidyon ha’ben, in the place of the Egyptian firstborns, to the firstborn son of a mother because that person is most clearly identified, and all the more so for the firstborn of an animal.
The Midrash Yalkut Shimoni (13th century) quotes Tehillim 136:10, “To Him Who struck Egypt through their firstborn…,” to teach us that the firstborns heard they would be slain, and rose up in a civil war on the Shabbos before the Exodus, Shabbos haGadol, to try to force Paroh to free Yisroel.
Rabbeinu Bachya (1255-1340), based on Midrashim, sees each of the plagues as repayment in kind to the Egyptians for the oppression they inflicted on the Jews. The death of the firstborn was retribution for the killing of Yisroelim, deemed to be His firstborn. The Meshech Chochmah (1843-1926) explains the uniqueness of the firstborn rests in the fact that he/she makes her/his father into a father. The Jewish people are called HaShem’s firstborn because we crown Him as our Father in heaven. Of course, said Rav Soloveitchik (1903-1993), if we are His firstborn, then that means He also has other children. Ultimately, through our example, they will come to acknowledge His Kingship. Paroh, by enslaving and killing Jews, was blocking HaShem’s plan for mankind.
Sforno (1475-1550) looks at a single letter, a vuv, in the phrase “vaHaShem hikoh,” meaning “and HaShem struck.” He interprets this as a parallel construction: B’nai Yisroel occupied themselves with fulfilling HaShem’s mitzvos of Pesach, while He rewarded them for it by striking the Egyptians.
Alshich (1508-1600) highlights the sequence in verse 30 that first Paroh arose and then a great outcry occurred. Egypt, he says, was a police state in which people were afraid to cry out in grief until they saw Paroh ask Moshe and Aharon to take Yisroel out of the country, and even that was only permission for a three-day leave.
R. Shabsai haKohen (1622-1663), in his Shach al haTorah, notes that HaShem told Moshe that the death of the firstborn would begin at midnight, but Moshe told Paroh about midnight (Shmos 11:4). At midnight, says the Shach, HaShem switches attributes from strict justice to mercy. Since punishment required severity, but saving Yisroel needed mercy, midnight was the time to encompass both modes. Rashi says Moshe said “about midnight” so that no discrepancy could occur should the Egyptian astronomers miscalculate the moment. Others say that midnight might be measured by Jerusalem time, or could be a rolling local time as midnight and the plague moved from east to west across Egypt. A bit of wiggle room was therefore needed to avoid any accusation that Moshe was off by so much as a second. R. Zalman Sorotzkin (1881-1966) applies the words “about midnight” to the original 400-year sentence that Yisroel was to serve in Egypt, and from which we were redeemed after 210 years, about halfway.
The Shoel uMeishiv, R. Yosef Shaul Natansohn (1817-1878), in Eidus b’Yosef, says some Egyptians hid their firstborn sons in Jewish homes to shield them from death. HaShem responded by killing the hidden firstborn, and also killing the eldest left behind in their household. Moshe did not warn the Egyptians that this ruse would not work so that they would be punished once for not freeing Yisroel, which would have prevented the deaths, and again for thinking they could deceive HaShem.
Shem miShmuel (1856-1926) quotes his grandfather, R. Menachem Mendel, the Kotzker Rebbe (1787-1859): As each plague punished and degraded the Egyptians, the same plague elevated Yisroel with spiritual gifts. In the last and harshest plague, death of the Egyptian firstborn, kedushoh/holiness was injected into the firstborn of Yisroel and into every other manifestation of firstness: in time, in space, and in the spiritual dimension. These included Pesach, the first holiday, Eretz Yisroel and the Beis haMikdosh, the primary locations in the world, and the intellect and emotions, the first powers of the soul, represented by the tefillin. We were also commanded regarding the first fruits, the firstborn of non-kosher animals, the firstborn of kosher animals, and our own firstborn sons.
R. Yehuda Balsam (contemporary) says that our fast of the firstborn is a minhag in remembrance of the miracle according to the Tur (1269-1340) in O.C. 470. The Raviyah (12th cent.) in siman 525 says that bechoros of the mother as well as the father should have to fast because the plague affected firstborns of male and female Egyptians. But, heads of households who are not bechoros need not fast, although they too were victims of makas bechoros, because we never accepted such a stringency regarding this minhag. The Sefer Agudah (10:91) records that firstborn women should also fast, and cites a proof from the Midrash Rabbah (18:3) that Basyah bas Paroh, a firstborn, was saved from death in the merit of her caring for Moshe Rabbeinu when he was a child. Firstborn women were therefore included in the plague and should have to fast. The Maharil (1360-1427) siman 14 rejects this custom, explaining that just as the heads of households never took it upon themselves to fast, so too women never accepted the practice.
Within Our Family: March 24, 2012
January 19, 2012
Mazal Tov to Ellen & Rabbi Dale Polakoff on the upcoming marriage of her daughter Aliza Hoffman to Lior Tor in Israel.
Mazal Tov to Michele & Howard Wolf on the engagement of their daughter Rachel to Andrew Borodach son of Ardell & Gerold Borodach of Riverdale.
Parashat Va-Era - Meet Me by My New Name. - Jeroen Reuven Bours
January 19, 2012
In last week’s Parasha: Shemot, Moses understands that he has failed in his mission and asks Ha-Shem: “G-d, why did You bring harm upon the people? Why did You send me?” (Ex. 5:22-23). G-d promises Moses in this week’s Parashat that the Israelites, suffering under Egyptian oppression, will witness G-d’s fulfillment of the covenant He made with the patriarchs, by giving them the land of Canaan (Ex. 6:2-8). Another revelation G-d makes is His other name, the name no one so far has heard or used. The name we don’t say nor try to decipher. This name we don’t even try to pronounce in our own minds for fear of mispronouncing it. To Avraham, Yitchak and Jacov, G-d went by El Shaddai or Elohim, here, He reveals Himself to Moshe as ‘Havaye’ (the Hassidic accepted referal to the real name). This new name G-d reveals to Moshe, is according to the Rashi (ibid, v 3), the name G-d uses when He is faithful to His word, by keeping his promises. G-d promised to take His people to Ha-Eretz before but did not fulfill them in their times. He did not reveal His ‘Havaye’ to them. This time it’s different, He promises to take them out of the land in their time. This is interesting because this means that this present generation in Egypt will witness the fulfillment of the Exodus. The Lubavitcher Rebbe takes what Rashi states a bit further; based on the Kabbalistic meaning of the word ‘Havaye’, one who is on an extremely exalted level. Before, when G-d revealed Himself to our forefathers, He was on a lower level and thus used the names Shaddai and Elohim. But now that His Israelites underwent the hardship as a people, they were worthy to be exposed to the higher Name. In Chassidic thought, the two earlier names of G-d were in accordance of the development of nature: With other words, in the order nature happens. According to the Chassidut (Netivot Shalom), the Jewish people are finding themselves on the 49th level of spiritual purity with only one level to go down, the 50,th which would keep them in Egypt for another 190 years. Remember, Ha-Shem did tell Avraham that they would be enslaved for 400 years. So Ha-Shem decides to override nature (his two other names) and stop the suffering. Another requisite to reveal and use the new Name is the receiving of the Laws, the Torah. Thus you can say that by G-d ‘stepping in,‘ He also makes the commitment to stay for as long as the Exodus out of Egypt takes and to give the Israelites to the Torah when the time is right. So Ha-Shem, now known by His new name, is not leaving. With this comes a third part: the revelation of his mighty miracles. Or, you could call that ‘G-d’s admonition’ that is meant to physically get the Israelites out of there, and also meant to show the commitment to His own people. We’re set and ready to go: We have the divine Name, we will have His fulfillment of the promise and we have the ammo. Now, let my People go, go, go.
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