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SCENTS
Surfers Central Schedule and Rabbi's Greeting
Shabbat Shalom Umevarakh!
Our Education & Youth Director, Benjy Simons, will be spending
his last Shabbat with us
Here is a schedule of his remaining Shiurim and Lectures:-
WED AT 7.00 pm Venue: Surfers Central Syn
Various topical issues:-
21 Feb - The month of Adar and some secrets of Purim
THUR AT 7.00 pm Venue: Surfers Central
Syn
A Topical Talk centred around the Torah portion of the week
SHABBAT at 4 pm Venue: 2/37, Markwell Avenue, Surfers Paradise
Ethics from Sinai
All welcome.
We thank him for his valuable contribution to the Torah life of our
Community.
Those who wish to make a contribution for our Purim/Pesach Newsletter please submit
to lgoriss@bigpond.net.au.
Here is our schedule of Shabbat services:-
FRI 16 FEB - Shabbat begins 6.13
pm
Mincha followed by Kabbalat Shabbat
and
Maariv - 6 pm
SHABBAT 10 FEB - Shacharit - 9.00 am
Parashat MISHPATIM
Special Reading: SHEKALIM
followed by Musaph and Kiddush
The theme of my address this Shabbat will be
DOES HOLY EQUAL HOLISTIC?
Mincha following Kiddush
Seudah Shelishit and Shiur - 6.20 pm
Shabbat ends - 7.07 pm
Mon & Thur Minyanim - 7 am
Shul Open For Davvening 7/52!
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Adapted from the Rabbi's Address on Tu b'Shevat
Man is compared in the Torah to a fruit of the tree. Fruits come
in three groups - those with outer shells, those with inner cores and
those where you can eat the entire fruit. Similarly some humans
have a tough prickly outer skin but are sweet and soft once you get
inside. Some are immediately and readily accessible but only up
to a point - they have an inner core you can't penetrate. And
some are sweet through and through.
However we don't boycott fruit just because it has a shell or a stone.
And the mystic scholar Rabbi Chaim Vital (disciple of the AriZal, R.
Yitschak Luria) divides the three types of fruit equally, instructing
that ten of each kind be eaten on Tu b'Shevat.
Similarly, a Jewish Community, and especially SCS needs all types of
human fruit - soft or prickly, easy-going or tough-nuts -on board
if we are to realise our dream and build a Shul and a Community
of which we can be proud.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Chaim Ingram
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From
the Rabbis desk 1/2/07
Tu b'Shavat Sameakh!
Tu b'Shavat or Rosh haShana le-Ilanot, the New Year for Trees, is one
of the four New Years spoken about in the Mishna. It marks the
time that the sap starts to rise in the barks of the trees in the Land
of Israel. With the heaviest rains having probably fallen (although
we hope and pray that Israel will receive more much-needed 'liquid
gold' from Heaven) Tu bShevat is the first harbinger of spring.
Even in our fakertedik Southern Hemisphere, Tu b'Shevat serves
as a timely reminder (not that those of us who read the weekly Parashiyot
need one at this time of year!) that Pesach is well and truly on the
way!!!
With Tu b'Shevat falling on Shabbat this year, we at SCS shall
be celebrating Tu b'Shvat this year with a SPECIAL FRUIT KIDDUSH.
All welcome!
Our Education & Youth Director, Benjy Simons, will continue
to be with us until the end of February.
Here is a schedule of his remaining Shiurim and Lectures:-
WED AT 6.30 pm Venue: Surfers Central Syn
Various topical issues:-
7 Feb - Hillel and Shammai - A paradigm of Jewish pluralism
for the sake of Heaven
14 Feb - Achieving the Impossible
21 Feb - The month of Adar and some secrets of Purim
THUR AT 6.30 pm (until 22 Feb) Venue:
Surfers Central Syn
A Topical Talk centred around the Torah portion of the week
SHABBAT at 4 pm (until 24 Feb) Venue: 2/37, Markwell
Avenue, Surfers Paradise
Ethics from Sinai
Allcomers welcome.
The new SCS Newsletter for Jan/Feb is now out - thank you once
again Luana. Those who wish to make a contribution for our
Purim/Pesach edition please submit to lgoriss@bigpond.net.au.
Here is our schedule of Shabbat services:-
FRI 2 FEB - Shabbat begins 6.23
pm
Mincha followed by Singalong Kabbalat Shabbat
and
Maariv - 6 pm
SHABBAT 3 FEB - Shacharit - 9.00 am
Parashat BESHALLAKH
Shabbat SHIRA
followed by Musaph and a special
Tu
B'Shvat FruitKiddush
The
title of my Shabbat morning address will be
FRUITS ARE HUMAN TOO!!!
Mincha following Kiddush
Seudah Shelishit and Shiur - 6.30 pm
Shabbat ends - 7.18 pm
Mon & Thur Minyanim - 7 am
Shul Open For Davvening 7/52!
Looking 4ward 2 C U!!!!
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Adapted from the Rabbi's Address last Shabbat
We are instructed to place the Tefilin on our weak hand (the Hebrew
word yadcha spelt in a strange way is an allusion to yad ke-hah, the
weaker hand) because "with a strong hand HaShem brought us out
of Egypt" (Exodus 13:16) It seems like a non sequitur.
Rather like saying "eat apples because cheese is full of calcium"!
Surely if we wish to symbolise G-D's "strong hand" we ought
to be binding our Tefilin on our strong hand!
I believe that the powerful lesson the Torah is teaching us is: we have
to be strong even when we're weak. Or perhaps especially when
we're weak. This too is a lesson we learn from G-D Himself. Even
when His reputation was as its weakest point prior to the plagues with
not only Pharaoh but even the Children of Israel refusing to listen,
G-D turns to Moses and says Ata tir'eh. "NOW you will see
......that with a 'strong hand' I shall make him release the people!"
At this very point of apparent weakness, I shall demonstrate strength.
It is a lesson for Medinat Yisrael and those who hold Israel dear
to take at this time. Demonstrations of weakness will lead ch.v.
to disaster. We dare not highlight our vulnerability, either through
policy or through hasbara (the information we disseminate to the wider
world)
Let the Tefilin be a sign on our weaker hand - an sign that G-D
demonstrates His 'strong hand' even at our weakest spots, a sign
that even in weakness we are possesed with D-vine strength!
Shabbat Shalom
WE
WONDER ABOUT JACOB
The patriarch
Jacob is highly esteemed by Jewish history. The Talmud
applies to him the verse in the Psalms, "Lord, who shall
dwell in Your
tabernacle? Who shall dwell on Your holy mountain? He that walks
uprightly, works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart"
(Psalm
15:1-2). Yet we wonder how the sages can praise Jacob for integrity
and
truthfulness when he took part in an elaborate exercise designed
to
deceive his blind old father Isaac. He had already secured the
birthright
from his brother (Gen. 25) and whatever you think of Esau's character
you
still feel offended by the way Jacob manipulated him.
Isaac was not entirely taken in by Jacob's ploy and actually said
to Esau,
"Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing"
(Gen. 27:35). Jacob
himself was not unaware that he was acting dubiously; when he
agreed to
pretend to be Esau he said to his mother, "Perhaps ('ulai')
my father will
feel me, and I shall seem to him to be a deceiver" (Gen.
27:12). We wonder
what kind of tzaddik this is.
The Vilna Gaon offers a surprising answer. He sees something in
the word
"ulai", "perhaps", which most people would
have missed. He contrasts it
with "pen", which he explains to be negative in meaning
- i.e. "Perhaps
the event will happen, but I hope it will not". "Ulai",
on the other hand,
indicates a "perhaps" which the speaker would really
prefer to happen.
Jacob goes along with the stratagem designed by his mother, but
with the
utmost reluctance. He knows it is not right, but he believes Rebekah
knows
what she is doing. However, he hopes his father will see through
his
action and no lasting harm will result. We can still criticise
Jacob for
not refusing to go along with his mother's plan, but what the
Vilna Gaon
suggests does at least restore a certain amount of ethical credibility
to
Jacob.
Shabbat shalom!
"OzTorah", Copyright (c) 2005 by Rabbi Raymond Apple.
Reprinted from Rabbi Raymond Apple's email list: oztorah@hotmail.com.
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