CBI Updates

Mazel Tov to
Betty Parker upon the engagement of her grandson, Brian Goode

Center for Holocaust Studies observing 30th anniversary
The Center for Holocaust Studies at Brookdale Community College will be observing its 30th anniversary in the spring of 2009. A series of events are being planned, at the heart of which will be a tribute to the Holocaust survivors in the community the college serves. The Center plans to create a photo display featuring the survivors as well as publishing a tribute book. If you are a survivor or know of any in Monmouth and Ocean Counties, please contact Rabbi Braun or the Center itself at 732-224-2074.

We are Collecting Photos
We are starting to collect photos of Rabbi Roth during his 30+ years as rabbi of CBI. They will be used to make a slide show for the Sept. 14 event. If you have any pictures please bring them to the shul office. They will be returned as soon as possible.

Sisterhood Rummage Sale

Now is the time to start cleaning out those closets!  Details to follow here.

Upcoming Events....

Windows Dedication and Kiddush
A Tribute to Rabbi Tobias and Bayla Roth

Chesed Program

A New Mitzvah Each Week 
Ages 5 to 12 
Every Friday Through June 20 

May 16th Event
A visit to Seabrook Village where several CBI members live

Heartfelt Condolences

We are saddened to announce the passing of Dr. Bertram Roberts, father of our member Jennifer Meirowitz. 

The funeral will take place on Sunday 12:30 PM at the Jewish Memorial chapel in 841 Allwood Road Clifton NJ.
 
Direction are available on their website http://jewishmemorialchapel.org

The family will sit Shiva in Long Branch at 1 Pullman Ave - details to follow 

May the family be comforted amongst the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Events

Every Tuesday, from May 06, 2008 - May 27, 2008
Rabbi's Evening Class

Every Tuesday, from May 06, 2008 - May 27, 2008
Rabbi's Morning Class

Every Friday, from May 09, 2008 - June 20, 2008
Chesed Program

Saturday May 17, 2008 - Talmud Class

Wednesday May 21, 2008 - Digital Photography-Discussion & Demonstration

Thursday May 22, 2008 - Men's Book Club

Parsha Insight

Shabbat Parshat Behar 5768

Rabbi Braun

The Gemara records a number of conversations between our sages and what you might call, anti-Jewish antagonists. One of the most famous conversations involves Rabbi Akiva the and Turnusrufus (Bava Bathra 10a)

This question was actually put by Turnus Rufus to R. Akiba: If your God loves the poor, why does He not support them? He replied, So that we may be saved through them from the punishment of Gehinnom!

At its simplest face value, that read as follows: God does not support the poor so that we may do so and in so doing “score points for the afterlife” and avoid punishment in hell!

That cannot be right for two reasons:

1.  It seems to be morally reprehensible

2.  If that really were the read than any mitzvah would do. There would be no need to have poor people. A proper answer to the question posed needs to relate to poor people specifically.

To understand the answer fully let us turn to one of the central mitzvoth of this week’s parsha, namely the mitzvah of shemittah, the sabbatical year. 

Shemittah is the commandment to let the land lie fallow, unused, every seventh year. On shemittah no one is able to sell their crops. The land, so to speak, returns to its original wild, state.

Shemittah also includes a whole slew of related commandments. First, there is a concept known as shemittat kesafim--on the seventh year, according to biblical law, all loans are declared null and void. All debtors are absolved. 

And there are other details relating to those two general categories.

This morning I want to focus on the land. What is the reason why we are not permitted to work the land on the seventh year?

The Sefer Ha-Chinuch (a thirteenth c. Spanish work, probably authored by R. Pinchas Ha-Levi of Barcelona) offers two reasons for this mitzvah of shemittah both relating to the command to be mafkir (render ownerless) the land as well.

“The reason for this mitzvah is so that humanity should remember that the fruits that are produced from the ground every year do not come from man's power or even the power of nature, but rather there is a God and true master over the land.”

The first explanation of this mitzvah according to the Sefer Ha-Chinuch is that its purpose is to help us understand that man is not the powerful one on this earth. We leave the land untouched as a demonstration of our weakness and as a sign of servitude to God.

This is what the pasuk means (25: 2), when it says ve-shavtah ha-aretz

shabbat lashem, and you shall let the land rest, it is a shabbat for God. Shemittah is a way of physically declaring that only God is the one who has ultimate power on this world.

Sefer Ha-Chinuch also continues with a second answer

“Another purpose of this mitzvah is to attain through it the quality of yielding and relinquishing, since there is no one as generous as a person who gives with no hope of receiving anything in return.”

That is an unbelievable statement!

According to this second approach, God commands us to relinquish the land in order for us to understand what it means to really give. People don't naturally know what it means to give charity; people have to be trained in this respect. So God commands us, every seventh year, leave all your lands open to the poor, (and the rich) cancel all your debts, and release our slaves. Learn from these laws, God commands us, how to give to those in your community who are in need.

This is what the pasuk means when it says (25: 6), ve-haytah shabbat ha-aretz lachem, and the land shall rest for you (as opposed to “for Hashem” above). The land rests so that you, the people of Israel, can grow and learn what it means to give.

Shemittah, according to the author of Sefer Ha-Chinuch, is an attempt by God to train us in these two areas: recognizing the power of God in this world and learning how to give to a community. 

Those two concepts I believe are closely related. Once you understand what God’s role in the world is and our relationship to and dependence upon God and where your parnassah actually comes from you should then understand what man’s role in the world is and what should be done with that paranassah that God has helped to provide for you.

Yet, the Torah understands that it is not a lesson easily learned.

It is not easy to see God’s hand in the world and in our parnassah- we have to learn and work on it.

And it is not easy to learn how to relinquish and give! That too has to be learned and it has to be worked on. And, of course, some learn faster than others.

I want to conclude by answering the question with which I began. What is Rabbi Akiva’s answer to turnusrfus? Why does God not support the poor?* Because God prefers that we support them. If God did then we would have no opportunities to give and we would never learn how to give of ourselves to others. And a world without giving is a world without redemption.

That is Rabbi Akiva’s response to his antagonist and that is a powerful lesson for us as well!

*It should be noted that his question is not why are there poor people in the world in the first place--that is an entirely different question and we are just about out of room…