Please click here for the link to the new Conservative prayerbook, Siddur Lev Shalem: Shabbat Shaharit Siddur Lev Shalem The prayers will be the same as in our usual blue siddur, so feel free to use that instead if you wish.
We Remember: This week's upcoming Yahrzeit and Shloshim Observances
Shloshim David Shire
Saturday Nellie R. Boyer Mary Stone Mary Cohen
Sunday Bessie Rose Fred Ehrlich
Monday Ann R. Cohn
Tuesday Harvey Levine Rose Halper
Wednesday Bernard Florence
Thursday Mary Sands Sheila Carle Lichter Dr. Kermit Katz
We have just entered the "Three Weeks," the period between the 17th of Tammuz (commemorating the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem) and Tisha B'av (the complete destruction of the city and Temple). This is a period of increasing awareness of the brokenness in ourselves, our people, and our world.
This week’s parasha, Pinchas, introduces us to the reality of our human frailties, but also gives us hope. At the end of last week’s parasha, we read of Pinchas, a zealot who took the law into his own hands and killed a couple for what he saw as disobeying Gods law. Pinchas’ angry violent outburst is addressed in a cryptic way by God in this week’s parasha. God says that Pinchas, in effect, ‘channeled’ God’s anger and expressed that anger in a physical way. It is unclear whether the Torah is saying Pinchas did the right or wrong thing. God then promises a Brit Shalom to Pinchas, a Covenant of Peace. The word Shalom, Peace, is spelled with a broken ‘vav’. You can see the way it is written in the Torah above. The vav is the straight line in the middle of the word. The vav has a slight break in the middle of the line.
What is the purpose of writing Shalom this way? Why is Peace broken? It may be because Pinchas suffers from his impetuous act. His immediate desire to protect God’s law led to rage and murder. He broke something in his own soul by his actions.
We may not all murder someone in our rage, but most of us have lost our temper suddenly and caused physical or emotional harm to someone because of it. When that happens, our inner peace is broken, too. Sometimes immediate strong reactions are needed, but there is also the need to choose those moments carefully, rather than simply allow anger to flow unchecked.
This Shabbat, I invite us to follow the suggestion of Rabbi Marc Margulies, to ‘be on the watch for "Pinchas moments" when you act instinctively to correct a wrong or injustice, large or small. Notice the quality of your words or actions in such situations and the extent to which they are informed by shalom, or your "awareness of the whole," consciousness of the desires/needs of others as well as one's own desires/needs.’ Let’s be aware of the "broken" letter vav as a way of bringing attention to the imperfection of our words and actions.
When we acknowledge our imperfections and work to correct them, we can find wholeness and peace again. I offer us a part of a poem to help us keep Shalom as our guide, from "Making Peace," by Denise Levertov (Breathing the Water):
But peace, like a poem, is not there ahead of itself, can't be imagined before it is made, can't be known except in the words of its making, grammar of justice, syntax of mutual aid.
May this Shabbat be filled with wholeness.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
