In this week’s Torah Portion, Moses put together the portable sanctuary, the Mishkan. “In the first month of the second year, on the first of the month, the Tabernacle was set up. Moses setup the Tabernacle, placing its sockets, setting up its planks, inserting its bars and erecting its posts. He spread the tent over the Tabernacle, placing the covering of the tent on the tip of it-just as the Lord had commanded.” (Exodus 40:17-19) Now as the Israelites traveled from Mt. Sinai, they would have a place to gather together and worship God.
As I was thinking about places
of worship, I remembered a story about a man who went to shul and grumbled
about the hypocrites he saw, about the voice of the cantor, about the mistakes
of the Torah reader, and about the rabbi’s sermon. A friend in the same service said he left up
lifted. Each experienced the truth of
the words: “What you look for is what
you get.
In Psalm 122 (another of my
favorites), David recalled the gladness he had felt when his companions invited
him to accompany them to a religious festival in the Temple at Jerusalem. (vv.
1 and 2) He spoke of the sense of
oneness he experienced there with people from all the tribes. (vv. 3-5) He urged his readers to pray for the peace of
Jerusalem. He longed for the good of all
the people. (vv. 6-8) His thoughts focused on Jerusalem as the
location of the Temple, which represented the dwelling place of God (very much
like the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, did
in Moses’ day and Etz Hayim at Hollis Hills Bayside does for us today). He pledged himself to seek its prosperity.
(v. 9) His whole attitude was positive.
Although there may have been
hypocrites in the Temple, David was not concerned with them. If he had been preoccupied with some fault in
the priest’s performance of their tasks or mistake the musicians made, he would
have missed the joy of true worship. But
he went looking for a community to belong to and for God and that is what he
found.
Yes, most of the time, we get
what we look for. So I encourage you to
come to services to worship, not whisper; to commune, not to criticize.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Greene
With the ongoing crisis in the Ukraine, people have asked me where they might send donations. I can recommend three portals. The first is the New York Federation.
If you or your congregation would like to contribute,
please consider supporting the Jewish community in the Ukraine by:
- Donating directly through
UJA https://www.ujafedny.org/crisis-donate.
- Collecting
donations through your synagogue membership for the crisis in Ukraine and
directing the dollars to https://www.ujafedny.org/crisis-donate
Additionally, we are proud to share with you the decision
of the UJA Board to commit $3 million dollars in emergency
grants to organizations including the following organizations:
· American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) - to
ensure uninterrupted humanitarian aid including food, medicine, winter relief,
and emergency assistance for the most vulnerable Jews throughout Ukraine.
· The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) - to assist large
numbers of people who want to make aliyah very quickly by providing shelter,
food, supplies, transport, and safe passage out of Ukraine by land and
ultimately by air to Israel, including moving the aliyah processing center out
of Kyiv.
· Project Kesher — to support single women
and single mothers by providing emergency assistance to assure they have
adequate food and supplies and the capacity to seek safe passage to other parts
of Ukraine.
· The Afya Foundation — to provide
urgently needed medical supplies including surgical kits, wound care supplies,
PPE, and portable biomedical equipment
The Board recognizes
that the situation in Ukraine is very fluid. UJA is continuing to receive and review
requests for support and will be approving grants in real time to address the
critical needs on the ground. Learn more
here to get more detailed
information and stay up to date on UJA’s response.
The second portal is
the Schechter Institute: https://schechter.edu/donate-ukraine-campaign/
The third portal is
Mesorati Olami: https://masortiolami.org/one-time-donation/
This is not an exhaustive
list. I am sure there are other worthwhile tzedakkot
out there helping Ukrainians.
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