Asking questions is a fundamental aspect of human curiosity and a powerful tool for learning, growth, and connection. However, the way we ask questions carries great significance. A genuine question stems from a sincere desire to seek knowledge, understand others, and broaden our perspectives. It comes from a place of openness, humility, and a genuine intention to learn.
Conversely, questions asked with ill intentions can have detrimental effects. They can create doubt, confusion, and chaos. When questions are aimed at causing harm, sowing seeds of doubt, or undermining others, they hinder constructive dialogue and impede the pursuit of truth and understanding.
Consider this week’s Torah portion with the story of the Jewish people in the desert, who questioned their circumstances and the ability of G-d to provide for them. Their inquiry was not rooted in genuine curiosity or trust, but rather in doubt and a longing for what they had in Egypt. Their questions revealed a lack of faith and an unwillingness to embrace their current situation.
To truly harness the power of questioning, we must approach it with sincerity, humility, and an earnest desire to learn and connect with others. By doing so, we create an environment that encourages dialogue, fosters empathy, and promotes growth. Let us embrace the transformative potential of questions and use them as catalysts for personal and collective enlightenment.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Mendel & Elke Zaltzman
Directors
Shabbos Times
Friday, June 9 Candle Lighting: 8:09pm
Evening service: 7:30pm
Saturday, June 10 Morning service: 10:00am
Kiddush Brunch: 12:00pm Evening service: 8:15pm
Shabbos ends: 9:19pm
Kiddush sponsored by Sasi and Ilana Yehudiel In memory of Sasi's Mother Chana bat Chatun
May her memory be a blessing
Daily Minyan Times
June 11 - June 16
Sunday Morning: 8:00am
Monday- Friday Morning: 7:00am
Sunday- Thursday Evening: 8:15pm
Finished off an amazing year with our Jteens! So proud of all our teens who have created a beautiful Jewish teen community, to celebrate Jewish traditions together, learn and inspire each other, celebrate Shabbat together, volunteer and give back, while having an awesome time with their Jewish friends!
Our new calendar for the upcoming new Jewish year is now in design phase. This will be completed in a few weeks and then it’s off to the printer.
Please support this great project and show the community that your business cares.
A BISSELE HUMOR
A retired man moves near a junior high school. He spends the first few weeks of retirement in peace and quiet. However, when a new school year begins, three young boys beat on every trash can they encounter every day on their way home from school. The noise and commotion drive the old man mad.
Finally, the man decides to take action and walks out to meet the boys. He says, "You kids are a lot of fun. I'll give you each a dollar if you'll promise to come around every day and do your thing." The kids continue to do a bang-up job on the trashcans.
After a few days, the man tells the kids, "This recession's really putting a big dent in my income. From now on, I'll only be able to pay you 50 cents to beat on the cans." The noisemakers are displeased, but they accept his offer.
A few days later, the retiree approaches them again. "Look," he says, "I haven't received my Social Security check yet, so I'm not going to be able to pay more than 25 cents. Will that be OK?"
"A freakin' quarter?" the drum leader exclaims. "If you think we're going to waste our time beating these cans around for a quarter, you're nuts. We quit."
WEEKLY eTORAH
The Jewish people have had a long journey through the wilderness of history. Moving almost ceaselessly from one country to another, sometimes through compulsion and sometimes through choice, they have come in contact with many other peoples and cultures. Their spiritual leaders, an unbroken chain of sages and teachers, have always made valiant efforts to help Jewish individuals and families preserve their identity and maintain contact with Jewish teaching.
People maintain this contact at different levels and in different ways. Yet, at the heart of it all, there is a Jewish "essence" which is the real key to a person's spiritual identity.
Shabbat can be seen as another example of an unchangeable "essence." For some, Shabbat observance is very dedicated and all-encompassing. For others it seems minimal. Yet the power of Shabbat is that even a tincture of Shabbat goes a long way. It is real to the core, and at any time may blossom to the full, so that Shabbat again becomes the day of reflection, peace and inspiration which it can be, giving energy and a sense of purpose to the working days of the week.
The Torah gives another example of a kind of "essence." This is the Manna which came from heaven, the miraculous food which sustained the Jewish people during their forty-year journey through the wilderness. It began appearing shortly after they left Egypt, as the Torah tells us in the 16th chapter of Exodus. Every weekday morning they would gather it, and on Friday, the sixth day, there would be a double portion. On Shabbat the Manna would not be found, but they had sufficient from the double portion they collected on Friday. (This is the reason we have two loaves of bread on Shabbat, commemorating the double portion).
Our Torah reading ("Behaalotecha" — Numbers 8-12) also speaks about the Manna. The Jews complained at the fact that they only had Manna to eat. Although the Manna was something spiritual and sacred, the people wanted other food.
It is interesting that although some people complained about the Manna, it was still there for them. For Moses, Aaron, Miriam and many other Jews in the wilderness, the Manna was something exquisite and holy. Yet there were other people who had a much more materialistic and simplistic view of it. In fact they were fed up with eating it every day and wanted a change.
Despite this, the Manna continued to come. After the inundation of quails described in the Parshah, eventually everyone went back to eating the Manna which sustained them till they reached the Holy Land. In the Manna was the breath of heaven. This quality relates to the "essence," it does not change or disappear, even when it is eaten by someone who complains against it, or who in some other way is behaving in a negative way.
The Manna, Shabbat and, indeed, the Torah itself, all have the quality of the "essence." These concepts help the Jew preserve his or her essence through our long journey through time, towards the time of the Messiah, when the "essence" of goodness and holiness, instead of being hidden as now, will be revealed.
