Midway Jewish Center
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This Week’s Torah Reading

Ki Teitze

This parashah deals with sundry laws of a civil and domestic nature. A woman taken captive in war has rights. She must be given time to mourn her parents before taken as a wife. Wayward and defiant sons may be taken to the city gate and stoned (though the rabbis said it never happened). It is a mitzvah to return lost property. Women should not dress as men and vice versa. Shoo away the mother bird before taking eggs from the nest. Roofs require railings so no one will fall off. Certain combinations are forbidden—two kinds of seed in one vineyard, plowing with an ox and ass, or interweaving wool and linen. Each corner of a four-cornered garment requires tassels. Husbands who slander their wives may, under certain circumstances, be flogged, fined, and forbidden from divorcing them. Adultery and kidnapping are punishable by death. Parents shall not be put to death for children and vice versa. Men put to death for capital offenses cannot remain impaled on the stake overnight—that would be an affront to God. Certain people are forbidden entry into the Jewish people: eunuchs, children born of forbidden marriages, Ammonites and Moabites. The purity and cleanliness of the soldiers’ camp is discussed. Never return an escaped slave. Cultic prostitution, in which the gods are invoked through sexual relations, is forbidden. You may not charge a fellow Jew interest. Do what you say. Divorce is permitted. You must deal kindly with strangers, orphans, and widows. Leave a little in your fields for the poor to come and eat. No more than 40 lashes can be given at one time. Do not muzzle an ox while it works. A man should honor a deceased brother by having a child with his sister-in-law, in his deceased brother’s memory (this is known as the levirate marriage). Finally, never forget the sin of Amalek who cut down the stragglers of the Israelites as they journeyed through the desert.

A Shabbat Thought

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. 

~~ Joseph Joubert  ~~

WEB OF THE WEEK

http://www.rhgirl.com

The shtetl is a Yiddish term signifying the little East European villages, primarily Jewish, where so many of our great grandparents came from. Turn up the speakers and enjoy--

Shalom from Yerushalayim

Please let me thank you once again for sending warm greetings with pizza and other gifts to our soldiers in the past. It is now ten years since we began sending gifts to Israeli soldiers on behalf of people like you all around the world.

Another year is now coming to a close. Terrorism is still everyone's number one enemy. Our soldiers put their lives on the line for all of us in this worldwide struggle. For this we all have much to be thankful. On one hand we all pray for peace, but the vigilance of the army must be maintained, putting immense personal pressure on the soldiers. Iran poses new threats with which our army may have to deal in the near future. An attack on this pariah state will have serious repercussions here in Israel.

We are once again giving you an opportunity to let our soldiers know that you appreciate their hard work on our behalf. Send them Rosh Hashanah greetings with pizza or burgers. Or wish them and their families a happy, fruitful New Year with our traditional package of Honey, Chocolates and Honey Cake.

For further details on all of our projects, please click here on http://www.PizzaIDF.org.

AURAL TORAH

Just Weights 

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DOGGY HEAVEN

Dear CyberRav,

I have just received an e-mail from a dear friend informing me that her dog passed away on Monday from an apparent stroke

The e-mail also includes a request that we say a prayer for the dog. I will certainly pray that my friend will be comforted in this time of loss, but as far as the dog is concerned I really am at a loss as to what to do.

What say you?

CYBER RAV ANSWERS

Dear Problem with a Prayer for a Pooch,

Let me begin by saying that I am a big lover of animals and am particularly fond of dogs. My daughter's dog lives with us now and prior to that, our cairn terrier, Coco, had a long 12 year run with us.

For people who grow deeply involved with their animals, the animal's death can trigger an emotional trauma that needs to be acknowledged, addressed, and relieved in some way. People do need to mourn and we need to recognize that. But since our relationship with animals has evolved into something far beyond instruments of labor (oxen and mules, etc.), mechanisms of war (elephants and horses, etc.) or sources for food production (milk cows and goats, etc.), there are very few if any traditions about how to go about mourning a pet. And so, in their grief, animal lovers may request rituals that make sense in the case of a human death, but may not so easily be transferred to the death of an animal.

I'm not really big on praying for a pet following its death. I'm actually not even sure what it means, since it seems to assume that the animal is going to heaven, has a soul, requires our prayers, etc. These are issues that require the deepest of faith even when applied to human beings; when applied to animals, the theological difficulties such beliefs raise are multiplied exponentially.

I think it is possible to thank God for the gift of a pet in our lives. I think we can pray for the pet owners that they be granted comfort in the days to come. But as far as praying for the animal, I would need a deeper explanation as to why that is necessary, and such explanations, I'd wager, do not exist.

I would tell your friend that you wish her well, remember her dog with much fondness, and hope that the memories of her dog will continue to inspire her for days and months to come. I hope this helps.

Rabbi Rafi Rank
CyberRav

Shabbat Shalom Everyone!!

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