Midway Jewish Center
56 Years Young: 1953-2009 !
THE CYBERSHUL

330 South Oyster Bay Road
Syosset, NY 11791
www.mjc.org
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Shabbat	Noah
Parashah	Noah
Secular Date	October 24 2009
Jewish Date	6 Heshvan 5770
Shabbat Begins	5:44pm
Shabbat Ends	6:46pm
MJCyber Shul Minyan	1404
Last Week’s Minyan	1403

TORAH READING

Noah

NOah was a righteous man. Because the earth was filled with lawlessness, God decides to destroy all flesh. God instructs NOah to produce an ark in order to save himself, his immediate family, and two of each animal on earth, male and female. Another tradition, recorded in the Torah, is that NOah took seven pairs of all the clean animals and only one male and female of every unclean animal. At any rate—the ark was packed! NOah was 600 years old when the 40 days of rain began. The waters covered the highest mountains. When the waters receded, the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. NOah sent out a raven, then a dove, but neither found a dry place to rest. He waited seven days and sent out the dove again who returned with an olive leaf. Seven days later, the dove flew off never to return. NOah and the animals left the ark. NOah made a sacrifice to God. God instructs NOah and his sons to be fruitful and multiply, and permits, for the first time, the eating of meat from which the blood had been drained. God declares murder to be a capital offense, swears to never destroy the earth by flood again, and sets a rainbow in the sky as the sign for this covenant of peace. NOah was the first to plant a vineyard and make wine. He got drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham disparaged his father for his folly, but the other two sons, Shem and Yafet, covered him respectfully. Upon sobering up and realizing what happened, NOah cursed Canaan (who is identified as Ham’s son), and blessed the other two. NOah lived to be 950 years old. The people on earth decided to build a great tower in order to make a name for themselves and not be scattered throughout the earth. God felt that this was improper and decided to confuse their language so one could not communicate with the others. That area was called Bavel.

A SHABBAT THOUGHT

It is part of the cure to wish to be cured. 

~~ Seneca ~~

WEB OF THE WEEK

NECHAMA (Hebrew for comfort) is the Jewish community's disaster response organization. Based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, NECHAMA has deployed thousands of volunteers to help communities cleanup after floods, tornados, and other natural disasters. They do not ask “Who are you?” but rather “How can we help?”

AURAL TORAH

God - A Softer, Gentler Version

Just click on the picture on the left hear this week’s Aural Torah!

When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature among all flesh, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Genesis 9:14-16)

OUR HOLOCAUST TORAH FROM BETHPAGE JEWISH CENTER IS A HOROVICE TORAH

Dancing with Torah has been selected for screening on October 25, 2009 at the prestigious NY International Independent Film and Video Festival, one of the largest independent film festivals in the world.

Made in 2000, Dancing with Torah, filmmaker Robert O. Curry’s documentary tells the tale of an antique Torah Scroll from Horovice, Czechoslovakia that survived the Nazis. The narrative follows the story of the Torah, the Dallas Holocaust Survivor Community and a young boy (Zachary Fine Albert) who set out to raise the funds to bring the survivor scroll to Dallas. In Dancing with Torah, a twelve-year-old boy’s gift of a Czech Holocaust Torah Scroll unlocks the heart of a jaded survivor who sees in the small boy the child he once was. It is a touching, and uplifting documentary.

Dancing with Torah has been shown in festivals, Holocaust Museums, and classrooms throughout the US. In 2006 it was screened at the Jewish Motifs film festival in Warsaw, Poland.

The screening will begin at 11 am
Village East Cinema
181 2nd Avenue at 12th Street
New York, NY 10003
p: 212-529-6799

For more information about the festival, and to purchase tickets on line visit http://www.nyfilmvideo.com

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GOTTA QUESTION?
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DEAR CYBERAV… I’VE GOTTA QUESTION

WHEN THANKING GOD SEEMS CALLOUS 

Dear Cyber Rav,

This past week, I ate in a kosher restaurant with a group of people from all different Jewish backgrounds. Secular, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews all sat around the table. We were all in New York for a seminar on the Middle East conflict.

At the end of dinner, the Orthodox men and women took out their benchers to say the Birkat Hamazon. I was torn whether to participate or not. Ultimately, I decided not to join in.

The truth is, after spending the day looking at images of war, of extreme poverty, and hunger, I was in no mood to thank God for dinner. How can I say that God gives bread to all after a day of watching pictures which negate that statement? Furthermore, even if I had not been at that seminar, poverty and hunger are merely a click away on the television every day.

I wanted to join my fellow Jews in the grace after our meal. I think our prayers connect us to each other and to God. But how can I thank Him for a meal knowing full well that so many will go to sleep hungry every night?

I find myself wanting to pray but I am often hindered by this guilt. How do you handle this issue when you pray?

Postponing Prayer as I Ponder the Poor

CYBER RAV ANSWERS

Dear Postponing Prayer,

Great question! I want to first commend you for connecting the words in a prayer book with some of the horrific scenes we see on television. When the two seemingly contradict each other, we've got a problem that requires our attention. You should know that you are not the first person to ask this question, and you will probably not be the last. Let me give you a few of my thoughts--

If you didn't recite birkat hamazon because you didn't feel like thanking a God who is such an underachiever, good. Nothing is as irritating as an insincere display of gratitude. And you know God--He reads right through us. He would have seen your insincerity immediately. Oddly enough, your decision to not say birkat hamazon probably meant more to Him than had you decided to say it. I believe in a God who honors us for using our heads and for being honest. Let me tell you why you could possibly have said birkat hamazon, in spite of all those horrific scenes on television.

First of all, theologically and socially, to note that God is hazan et hakol, the One who feeds everybody, is probably a true statement. There is probably enough food to go around in this world for everybody. The failure of food distribution systems in this world have less to do with God than they do with politics, economics, and technology. Blaming God for a problem that rests squarely in the lap of humankind is a huge cop-out and I would urge all not to stumble into that disingenuity. When we send food relief to worn-torn countries and the ruling junta burns the supplies at the airport for fear that they will aid their political foes, this is not God's problem. It's ours.

Secondly, even when someone else does not have, that should not preclude an expression of gratitude to God for what we do have. The fact that others don't have is certainly a problem, but the fact that we do have is a blessing. We should never take for granted the blessings that we do have. If this recession has taught us anything, it should be that what we have today may not be with us tomorrow. We should therefore thank God while we can. Thirdly, the blessing hazan et hakol, the One who feeds everybody, should be taken as a challenge. The Jewish people believe that God operates within this world, in part because the faithful—read: you and me!—are the hands of God. When we pray hazan et hakol, we remind ourselves of our own responsibility to partner with God, to bring the goodness of heaven to earth below.

Finally, some have interpreted hazan et hakol to mean that God feed us in ways that human beings cannot, that is, God feeds us and sustains us with Torah. The initial part of the blessing talks about God feeding us with goodness. The goodness with which He feeds us is the understanding, the motivation, the imperative to do what is right and just. This is the whole idea of not living by bread alone. We require other things that are just as important as bread, if not more so.

And so, in conclusion, I find more reasons to recite birkat hamazon than skip it. Expressing our gratitude for every little thing we enjoy is a powerful act of religiosity. It helps us focus on the role we should be playing to be God's partner in binging His blessings and ours to others within God's beautiful world.

Rabbi Rafi Rank
CyberRav

Shabbat Shalom Everyone!!

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