Midway Jewish Center
56 Years Bold: 1953-2010 !
THE CYBERSHUL

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Syosset, NY 11791
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Shabbat	Shirah—The Shabbat on which we chant in the Torah shiRAT haYAM or Song of the Sea (see Exodus 15) is known as Shabbat shiRAH, the Shabbat of Song. It’s a good day to sing all your favorite Jewish songs.
Parashah	B'Shalah
Secular Date	January 30, 2010
Jewish Date	15 Shevat 5770
Shabbat Begins	4:50pm
Shabbat Ends	5:52pm
MJCyber Shul Minyan	14017
Last Week’s Minyan	1416
Upcoming Holiday	Tu B’Shevat—which falls today, January 30, is the New Year of the Trees. In ancient Israel, the people would donate a portion of the annual tree produce to God and therefore needed to know when one year ended and another began. Celebration suggestions: Contact the Jewish National Fund and plant a few trees in Israel [800 542-TREE or go to: www.jnf.org]. Nosh on the seven species of Israel: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and date honey (see Deuteronomy 8:8). Obtain St. John's bread (also known as boxer or carob), a Tu B'Shevat tradition.

TORAH READING

Beshalah

The Israelites leave Egypt, guided by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Pharaoh has a change of heart and pursues the Israelites with an army of over 600 horse-drawn chariots. Moses holds his arm over the Sea of Reeds and the waters split. The Israelites cross over, the Egyptians follow but the waters close in over them—not one horse or charioteer survived. Moses and the Israelites sing a song of relief. Miriam, the prophetess, leads the women in dance. The Israelites march into the desert, but soon complain due to lack of water and food. God helps Moses find the essential water. God also gives the people a flaky substance called manna. The people gathered it each day except Shabbat when it would not fall. Joshua leads the people into victorious battle against the Amalekites. 

A SHABBAT THOUGHT

Miracles sometimes occur,
but you have to work terribly hard for them

~~ Chaim Weizmann, first president of the State of Israel   ~~

WEBS OF THE WEEK

A 9/11 memorial dedicated in the Jerusalem’s Forrest Hills—

A little known memorial in Israel that we should all take pride in and further appreciate what a good friend America has in Israel.

A WORD ABOUT HAITI

Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) Response
JDC is collecting funds to aid relief efforts for the victims of the earthquake on a non-sectarian basis. Damage assessment is underway, and it is extensive! JDC is turning to its partners on the ground, including the Red Cross and Caritas for immediate needs information. JDC is fully coordinated with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) as well as Interaction in Washington D.C.

Donations are being accepted through United Synagogue, your may paste the following url into your browser to donate: www.uscj.org/donate/relief

If you prefer to send a check, please send to:
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
1820 Second Avenue
New York, NY 10017
attention: Rabbi Paul Drazen--Haiti Disaster Relief.

AURAL TORAH

For The Birds

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

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(thanks Chairman Ben— whatta endorsement ) 

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GOTTA QUESTION?
THE CYBER RAV HAS AN ANSWER AND GOOD NEWS--
THE CYBER RAV IS ALWAYS IN
SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO rafirank@mjc.org
YOUR IDENTITY WILL NOT BE REVEALED
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DEAR CYBERAV… I’VE GOTTA QUESTION

SOME INCESTUOUS THOUGHTS

Dear Cyber Rav,

In the discussion of Bereishit (the book of Genesis), I find in interesting that there is no explanation as to the following: If God created Adam in His own image, then Eve from Adam's rib, and then Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel, with whom did Cain procreate in order to produce his own children? Were not all those early "begettings," as you so eloquently put it, incestuous?

That gives me the creeps! 

Creeped Out by a Procreating Cain

CYBER RAV ANSWERS

Dear Creeped Out,

Ooo—you just creeped me out, too. But let’s think about this one.

Whenever we treat Torah as a unified whole, we run into trouble. There are duplications of stories and sometimes even contradictions between two stories or laws. Logically, the stories do not always hold together. This prompted biblical scholars of the 19th century to propose a new way of looking at the Torah. They suggested that Torah, in fact, was not a unified whole but a composite of a number of traditions, different though similar stories, different laws as well, from a number of schools that held sacred stories, or followed certain traditions, none of which the Jewish people could easily discard, so instead, they retained them all. This hypothesis, known as the documentary hypothesis, is the one held by most liberal Jews who seek to understand Torah today.

Your question emanates from a view of Torah that would treat it as a single story, but the Torah simply is not that. It consists of distinct stories which are meant to teach us certain truths about our lives on this planet, our relationships with each other, and our relationship with God. If I were treating the Genesis stories as history, then I could ask your question (and by the way, get no where, because I don't think we can possibly answer it with any integrity at all). On the other hand, if we treat these stories as mythical truths—"mythical" not in the sense of a false story but actually a super-true story, one by which we reconfigure how we look at life—then your question dissipates because it no longer matters how or where or when Cain found a mate. The Torah is basically telling us that he found a mate, giving it little attention, because the issue is of no interest to the Torah. The history or logic of humanity’s endurance on earth is not what the Torah is trying to teach us.

So what is the Torah trying to teach us with the marriage of Cain? Perhaps it is teaching us a very fundamental lesson: though he has brought one life to an end, he need not bring a second life, his own, to an end. In another age, Cain would have deserved the death penalty, but as one who has never experienced death or murder, he is spared, and serves only to instruct us as to the logical, final destination of all our jealousy and anger: the murder of an innocent human being. God, in a profound act of compassion, spares him and protects him, and Cain goes on to marry and father children.

We all mess up from time to time—it need not be regarded as the end of the world.

I hope this helps.

Rabbi Rafi Rank
CyberRav

Shabbat Shalom Everyone!!

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