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One of the most famous
phrases in the Torah
makes its appearance in
this week’s parsha. It has often been used to
characterize Jewish faith
as a whole. It consists of
two words: na’aseh venishma, literally, “we will do and we will
hear” (Ex. 24:7). What does this mean and why
does it matter? There are
two famous
interpretations, one
ancient, the other
modern. The first appears
in the Babylonian
Talmud, where it is taken
to describe the
enthusiasm and whole-
heartedness with which
the Israelites accepted
the covenant with God at
Mount Sinai. When they
said to Moses, “All that the Lord has spoken we
will do and we will hear”, they were saying, in
effect: Whatever God
asks of us, we will do –
saying this before they
had heard any of the
commandments. The
words “We will hear”, imply that they had not
yet heard – not the Ten
Commandments, or the
detailed laws that
followed as set out in our
parsha. So keen were
they to signal their
assent to God that they agreed
to His demands before knowing
what they were.
This reading, adopted also by
Rashi in his commentary to the
Torah, is difficult because it
depends on reading the
narrative out of chronological
sequence (using the principle
that “there is no before and after in the Torah”). The events of chapter 24, on this
interpretation, happened
before chapter 20, the account
of the revelation at Mount Sinai
and the Ten Commandments.
Ibn Ezra, Rashbam and
Ramban all disagree and read
the chapters in chronological
sequence. For them, the words
na’aseh venishma mean not, “we will do and we will hear”, but simply, “we will do and we will obey.” The second interpretation – not the plain
sense of the text but important
nonetheless – has been given
often in modern Jewish
thought. On this view na’aseh venishma means, “We will do and we will understand.” From this they derive the conclusion
that we can only understand
Judaism by doing it, by
performing the commands and
living a Jewish life. In the
beginning is the deed. Only
then comes the grasp, the
insight, the comprehension.
This is a signal and substantive
point. The modern Western
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on Mishpatim
mind tends to put things in
the opposite order. We
seek to understand what
we are committing
ourselves to before making
the commitment. That is
fine when what is at stake
is signing a contract,
buying a new mobile
phone, or purchasing a
subscription, but not when
making a deep existential
commitment. The only way
to understand leadership is
to lead. The only way to
understand marriage is to
get married. The only way
to understand whether a
certain career path is right
for you is to actually try it
for an extended period.
Those who hover on the
edge of a commitment,
reluctant to make a
decision until all the facts
are in, will eventually find
that life has passed them
by. The only way to
understand a way of life is
to take the risk of living it.
So: na’aseh venishma, “We will do and eventually,
through extended practice
and long exposure, we will
understand.”
In my Introduction to this
year’s Covenant and Conversation, I suggested
a quite different third
interpretation, based on the
fact that the Israelites are
February 25, 2017 29 Shevat, 5777 Parshat Mishpatim/Shekalim
TORAH
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Kiddush is sponsored by
Diane & David Rein
in memory of her mother Helene Fink, z"l,
on the occasion of her 12th Yahrzeit
26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023 (516) 487-6100 Shabbat Announcements Mishpatim 5777
Great Neck Synagogue
26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck , NY 11023
516-487-6100
Rabbi Dale Polakoff, Rabbi Rabbi Ian Lichter, Assistant Rabbi
Dr. Ephraim Wolf, z”l, Rabbi Emeritus
Zeev Kron, Cantor
Eleazer Schulman, z”l, Cantor Emeritus
Rabbi Sholom Jensen, Youth Director
Zehava & Dr. Michael Atlas, Youth Directors
Mark Twersky, Executive Director
Dr. James Frisch, Assistant Director
Dov Sassoon, President Rabbi Jesse Shore, Rabbinic Intern
Harold Domnitch, Chairman of the Board
Lisa Septimus, Yoetzet Halacha 516-415-1111
Great Neck Yoetzet Halacha Lisa Septimus
Welcomes your questions about mikvah,
observance of taharat mishpacha (halacha relating
to married life) and women’s health, as it connects to Jewish law. Reach out to her at:
Phone: 516.415.1111
Email: [email protected].
All conversations and emails are kept confidential.
described by the Torah as ratifying the covenant three
times: once before they heard the commandments and
twice afterward. There is a fascinating difference between
the way the Torah describes the first two of these
responses and the third: The people all responded together,
“We will do [na’aseh] everything the Lord has said.” (Ex. 19:8) When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice,
“Everything the Lord has said we will do [na’aseh].” (Ex. 24:3) Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to
the people. They responded, “We will do and hear everything the Lord has said.” (Ex. 24:7) The first two responses, which refer only to action (na’aseh), are given unanimously. They people respond “together”. They do so “with one voice”. The third, which refers not only to doing but also to hearing (nishma), involves no unanimity.
“Hearing” here means many things: listening, paying attention, understanding, absorbing, internalizing,
responding and obeying. It refers, in other words, to the
spiritual, inward dimension of Judaism. From this, an
important consequence follows. Judaism is a community of
doing rather than of “hearing”. There is an authoritative code of Jewish law. When it comes to halakhah, the way of
Jewish doing, we seek consensus.
By contrast, though there are undoubtedly principles of
Jewish faith, when it comes to spirituality there is no single
normative Jewish approach. Judaism has had its priests and
prophets, its rationalists and mystics, its philosophers and
poets. Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, speaks in a multiplicity of
voices. Isaiah was not Ezekiel. The book of Proverbs comes
from a different mindset than the books of Amos and
Hosea. The Torah contains law and narrative, history and
mystic vision, ritual and prayer. There are norms about how
to act as Jews. But there are few about how to think and
feel as Jews. We experience God in different ways. Some
find him in nature, in what Wordsworth called “a sense sublime / Of something far more deeply interfused, /
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, / And the round
ocean and the living air.” Others find him in interpersonal emotion, in the experience of loving and being loved –
what Rabbi Akiva meant when he said that in a true mar-
riage, “the Divine presence is between” husband and wife.
Some find God in the prophetic call: “Let justice roll down like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing
stream” (Amos 5:24). Others find Him in study, “rejoicing in the words of Your Torah…for they are our life and the length of our days; on them we will meditate day and
night.” Yet others find Him in prayer, discovering that God is close to all who call on him in truth.
There are those who find God in joy, dancing and singing
as did King David when he brought the Holy Ark into
Jerusalem. Others – or the same people at different points
in their life – find Him in the depths, in tears and remorse
and a broken heart. Einstein found God in the “fearful symmetry” and ordered complexity of the universe. Rav Kook found Him in the harmony of diversity. Rav
Soloveitchik found Him in the loneliness of being as it
reaches out to the soul of Being itself.
There is a normative way of doing the holy deed, but there
are many ways of hearing the holy voice, encountering the
sacred presence, feeling at one and the same time how
small we are yet how great the universe we inhabit, how
insignificant we must seem when set against the vastness
of space and the myriads of stars, yet how momentously
significant we are, knowing that God has set His image and
likeness upon us and placed us here, in this place, at this
time, with these gifts, in these circumstances, with a task
to perform if we are able to discern it. We can find God on
the heights and in the depths, in loneliness and
togetherness, in love and fear, in gratitude and need, in
dazzling light and in the midst of deep darkness. We can
find God by seeking Him, but sometimes He finds us when
we least expect it. That is the difference between na’aseh and nishma. We do the Godly deed “together”. We respond to His commands “with one voice”. But we hear God’s presence in many ways, for though God is One, we are all
different, and we encounter Him each in our own way.
CHAVERIM CENTER
SISTERHOOD PURIM PACKAGES, MINI SHABBATON & CHESED
YOUNG FAMILY DINNER & PURIM CARDS
RABBINIC DIALOGUE, WOMEN’S LEARNING, NEWLYWED GAME & BLOOD DRIVE
Men’s Club
Spring Blood Drive
Sunday, March 19, 2017
See David Rein or Michael Kohler
for more information
AIPAC POLICY CONFERENCE 2017
MARCH 26-28 WASHINGTON, D.C.
TO REGISTER, VISIT POLICYCONFERENCE.ORG
JOIN US!!
AIPAC POLICY CONFERENCE
Sharona Abraham
Peyman Ahdout
Kousha Askari
Jonathan Bakshi
Rachel Barnehama
Steven Blumner
Robyn Blumner
Jeroen Bours
Robin Bours
Arnold Breitbart
Viviane Breitbart
Hal Chadow
Deborah Chadow
Gary Chubak
Lillian Chubak
Laura Cohen
Bracha Dayani
Nima Dayani
Tia DiSalvo
Isaac Elyassoff
Jacob Elyassoff
Tova Elyassoff
Jonathan Farhadian
Joseph Farhadian
Mansour Farhadian
Yafa Farhadian
Tom Furst
Debbie Furst
Sharon Goldwyn
Dina Hamerman
Natan Hamerman
Joseph Hecht
Donna Hecht
Erik Herz
Adam Hutt
Didi Hutt
Mitchell Hutt
Rachel Hutt
Rabbi Sean Jensen
Erran Kagan
Lisa Kagan
Leonard Kahn
Leslie Kahn
Marc Kalter
Dalia Katan
Elena Katan
Gloria Kaylie
Jack Khorramian
Ariella Kohansieh
Michelle Kohansieh
Celia Lemonik
Jack Lemonik
Alec Ludwig
Cindy Ludwig
Tina Machnikoff
Adeline Markowitz
Avraham Markowitz
Jaime Mittleman
Jared Ort
Edward Parver
Brenda Parver
Harlan Pittell
Rabbi Dale Polakoff
Ellen Polakoff
Hersel Rabanipour
Payman Rabiei
Amy Reiss
Jonathan Reiss
Ben Rosenberg
Carl Rosenberg
Dov Sassoon
Harriet Schimel
Leon Schwechter
Donna Schwechter
Ronnie Shaban
Daniella Siuni
Charlene Soleimani
Robert Sperber
Cheryl Sperber
Jonathan Spielman
Robert Spitalnick
Karen Spitalnick
Alan Steinberg
Orly Steinberg
Daniel Tavakoli
Devorah Wang
Howard Wolf
Michele Wolf
Information Orientation for Policy Conference 2017
This Sunday, February 26th 10:00 am
“Insights for Newcomers as well as Veterans”
for any questions, contact Steve Blumner
516.639.8941 or [email protected].
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Y A H R Z E I T
MAZAL TOVS & COMMUNITY NEWS Rabbi Polakoff’s shabbos drasha through 5777 is dedicated in memory of PINCHAS BEN YOSEPH
For other such opportunities please contact
Howard Wolf 212-843-4668
IF YOU KNOW OF SOMEONE WHO IS MOVING INTO THE GREAT NECK AREA PLEASE LET THE OFFICE KNOW.
OFFICE HOURS FOR RABBI POLAKOFF
Wednesdays 10 am - 12 pm
Thursdays 1 pm - 3 pm
He is available at other times by appointment and can always
be reached by email at [email protected], or on his cell
at 516-637-3674.
UPCOMING EVENTS
AT GREAT NECK SYNAGOGUE
Feb. 22: Chaverim Center
Mar. 3: Young Family Friday Night Dinner
Mar. 5: Men’s Club Annual Rabbinic Dialogue
Mar. 6: Women’s Learning: Rebbetzin Aviva Feiner
SHAARE ZEDEK EVENTS
Shaare Zedek Medical Center’s Women’s Health Day
Wed. March 15, 2017 at the New York Academy of Medicine.
Sign up at www.acsz.org/healthday. For more info contact
NYC Half Marathon Spots Available
Sun. March 19, 2017 If you would like a spot in the United
Airlines NYC Half Marathon - please join Team Shaare Zedek!
For more info please contact [email protected] or
917.287.7334.
SISTERHOOD PURIM BASKETS & CARDS
Sisterhood is once again selling Purim baskets and cards to be
sent to your loved ones. The baskets are $20 and the cards
can be purchased for $3 each or 10 for $25. Contact Vivian
Kron at [email protected] or 516.244.6330 or Judy Lillien at
516.487.6845.
SCOPE
SCOPE magazine is interested in you and your families. The
happy news and the less than happy - please send the
background stories behind the marriages, engagements, bar/
bat mitzvahs and birth announcements. We also want to
remember and honor those who died and share their life story.
Please email submissions to SCOPE Contributing Editor, Zach
Dicker at [email protected].
MEN’S CLUB & SISTERHOOD NEWLYWED EVENT
NEW DATE!! - Sat. night, March 18th at 9:00 pm,
“Newlywed Game”, hosted by Rabbi Polakoff. Cost for members of Men’s Club/Sisterhood is $30 and $36 for non-
members. RSVP at the GNS office.
YOUNG FAMILY FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER
Please join us Friday Night, March 3rd with a Tot
Shabbat Program, Family minyan, Friday night dinner and a
juggling and magic show. Cost is $100 and $125 for non-
members. Sign up at gns.org or call the office.
SAVE THE DATE
The North Shore Hebrew Academy’s Annual Dinner will take place on Sunday, April 2, at Old Westbury Hebrew
Congregation. The Guests of Honor are Cheryl & Ronald Sil-
verman, in loving memory of Markus Orbach, z’l and Drs. Laura and Scott Danoff and Mrs. Susan Newborn, Distin-
guished Faculty Award. Those wishing to serve on the Dinner
committee, please contact [email protected] or call the Busi-
ness Office at 487-8687 ext 2.
Adelaine Markowitz would like to thank Rabbis Polakoff & Lichter and the entire community for their outpouring of support following the loss of her beloved father, Leon Perlman.
Saturday, 29 Shevat
Ben Jampel for Henry Jampel
Murray Rabinowitz for Lea Rabinowitz
Stephen Rabinowitz for Lea Rabinowitz
Judith Weinstein for Fanny Weisman
Sunday, 30 Shevat
Ken Magida for Abraham Bilsky
Victor Ancelson for Carolina Galateanu
Pamela Bilfeld for Arline Grant
George Schuman for Bernard Schuman
Monday, 1 Adar
Ronald Braun for Emile Braun
Paul Brody for David Brody
Paul Brody for Rabbi Abraham Brown
Ada Berkowitz for Aliza Hass
Lili Weiss for Zeev Krendel
Hindi Lunzer for Ruchel Mermelstein
Joyce Dacher for Marvin Wolfman
Tuesday, 2 Adar
Michele Wolf for Philip Berman
Cantor Ze’ev Kron for Menachem ben Ze’ev Kron
Wednesday, 3 Adar
Milton Mitzner for Pearl Ducker
Leon Schwechter for Israel Schwechter
William Wolff for Rebecca Rachel Wolff
Thursday, 4 Adar
Steven Berkowitz for Jack Berkowitz
Donna Hecht for David Gad
Lev Dynkin for Shasha Nidel Lider
Rabbi Dale Polakoff for Lenora Rosen
Milton Mitzner for Anne Shapiro
Friday, 5 Adar
Brenda Parver for Ida Altman
Shellie Zuckerman for Aaron Feinerman
SUNDAY BREAKFAST
Sunday Breakfast is sponsored by Harry Lumerman in
memory of his father Todrus ben Zvi Sheimi, z"l.
PURIM VIDEO
Join us for video taping for this year’s Purim Video this Wednesday night, Feb. 22nd from 5:30-7:30 pm.
Mazal Tov to Jessica & Anton Feingold on the birth of a son.
Mazal Tov to Paul Marcus who has published his 19th book,
The Psychoanalysis of Career Choice, Job Performance, and
Satisfaction (Routledge).
Mazal Tov to Richard & Dorothy Reiser on the birth of a
grandson, born to their children, David & Sara Reiser.
AIPAC POLICY CONFERENCE 2017
This Sunday, February 26th 10:00 am
Information Orientation for Policy Conference 2017
“Insights for Newcomers as well as Veterans”
HASHKAMA KIDDUSH
Hashkama Minyan Kiddush is sponsored by Dina &
Mehran Sharifian to thank all of the members for their
kindness and friendship with special thanks to Jeffrey
Freedman and Asher Davoudpour.