Welcome to the DAT Minyan! Shabbat Mevarchim (Shekalim Mishpatim)

February 22, 2020 - 27 Shevat 5780 Joseph Friedman, Rabbi | Mark Raphaely, President

Candle Lighting

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Havdalah

4:34p

5:25p

6:25p

DAT Minyan is a dynamic and friendly Modern Orthodox synagogue for all ages and dedicated to meaningful personal spiritual development, community growth, youth involvement, Torah education, and Religious Zionism.

DAT Minyan - 560 S. Monaco Pkwy., Denver, CO 80224 - 720-941-0479 - www.datminyan.org

D’var Torah with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Two words we read towards the end of our parsha – na’aseh ve-nishma, “We will do and we will hear” – are among the most famous in Judaism. They are what our ancestors said when they accepted the covenant at Sinai. They stand in the sharpest possible contrast to the complaints, sins, backslidings and rebellions that seem to mark so much of the Torah’s account of the wilderness years.

There is a tradition in the Talmud that God had to suspend the mountain over the heads of the Israelites to persuade them to accept the Torah. But our verse seems to suggest the opposite, that the Israelites accepted the covenant voluntarily and enthusiastically:

Then [Moshe] took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do and hear [na’aseh ve-nishma] everything the Lord has said.” (Ex. 24:7)

On the basis of this, a counter tradition developed, that in saying these words, the assembled Israelites ascended to the level of the angels.

Rabbi Simlai said, when the Israelites rushed to say “We will do” before saying “We will hear,” sixty myriads of ministering angels came down and fastened two crowns on each person in Israel, one as a reward for saying “We will do” and the other is a reward for saying “We will hear.”

Rabbi Eliezer said, when the Israelites rushed to say “We will do” before saying “We will hear” a Divine voice went forth and said: Who has revealed to My children this secret which only the ministering angels make use of?

What, though, do the words actually mean? Na’aseh is straightforward. It means, “We will do.” It is about action, behaviour, deed. But readers of my work will know that the word nishma is anything but clear. It could mean “We will hear.” But it could also mean, “We will obey.” Or it could mean “We will understand.” These suggest that there is more than one way of interpreting na’aseh ve-nishma. Here are some:

[1] It means “We will do and then we will hear.” This is the view of the Talmud (Shabbat 88a) and Rashi. The people expressed their total faith in God. They accepted the covenant even before they heard its terms. They said “we will do” before they knew what it was that God wanted them to do. This is a beautiful interpretation, but it depends on reading Exodus 24 out of sequence. According to a straightforward reading of the events in the order in which they occurred, first the Israelites agreed to the covenant (Ex. 19:8), then God revealed to them the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20), then Moses outlined many of the details of the law (Ex. 21-23), and only then did the Israelites say na’aseh ve-nishma, by which time they had already heard much of the Torah.

[2] “We will do [what we have already been commanded until now] and we will obey [all future commands].” This is the view of Rashbam. The Israelites’ statement thus looked both back and forward. The people understood that they were on a spiritual as well as a physical journey and they might not know all the details of the law at once. Nishma here means not “to hear” but “to hearken, to obey, to respond faithfully in deed.”

[3] “We will obediently do” (Sforno). On this view the words na’aseh and nishma are a hendiadys, that is, a single idea expressed by two words. The Israelites were saying that they would do what God asked of them, not because they sought any benefit but simply because they sought to do His will. He had saved them from slavery, led and fed them through the wilderness, and they sought to express their complete loyalty to Him as their redeemer and lawgiver.

[4] “We will do and we will understand” (Isaac Arama in Akeidat Yitzchak). The word shema can have the sense of “understanding” as in God’s statement about the Tower of Babel: “Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand [yishme’u] one another’s speech” (Gen. 11:7). According to this explanation, when the Israelites put ‘doing’ before ‘understanding’, they were giving expression to a profound philosophical truth. There are certain things we only understand by doing. We only understand leadership by leading. We only understand authorship by writing. We only understand music by listening. Reading books about these things is not enough. So it is with faith. We only truly understand Judaism by living in accordance with its commands. You cannot comprehend a faith from the outside. Doing leads to understanding.

(Continued on Page 2)

Shabbat Schedule

(All services take place in the BMH-BJ Fisher Hall, 560 S. Monaco Pkwy)

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the

service.

FRIDAY

5:25 pm: Mincha / Kabbalat Shabbat / Maariv

(Shema should be recited after 6:23 pm)

SHABBAT

Parasha: Page 416 / Maftir: Page 484 /Haftarah: Page 1212

7:50 am: Hashkama Minyan

Our thanks to Ba’al Koreh Rabbi YD Schwartz for leining in the Hashkama Minyan this Shabbat!

Kiddush for the Hashkama Minyan is sponsored by Steve Hertzberg

8:20 am: Daf Yomi

8:30 am: Tefillah Warm-up with Ellyn Hutt

9:00 am: Shacharit

(Shema should be recited before 9:28 am)

Our thanks to Ba’al Koreh David Slamowitz for leining in the 9:00 am minyan this Shabbat!

Kiddush is sponsored by the congregation in honor of our Torah leining team (please see

Page 7 for a complete list of names)

HS Boys’ Gemara Class with Nathan Rabinovitch will not meet this Shabbat

4:20 pm: Shabbat Afternoon Learning with Rabbi Friedman, whose topic will be, "Who Are the Tannaim - Part 2?"

5:20 pm: Mincha followed by Seudah Shlisheet,

6:25 pm: Maariv / Havdalah

—————————————————— Weekday Schedule

(Weekday services Sunday through Friday morning take place at DAT School, 6825 E. Alameda Ave.)

SHACHARIT

Sunday: 8:00 am Monday and Thursday: 6:30 Tuesday and Wednesday: 6:25 am (Rosh Chodesh Adar) Friday: 6:35 am

MINCHA/MAARIV

Sunday through Thursday: 5:30 pm Friday: 5:35 pm

D’VAR TORAH CONTINUED

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service.

Staying with this interpretation, we may be able to hear a further and important implication. If you look carefully at Exodus chapters 19 and 24 you will see that the Israelites accepted the covenant three times. But the three verses in which these acceptances took place are significantly different:

1. The people all responded together, “We will do [na’aseh] everything the Lord has said.” (Ex. 19:8)

2. 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)

3. Then [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do and hear [na’aseh ve-nishma] everything the Lord has said.” (Ex. 24:7)

Only the third of these contains the phrase na’aseh ve-nishma. And only the third lacks a statement about the people’s unanimity. The other two are emphatic in saying that the people were as one: the people “responded together” and “responded with one voice.” Are these differences connected?

It is possible that they are. At the level of na’aseh, the Jewish deed, we are one. To be sure, there are differences between Ashkenazim and Sefardim. In every generation there are disagreements between leading poskim, halachic authorities. That is true in every legal system. Poor is the Supreme Court that leaves no space for dissenting opinions. Yet these differences are minor in comparison with the area of agreement on the fundamentals of halachah.

This is what historically united the Jewish people. Judaism is a legal system. It is a code of behaviour. It is a community of deed. That is where we require consensus. Hence, when it came to doing – na’aseh – the Israelites spoke “together” and “with one voice.” Despite the differences between Hillel and Shammai, Abaye and Rava, Rambam and Rosh, R. Yosef Karo and R. Moshe Isserles, we are bound together by the choreography of the Jewish deed.

At the level of nishma, understanding, however, we are not called on to be one. Judaism has had its rationalists and its mystics, its philosophers and poets, scholars whose minds were firmly fixed on earth and saints whose souls soared to heaven. The Rabbis said that at Sinai, everyone received the revelation in his or her own way:

“And all the people saw” (Ex. 20:15): the sounds of sounds and the flames of flames. How many sounds were there and how many flames were there? Each heard according to their own level of understanding what they were experiencing”, and this is what it means when it says (Ps. 29:4) “the voice of the Lord in power, the voice of the Lord in majesty.

What unites Jews, or should do, is action, not reflection. We do the same deeds but we understand them differently. There is agreement on the na’aseh but not the nishma. That is what Maimonides meant when he wrote in his Commentary to the Mishnah, that “When there is a disagreement between the Sages and it does not concern an action, but only the establishment of an opinion (sevarah), it is not appropriate to make a halachic ruling in favour of one of the sides.”

This does not mean that Judaism does not have strong beliefs. It does. The simplest formulation – according to R. Shimon ben Zemach Duran and Joseph Albo, and in the twentieth century, Franz Rosenzweig – consists of three fundamental beliefs: in creation, revelation and redemption. Maimonides’ 13 principles elaborate this basic structure. And as I have shown in my Introduction to the Siddur, these three beliefs form the pattern of Jewish prayer.

Creation means seeing the universe as God’s work. Revelation means seeing Torah as God’s word. Redemption means seeing history as God’s deed and God’s call. But within these broad parameters, we must each find our own understanding, guided by the Sages of the past, instructed by our teachers in the present, and finding our own route to the Divine presence.

Judaism is a matter of creed as well as deed. But we should allow people great leeway in how they understand the faith of our ancestors. Heresy-hunting is not our happiest activity. One of the great ironies of Jewish history is that no one did more than Maimonides himself to elevate creed to the level of halachically normative dogma, and he became the first victim of this doctrine. In his lifetime, he was accused of heresy, and after his death his books were burned. These were shameful episodes.

“We will do and we will understand,” means: we will do in the same way; we will understand in our own way.

I believe that action unites us, leaving us space to find our own way to faith.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Sacks (Continued from Page 1)

This Day in Jewish History - 22 Feb / 27 Shevat February 22, 1040 – Legendary Tanach and Talmud commentator Rashi is born in Troyes, Champagne, France. The only

child of his parents, Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki (from where the acronym Rashi is derived) began his Torah studies at the age of 5, and at 25, was asked to join the Troyes Bet Din. A few years later, Rashi founded a yeshiva, by which time his unique and insightful Talmudic commentaries were becoming the standard of leading rabbinic scholars throughout Europe. Rashi died in Troyes at the age of 65.

27 Shevat 5416 / February 22, 1656 - As a welcome sign of their permanence and belonging, the Jews of New Amsterdam are granted “a little hook of land situate outside of this city for a burial place.” The establishment of a Jewish cemetery and burial society was a matter of major importance to New Amsterdam’s Jews, but it would still be another 40 years until public Jewish worship was accepted. The cemetery was located by the Bowery, near Oliver Street in what is now lower Manhattan.

February 22 - Several American universities with a major Jewish presence have their beginnings on this date. In 1853, Eliot Seminary was founded in St. Louis, eventually becoming Washington University after a series of name changes. The University has over 2,000 Jewish undergraduates, making up over 33% of the student population. In 1855, Pennsylvania State University was founded. Today, Penn State offers more than 45 Jewish Studies courses and both a major and minor in Jewish Studies. Approximately 10% of the student population of Penn State is Jewish. And, on this day in 1876, prestigious Johns Hopkins University was founded in Baltimore, Maryland. Johns Hopkins currently has a 12% Jewish enrollment of its 6,500 student population and offers 45 courses in Jewish Studies in addition to a major in Jewish Studies.

DAT MINYAN NEWS, EVENTS AND MILESTONES

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service.

Our condolences to Marsha Greenstein on the loss of her sister-in-law Madeleine Greenstein this week in Israel. Baruch Dayan Ha Emet.

As we have done in previous years, our DAT Minyan women are planning a daytime women’s Megilla reading on Tuesday, March 10th. To participate as a reader, or for more information, please contact Julie Lieber at lieberjul@yahoo.com .

Mazal Tov to Stuart Senkfor and Leslie Stewart who are the honorees for the Denver Jewish Day School Annual Dinner on March 18th!

Consider volunteering to lein on Shabbat! The sign-up website is www.datminyan.org/laining. Slots are open from now through mid-March. Please contact Steve Hutt for questions and additional information.

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS Denver NCSY will hold its Parlor Meeting on Tuesday, February 25th, 7:00 pm at Four Mile Historic Park, 715 S. Forest St.,

Denver, CO 80224. For more information, contact Rabbi Yisrael Katz at ykatz@ncsy.org .

The Mizel Institute is offering a limited number of complimentary tickets to view the critically acclaimed film “Kids: Chasing Paradise,” Tuesday, February 25th, 7:00 pm at the Sie Film Center, 2510 E. Colfax Ave. The event features a post-film discussion with preeminent activist, educator and author, Raheel Raza. Tickets available at https://tinyurl.com/ChasingParadiseFeb2020 (use coupon code MMSupport 2020 at Check Out).

The Rocky Mountain Chevra Kaddisha invites the community to its Annual Zayin Seuda, Monday, March 2nd, 6:30 pm at EDOS, 198 S. Holly St. Featured guest speaker is Rabbi Yehuda Amsel, Director of Community Relations at Yeshivas Darchei Torah in Detroit. Tickets for dinner and the speaker can be purchased at $25.00 per person by contacting Randy Zakroff, 303-549-1402. RSVP’s needed no later than February 24th.

Purim candy baskets are available for purchase from the Denver Academy of Torah. Orders must be placed by 4:00 pm Thursday, February 27th. Please see the flyer on Page 6 for more information.

Looking for inspiration for the new decade? Join Ellyn Hutt for a unique women's spiritual journey to Israel from April 26-May 5th. The theme this year is 2020 Vision: The Strength and Resilience of Jewish Women. Contact Ellyn for more information at 720-232-3121 or ellynahutt@gmail.com .

We would like to thank our Legacy Society donors for investing in our future by naming the DAT Minyan with a gift in their will, trust, retirement account or life insurance policy. Our Legacy Society includes:

Rob Allen Marc and Melanie Avner

Graeme and Irit Bean Myndie Brown

Steve and Ellyn Hutt Nathan and Rachel Rabinovitch

Mark and Sarah Raphaely Harley and Sara Rotbart

Michael Stutzer Steve and Lori Weiser

anonymous

You can add your name to this list with a legacy gift to the DAT Minyan. To arrange for your gift or for more information about our Legacy Society program, please contact any of the following Committee Members: Rob Allen, Sarah Raphaely or Steve Weiser.

THANK YOU FOR INSPIRING FUTURE GENERATIONS WITH YOUR GENEROSITY

DAT Minyan acknowledges the following milestones* of our members this Shabbat and in the coming week:

Zusha Amchislavskiy, David Fishman, Steven Paletz, Richard Rosenberg, Ryan Rosenberg, Tana Rosenberg, Matt Rotbart Bob and Jacquie Marks - 6 years Sidney Kramer - Sun., 2/23/20 (28 Shevat)

*These details were obtained from the DAT Minyan database, which contains information provided by our members when they joined. We apologize for any omissions or errors. For changes, please log on to your account and update the information as needed, or contact the

synagogue office at 720-941-0479.

Refuah Shelayma Please include the following names in your prayers. May each be granted a Refuah Shelayma. Names are kept on the list until the next Rosh Chodesh. Help us keep the list accurate by verifying the necessary details each month on the Cholim Document

at https://goo.gl/aeyJG2.

Bella bat Malka

Eliyahu Chaim ha Cohen ben Sara Rifka

Eliyahu Dovid ben Ita Sheiva

Guy Chaim ben Rita

Leah bat Simcha

Leibel ben Harriet

Levick Yitzchak ben Bracha

Leya bat Sara

Malka bat Mazel Tov

Mascha bat Rus

Mayer Benya ben Nechama

Mendel Ila ben Frida Miriam

Michael ben Kay

Michel ben Leah

Michoel Zisel ben Barbara

Miriam Adina bat Sara

Mordechai ben Chaya Hannah

Raphael Lior ben Miriam

Roshka bat Bryna

Shmuel Aharon ben Jenny

Yonatan Leib Volf HaLevi ben Altahenya Shulamit

Yonatan Zeev ben Netaa

Learning Opportunities @ the DAT Minyan

• Kitzur Shulchan Aruch: Daily, after Shacharit

• Daf Yomi Shiur (30 min): after Shacharit on Sun through

Fri , and 8:20 am on Shabbat

• Mishnayot: Daily, between Mincha and Maariv

• “Short & Sweet Talmud Class” (30 min-never longer):

Wed, 9:20 am, DAT Minyan offices at BMH-BJ (men only)

MORE DAT MINYAN NEWS AND EVENTS

Important Security Reminder For the safety and security of everyone attending the DAT Minyan, we ask that all children either be in attendance at one of our childrens’ programs or with a parent AT ALL TIMES when in the building. Children may not be left unescorted to roam hallways or attend BMH-BJ Shabbat and High Holiday programs and events unless accompanied by an adult. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Bell peppers from Israel are being sold at King Soopers stores in Denver. They CANNOT be used unless proper tithing (hafroshas terumos uma’asros) has been performed.

It is generally prudent to be cognizant of “country of origin” information on fresh and canned produce, due to these concerns.

JOIN OUR MINYAN ATTENDANCE CAMPAIGN

One of the foundations of the DAT Minyan has always been our

daily morning and afternoon minyanim. In recent times, we

often find ourselves struggling to maintain the 10-men quorum

we need for our daily services. Our commitment to our

members and to the community is to provide daily minyanim

with the opportunity for anyone who needs to fulfill the

obligation of saying Kaddish. To accomplish this, we need

commitments from our male members as to when they can

attend a daily minyan. If you have not already received a call

from someone on our Ritual Committee asking you to make a

minyan attendance commitment, you will. Please participate

as vigorously as you can. Committing to even one service a

week can make a huge difference! You can also sign up to

participate online at www.datminyan.org/makeaminyan .

ALERT REGARDING ISRAELI BELL PEPPERS FROM KING SOOPERS

Effective immediately, Krispy

Kreme locations in Colorado are

no longer under rabbinic kosher

supervision.

VAAD KASHRUT ALERT

YOUTH ANNOUNCEMENTS

All teens are invited to join us for “Morning Motivation” this Shabbat,

February 22nd, 10:30 am in the Library

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service.

Youth Group Program Guidelines

1. All children must be escorted to their appropriate group/room. 2. All children must stay with their group at all times. 3. All children must be picked up by a parent or adult relative. Children will not be allowed to leave with siblings. 4. Children that are not dropped off at groups must be supervised by their parent at all times. 5. A parent or appointed guardian must be present in the building the entire time that his/her child(ren) is/are in groups. 6. Rip boards, skateboards, scooters and the like may not be used in or around the building during shul hours.

ATTENTION COLLEGE STUDENT PARENTS

Do you have collegiates/yeshiva/

seminary kids coming home for Pesach?

Would they be interested in giving a

shiur over the Chag? If so, please

contact Rabbi Friedman as soon as

possible - Pesach will be here before

you know it!

PURIM SCHEDULE

MONDAY, MARCH 9

Fast begins: 6:07 am

Shacharit: 6:20 am

Mincha: 5:45 pm on Fisher Hall, after which everyone returns home to prepare for Purim

Fast ends: 7:31 pm, but one should not eat until after Megillah Reading, unless absolutely necessary.

Maariv: 7:40 pm in Fisher Hall, followed by Megillah Reading by Dr. Nathan Rabinovitch

Later Reading: 9:30 pm in Fisher Hall, read by Rabbi YD Schwartz

TUESDAY, MARCH 10

Shacharit: 6:15 am, in the MPR at DAT (the earliest time for Talit/Tefillin is 6:29, so everyone will daven without them until “Barchu,” when they will be put on and the service will continue); Megillah Reading: around 6:50 am, led by Avi Wittlin

Women’s Megillah Reading:

8:00 am, in the Gallery at BMH-BJ

Early Mincha: 1:40 pm, in the MPR at DAT

Purim Seudah: 5:00 pm with BMH-BJ in the Social Hall

Maariv: In the BMH-BJ Chapel after the Seudah

PURCHASE YOUR PURIM BASKETS FROM THE DENVER ACADEMY OF TORAH

MORE DAT MINYAN NEWS AND EVENTS

David Andorsky

Ben Avner

Levi Bean

Aryeh Fischer

Ezra Fischer

David Fishman

Rabbi Joseph Friedman

Rabbi Marc Gitler

Noah Hill

Chaim Loewenthal

Steven Miller

Nathan Rabinovitch

Sam Rascoff

Rabbi YD Schwartz

Aaron Segall

Eric Shafran

David Slamowitz

Avi Wittlin

Dan Woodrow

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR AMAZING TORAH LEINING TEAM!

WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST DAT MINYAN MEMBERS!

Matt and Nurit Rotbart, with Gideon, Jeremiah and Margalit Steven Paletz, Laura Mitzner and Harper

You are cordially

invited to attend