Dear Temple Sinai Members and Friends,
I must tell you how proud I am to be the Rabbi of Temple Sinai. Even while Judy and I have had to be away for these few weeks, as we attempt to clean out our home in Holbrook preparing it for sale, I can be assured that the parts of Temple life in which I am involved continue to function so well. A thank you to Cantor Dan and Rita for conducting the Shabbat service so beautifully, and to the group of Temple members, Larry Okun, Lori Weiss-Woeltjen, Judith and Robert Shumaker, and Mark Breitbart, who conducted Shabbat services at Harbor’s Edge. I am also grateful for the telephone, as I have been able to make daily phone calls to members in Florida who are ill.
A Temple community can only function and survive by its members stepping up and offering to volunteer their time for all the various tasks that need workers. Temple Sinai surely is blessed with many who have stepped up to the plate. Please remember, however, that we never can have enough workers. So, to all and particularly to the many new members, please find out where you are needed and come on down and help out.
This week’s Torah portion, Kei Taytzaei, continues with last week’s section by presenting a long list of mitzvot. There are laws regarding when one takes a female as captive in war, to being kind to animals, from adultery to incest.
There is one in particular mitzvah that stands out and that is the law of Shaatnes. As it states in Dt. 22:11, “You will not wear garments in which the threads are of different materials, such as wool and linen together.” Scholars are actually not even sure of the etymology of the word Shaatnes. You might be able to come up with a reason for not mixing different types of material in one garment, but believe it or not the rabbis could not, including the great Maimonides, Rambam. Shaatnes comes under the laws called Chukkim, meaning laws with no reason to them except that God commands them.
I remember as a child my father saying to me, “Just do it”. When I would respond, “Why Dad?”, he would say, “Because I said so.” I assume most of you had a similar experience with your parents. Sometimes in life we just need to do the tasks that are presented to us, even if we do not know their purpose because there is a purpose to them, even while hidden. If we were not to light Shabbat candles before we could know of the meaning and purpose of lighting them, we probably would never light them.
In Judaism we are asked to do many things. If we tried to figure out their meaning, we might get so bogged down in this challenge, that we might end up doing none of them at all. So, as we are getting ever closer to the New Year 5785, let us determine to “Just Do It”; to take on those rituals, ceremonies, mitzvot of Jewish tradition that we can and just do them. I guarantee that after you do them, their meaning will present itself.
I hope that within the next few weeks, I will be able to share with you my exciting Adult Education offers for this coming year. Please stay tuned, as they say. If there is a particular subject you would like to learn, please let me know. Also, those of you who wish to become an Adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah, please let me, or Lynne or Betti (our Co-Presidents) know.
Shabbat Shalom,
Your Rabbi Steve