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Shabbat starts on Friday at 5:06pm and ends on Saturday at 6:05pm. The weekly Torah portion is Achrei Mot-Kedoshim. On Monday it’s Pesach Sheni.
Mincha continues at 1pm at A-P GF/459 Collins Mon-Wed, and Thu 1.45pm at L1 Capital using the WhatsApp group to confirm numbers.
Weekly sushi & shiur continues on Wed at 1.10pm (after mincha) at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom. Current topic: fencing law. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.
Thought of the Week with thanks to Asher Seifman.
In this week’s reading of Kedoshim, the Torah states ‘Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them: You shall be holy, for holy am I, Hashem, your G-d. You shall each revere your mother and your father, and keep My sabbaths: I, Hashem, am your G-d’ (Vayikra 19:2-3).
Rashi comments that the ‘holiness’ here refers to abstinence from sexual immorality and sin. What is the connection then between this special mitzvah of being holy and the mitzvah of reverence for one’s parents, that warrants their juxtaposition? In the Shvivei Eish (teachings of Moshe Shmuel Glasner, the Dor Revi’i), the following explanation is provided: A person who abstains from indulging in his youth in physical pleasures and from pursuing his base desires will merit to father upright and righteous children; these children will accordingly recognise the righteousness of their father/forebears and act with appropriate reverence towards them; conversely, if he does not do so and bears wayward children of a weak moral constitution, they will see the worst in their father/forebears and not show any reverence towards them.
Perhaps this is also why the verse concludes with ‘I, Hashem am your G-d’, to emphasise that it is the G-dliness within our parents that we must identify as a pre-condition to demonstrating proper reverence.
We can see from here that part of achieving holiness requires intergenerational transmission of our values. This capacity for transmission lies so deep within our spiritual fabric as Jews, that it can and does predate the conception and birth of the next generation. We can see this principle reflected in the story of Samson, when the wife of Manoach (Samson’s mother), after asking what would be of the child, was answered by the angel to herself not drink wine or alcohol nor consume any contaminated food, as the child would be a Nazir from birth. The prelude to extending our heritage to the next generation is ensuring we ourselves enact our values, even before the next generation is ready to receive them.
In our times in particular, when we are faced with constant threats against our moral identity as Jews, the best way to protect the religious and moral values of our children/grandchildren is to improve our own first; in doing so, we will equip them with a heritage of inspiration and can perhaps hope to merit some degree of reverence too.