Weekly D’var Torah

I hope this finds you all well.

There’s this man, and his passion is restoring and building boats. Fair enough, it’s a nice hobby. One day the man decides to build his dream boat, his magnum opus, something he’s always envisioned. He buys the finest lumber and parts, and spends hours locked away sanding, shaping, coating, and sealing the wood, building the engine, and crafting the bilge pumps. He blows off date night with his wife, forgets his daughter’s dance recitals and his son’s hockey games, and skips visiting his folks. Day after day, night after night, week after week, year after year, he labors on that boat. Even his conversations focus entirely on his project. Well, as one might expect, his wife divorces him, his children become estranged, and his friends give up on him. Finally, one day, his boat is finished. But when he looks at it admiringly, his happiness is shattered as there is no one to celebrate with him.

There is a famous question: “Is the juice worth the squeeze?”

In other words, was the result or reward worth the effort, the pain, and the tribulation.

In this week’s parsha of Vayishlach* we see two examples of this. First, after wrestling a strange man (many argue an angel) throughout the night and coming out victorious, Jacob is blessed with a new name, Israel.[1]However, during their contest, the stranger dislocates Jacob’s hip socket, leaving him with a permanent limp.[2] Second, Jacob and his favored/beloved wife Rachel have a second son together, Benjamin. Benjamin becomes Jacob’s favorite child, second only to Joseph.[3] Tragically, Rachel dies from childbirth.[4]

Was the blessed name Israel worth the limp? Was the birth of Benjamin worth the death of Rachel?

The great Rabbi of the 10th century Saadia Gaon wrote “The more valuable the thing, the more effort it demands,” and “The good attained by effort is twice as precious.”[5]

On the other hand, late in his life, when Pharoah asks Jacob how old he is, he replies, “The years of my sojourn [on earth] are one hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been the years of my life, nor do they come up to the life spans of my ancestors during their sojourns.”[6]

Perhaps the lesson here is that we have to individually decide if the end result is worth the effort that gets us there.

Bizrat HaShem, with God’s love and guidance, may we all have the judgement, discernment, and wisdom to determine when the juice is worth the squeeze.

Wishing you a Good Shabbos and a great weekend.

L’Shalom,

Rabbi Aaron Stucker-Rozovsky

“Run to do even the slightest mitzvah.” – Ben Azzai (Pirkei Avot 4:2)

Jewish Word of the Week – Parshat Vayeitzei

Shalom, all:

I hope this message finds you all well.

This week’s word is Vayeitzei (Hebrew: וַיֵּצֵא), which means “and he went out.” It is the name of the Torah portion that tells the story of Jacob’s journey to Haran, his encounters with his wives, Rachel and Leah, and his complex relationship with his uncle, Laban.

This parsha is a pivotal point in Jacob’s life. He leaves his home, fleeing from the consequences of his actions, and embarks on a journey of self-discovery and transformation. We witness his dream of a ladder reaching up to heaven, a powerful image of connection between the earthly and divine realms. We also learn about his wrestling match with an angel, a struggle that leaves him with a new name, Israel, and a deeper understanding of his own strength and resilience.

Jacob’s journey is filled with challenges and triumphs, love and loss, deceit and reconciliation. It is a mirror to our own lives, reminding us that the path to growth is often winding and unpredictable. We may encounter obstacles and setbacks, but through perseverance and faith, we can emerge stronger and wiser.

In this parsha, we are called to reflect on our own journeys. Where are we going in our lives? What are the challenges we face? How can we draw strength from our faith and our relationships to overcome adversity?

I encourage you to engage with this week’s Torah portion and share its wisdom with those you serve. Let us all strive to embody the resilience and determination of Jacob as we navigate the complexities of life.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom and a great weekend.

AATW!

All the best,

Scott I. Klein, Ed.D.

Chaplain (CPT) / Rabbi

407th BSB, 2nd BCT, 82nd ABN DIV

Fort Liberty, NC 28307

Cell: 773-547-3822

NIPR: scott.i.klein.mil@army.mil

Jewish Word of the Week – Parshat Toldot

Shalom Shabbat!

I hope this finds you all well.

This week’s word is Toldot (Hebrew: ְלֹדתוֹתּ), which means “generations” or “history.” It is the name of the Torah portion that tells the story of Isaac and his sons, Jacob and Esau.

In this parsha, we learn about the rivalry between Jacob and Esau, and how Jacob tricked his father into giving him the blessing that was meant for Esau. We also learn about Jacob’s journey to Haran, where he meets his wives, Rachel and Leah, and his uncle, Laban.

The story of Jacob and Esau is a complex one, full of twists and turns. It is a story about family, betrayal, and reconciliation. It is also a story about the power of blessings and the importance of making the right choices.

As we read Parshat Toldot, we are reminded that our actions have consequences, both for ourselves and for others. We are also reminded that God is always with us, even when we make mistakes.

Bizrat HaShem, with God’s loving help and guidance, may we all learn from the mistakes of our ancestors and make choices that will lead us to a better future.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom and a great weekend.

All the best, From the desk of

Scott I. Klein, Ed.D. Chaplain (CPT) / Rabbi (filling in for Rabbi Aaron while he’s deployed)

407th BSB, 2nd BCT, 82nd ABN DIV

Fort Liberty, NC 28307

I hope this finds you all well.

I was once watching a documentary about the service academies.[1] It focused on everything from the military training to the academics to cadet/midshipmen life, and everything in between.

One scene I’ll always remember is the admissions process where a group of civilian professors and military professors decide on who they want to admit into next year’s class. They carefully go through each packet: GPA, extracurricular activities, sports…and letters of recommendation.

One of the applicant’s references (a teacher or a coach) writes in his letter of recommendation that he has so much confidence in the applicant as being a man of character that he would trust him to date his daughter! Wow! Think about that for a minute. After the initial laughs and chuckles, it’s honestly hard to think of a more impressive vote of confidence that a middle-aged person can have for a teenager.

Trust is one of the most sacred words in the human experience. It is the intertwining and confluence of responsibility, power, humility, confidence, secrecy, openness, intimacy, knowledge, awareness, strength, and vulnerability, all wrapped up into one.

Perhaps there are few better examples of trust than in this week’s parsha of Chayei Sarah*. After the death of his beloved wife Sarah, Abraham tasks the head of his household to go to his family’s lands and find a wife for his son Issac.[2] The amount of responsibility that he is placing in his servant is enormous. He is literally entrusting not only the future of his family, but indeed the future of the Jewish people, into the hands of this servant. Well, the servant meets Rebecca and the rest, as we say, is history.

Hopefully, the beautiful and heartfelt story of Abraham and his servant can make us all take stock of our lives and relationships. What does trust look like to you? Who do you trust in your life and what do you trust them with? How do you safeguard this trust?

Bizrat HaShem, with God’s love and guidance, may we treat trust as the holy gift that it is, never to be given out freely and recklessly, nor to withhold it from those who have earned and truly deserve it.

Wishing you a Good Shabbos and a great weekend.

Bivrakha

From the desk of: Rabbi Aaron Stucker-Rozovsky

Beth El Congregation | 520 Fairmont Ave, Winchester, VA 22601

(540) 667-1889 (office)

Shabbat Shalom!

I hope this finds you all well.

Who or what is most important to you?

It’s a “simple” enough question…or is it?

If you had to choose among them – your spouse, family, friends, hobbies and passions, career, country, God – how would you stack them? Which one would win out over the others?

This concept is nothing new. The concepts of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, prima facie, pro tanto, “values”, “precedence”, and “priority” all address this in one form or another.

In this week’s parsha of Vayeira*, God says to Abraham:

“Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you.”[1]

Abraham does not protest, obeys God without question, and almost sacrifices his son until his hand is stayed.

This nutshell of the Akeidah**, the binding of Isaac, doesn’t even scratch the surface of how significant this is.

Sarah, Abraham’s wife, believed that she would not have any children as she was too old. To this end, Sarah gave Abraham her maidservant Hagar with whom he had a son, Ishmael. When Sarah is informed that she too will have a son with her husband, she laughs because of her advanced age. However, a year later, at the age of 90, she gives birth to Isaac. This is nothing short of a miracle.

Why then would Abraham obey this command if his son Isaac, the son he loves, is a gift, blessing, and miracle in both his and Sarah’s lives? Because, at the end of the day, he prioritizes God over all – everything and everyone else in his life. Abraham’s priority in this case is abundantly clear.

Our sage and teachers give us plenty of advice on prioritizing our values. Rabbi Jacob ben Hayyim Tzemah penned, “It is more important to study Torah than to fast;” Abba Saul taught, “Morality is more important than learning;” and Judah HaNasi declared, “Action takes precedence over study.”[2]

In life, our priorities are as unique as our fingerprints, DNA, and signatures. What we value, how we value, and how we prioritize what matters is a unique expression of ourselves and belongs solely to us.

The question begs, what’s most important to you?

Bizrat HaShem, with God’s loving help and guidance, may we all come to realize and be proud and at peace with what matters most to each of us.

Wishing you a Good Shabbos and a great weekend.

Bivrakha

From the desk of: Rabbi Aaron Stucker-Rozovsky

Beth El Congregation | 520 Fairmont Ave, Winchester, VA 22601

(540) 667-1889 (office)

I hope this finds you all well.

It’s a brutally hot day on a crowded, busy city street. On the sidewalk tucked up against a building is an elderly, sun-burnt, emaciated homeless man. His shirt and pants are torn, his shoes are shredded, his body odor is pungent and overwhelming, and he hangs his head low, resting it on his hands and knees. He’s thirsty, tired, and so broken both in body and spirit that he doesn’t even bother holding up his coin tin or cardboard sign saying asking for money.

Most people look the other way and go out of their path to ignore him, some scoff, and even a couple hiss, “Get a job.”

But one man, one caring man, goes into a store and buys a large brimmed hat, a pair of sunglasses, a couple of t-shirts, a few bottles of cold water, a sandwich, and a large bag of ice. This caring individual gives the homeless man these items and then heads on his way.

It’s easy, frighteningly easy in fact, to ignore, take advantage of, and even harm others when they’re at their weakest and most vulnerable. On the other hand, it shows true strength of character to go to the aid and defense of someone who is incapacitated and incapable of helping themselves.

In this week’s parsha of Noach*, we see such an example. After leaving the Ark, Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk.[1] In his intoxicated state he takes off all his clothes and passes out.[2]  Noah’s son Ham sees his father and tells his brothers Japheth and Shem what he has witnessed.[3]  Japheth and Shem grab a blanket and cover their father, thereby giving him some dignity in this sad and embarrassing moment.[4]  After waking up, Noah blesses Japheth and Shem for their act of kindness.[5] It is a simple but yet incredibly powerful and noble deed what these sons do for their father.

Our sages and sacred texts have echoed such sentiments. Rabbi Simeon the Righteous taught: “the world stands on three things: Torah, service, and acts of loving-kindness”; Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote, “Acts of kindness never die. They linger in the memory, giving life to other acts in return;” and God tells Moses in the Book of Leviticus, “You will not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block in front of the blind…you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Bizrat HaShem, may we all walk in the ways of Japheth and Shem, turning towards the helpless with a kind and compassionate hand.

Wishing you all a Good Shabbos and a great weekend.

Bivrakha

From the desk of: Rabbi Aaron Stucker-Rozovsky

Beth El Congregation | 520 Fairmont Ave, Winchester, VA 22601

(540) 667-1889 (office)

Shabbat Shalom!

I hope this finds you all well.

Passion, it is said, can be a good thing- it is a source and well-spring of creativity and a driver of innovation. On the other hand, passion can exacerbate our worst inclinations and emotions, from jealousy and anger to lust and greed.

In this week’s parsha of Beresheit, we see the harmful, negative side of passion on full display, from Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden to Cain’s murder of Abel.

We know many of the cast of characters in this week’s portion- Adam, Eve, the serpent, Cain, Abel, and Noah.

But there is someone who gets very little attention- the Cherubim who God stations at the eastern entrance at the Garden of Eden to protect the Tree of Life after He expels Adam and Eve.[1]

It is said that the Cherubim, these supernatural beings, were “devoid of human feelings” and were created for singular purposes such as buttressing and protecting the places of the Divine.[2]

The Cherubim are lucky perhaps. They have no anger, no jealousy, no sadness, no impulse controls, and no other detractors that keep them from their mission and purpose. Feelings never dominate their actions. However, one can not but feel sorry for them. As the expression goes, “It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.”

This brings us to a critical juncture. Considering all of this, how do we find that middle path prevent us from going down the dark road of insidious passion that drove Adam and Eve to eat the apple from the Tree of Knowledge and Cain to viciously butcher his own brother, while also not resorting to a way of life filled only by pure, unfiltered, blind task and purpose, objectivity, rationality, regulation, or logic?

Perhaps it is this: we must first learn to recognize and understand our emotions, biases, and feelings, and thoughts. Second, we must learn to make them work for us rather than us working for them by inculcating them with objectivity.

There is no crime in having feelings or emotions. The downfall is allowing them to dictate our actions. Our goal should therefore be a middle ground that is neither purely emotional or entirely guided by “cold, hard” facts. In the field of psychological field of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), this synthesis, this approach is called “The Wise Mind.”[3] Our ancients would have agreed, as it is written in Proverbs, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”[4]

Bizrat HaShem, just as some of our most beloved objects – the Havdalah candle and Challah –  are based on the intertwining of strands to create something whole, so too may we likewise be guided by an equal intertwining of emotion, feeling, fact, and objectivity to become more complete, wholistic people.

Wishing you a Good Shabbos and a great weekend.  

Bivrakha,

From the desk of Rabbi Aaron Stucker-Rozovsky

Beth El Congregation | 520 Fairmont Ave, Winchester, VA 22601

(540) 667-1889 (office)

Moses the G.O.A.T

Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!

I hope this finds you all well.

There’s this kid, and from a young age, he’s a football prodigy with many in his county proclaiming that he’s the best wide receiver they’ve ever seen. The pee-wee coaches go as far as to declare that he could put Don Hutson and Jerry Rice to shame. He smashes the record books in middle school football, sails through the JV squad, and once he hits varsity, not only is he a local celebrity, but every college scout and coach in the country is chomping at the bit to get him into their program.

Well, he goes off to a big-name college just as you’d expect, but once he’s there, he’s…really good, but he’s no longer the best. He’s no longer #1. There are folks who are better than him. He still does really well though and after four years he gets drafted into the NFL. But once he’s in pro-ball, he’s…average. He plays a couple seasons, doesn’t really shine, is let go from a couple of teams, gets injured, and before you know it, five years after college, his professional career is over.

The point of all this: this guy was great, phenomenal even, but there were players who were better than him. And you know what? That’s ok. Does that invalidate him, his accomplishments, his accolades, or his career? No, absolutely not.

As we near the holiday of Simchat Torah and begin our yearly Torah reading cycle once again from the beginning, I am reminded of one of the last verses of our sacred text:

“Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses – whom God singled out, face to face.” [1]

I’m guessing that some could take this to mean that Moses was the G.O.A.T – the greatest [prophet] of all time.

But here’s the thing: so what if he was? Does this invalidate or devalue the work of the other prophets?

Does this mean that Jonah’s preaching to Nineveh was unimportant? No!

Does this mean that Ezekiel’s warnings to his fellow Judeans didn’t matter? No!

And does this mean that Isaiah’s words of comfort can’t help repair a wounded heart? No!

In the famous 2006 Will Ferrell comedy Talladega Nights, a young Ricky Bobby is told by his wayward father (played by Gary Cole), “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”[2]. This toxic advice transforms Ricky into an arrogant, uncompromising, and destructive adult.

If we lead our lives and tell others to live theirs by the mantras “first or last”, “100 or 0”, “best or worst,” “valedictorian or dunce cap,” or “gold or bust,” both our days and theirs will ultimately be filled with sadness, stress, and heartbroken disappointment.

Bizrat HaShem, may we all remember that we don’t have to be the best at something in order to make a positive, lasting impact. Sometimes it’s great not to be the best, it’s great to be good, and it’s great even to just be ok. May we in this new year of 5785 show gentleness, kindness, and understanding to both ourselves and others.

Wishing you a Good Shabbos and a very happy holiday.

Bivrakha,

From the desk of: Rabbi Aaron Stucker-Rozovsky

Beth El Congregation | 520 Fairmont Ave, Winchester, VA 22601

(540) 667-1889 (office)

G’mar Chatimah Tovah

I hope this finds you all well.

One of the shortest prayers in the Torah is Moses’ plea that God heal his leprosy-stricken sister Miriam: “El Na Refah Na La – God, please hear now.”[1]

Some of the most powerful things we can say in life are also the most concise. They require no illustrious speeches or grand gestures. For many, however, they are also some of the hardest to say: a teacher who has to again and again prompt their students to say “excuse me,” and “may I…,” a parent who has to remind their child to say “please” and “thank you,” and on Yom Kippur,  all of us to authentically and honestly say, “I’m sorry.”

Why is it so hard to say these “simple words”: “I apologize”, “I was wrong”, and “I’m sorry”? Because it requires modesty and vulnerability. As people, biological creatures, we naturally want to protect and shield ourselves from anything that can leave us exposed or open. However, as descendants of Moses and the children of Torah we are taught to be humble. To this end, Jewish philosopher and prime minister of Italy Luigi Luzzatti penned, “The greatest minds are those which, even in the act of creation, remain humble,” and Rabbi Meir of the Talmud taught, “Be humble before all men.”[2]

Bizrat HaShem, in this new year of 5785 and in front of the open ark on this Yom Kippur, this day of atonement, may we all have the humility to say “I’m sorry.’

Tizku Leshanim Rabot and Tzom Kal – May you merit many years and may you have an easy fast.

Bivrakha,

From the desk of: Rabbi Aaron Stucker-Rozovsky

Beth El Congregation | 520 Fairmont Ave, Winchester, VA 22601

(540) 667-1889 (office)