Words From Rabbi White

This motsa'ei shabbat, Saturday night at 11:00 pm, we have our traditional first night of selichot.

I can't forget this parasha. You see, when I was in grade 1, growing up in Boston, my class celebrated our having completed the knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet. We all came on stage, every child holding a large cardboard letter.  My letter was "tet," or "tes" as we pronounced it then in Ashkenaz pronunciation. And "tet," as I explained to the proud parents in the audience, stands for "tene," meaning "basket," a word mentioned in this week's parashah. The Torah tells us that after the children of Israel enter the promised land, they will bring every year the first fruits of their crops, and present them to the kohen, and express their thanks to HaShem for bringing them into the land.

Indeed, I have always thought of the first 29 verses in this week's parasha as among the most inspirational and uplifting in the entire Torah.

And then........ When we come to chapter 28, verse 15, of this week's parashah, we come to 53 of the most frightening verses in the Torah. Hashem threatens that if we don't listen to Him, and don't follow the Torah, terrible curses can befall us.  Our tradition is to read these verses in a low voice, so that everyone has to strain to hear them being read. We also have a tradition that this aliya can go only to the Torah reader himself, so that no one will be insulted and/or discouraged by receiving this aliya. 

The juxtaposition of these 2 topics is striking.  We know that there are things in life that are beyond our control.  Yet there are other things that are within our control.  We must constantly be attentive, lest we turn the positive into a negative. And this is an important message, as we approach Rosh Hashanah.

We wish good health and a good year to all.