Weekly Message 06.20.2025 Parashat Shelach

Parashat Shelach (Send) Numbers 13:1 - 15:41

HafTorah Joshua 2:1 - 24

SHELACH

Dear friends,

Middlesex Beach

Greetings from Middlesex Beach, Delaware where Chris and I are enjoying our 55th consecutive reunion with friends from our college days.

I will look forward to joining you as I log into Zoom from here this evening at 7:30 pm and tomorrow morning at 9:30 am for our weekly Shabbat services and study. This Shabbat, we continue our journey through the Book of Bamidbar. As we are in the 3rd triennial of each portion, we will miss the graphic and unsettling report of the spies, both the optimistic report from Joshua and Caleb and the horribly pessimistic one from the representatives of the other tribes. All of this proves that the children of Israel are not ready to enter the Promised Land and will be doomed to wandering for many years in the wilderness with only their offspring who were children in Egypt or born on the way able to complete the journey and enter the land.

There is so much here to compare to our own journeys in life. Will we take the necessary risks and responsibilities to complete our lifespans in such a way to fulfill our own and our communities' destiny? Or will we wallow in the morass of everyday trivial matters and stay enslaved to old habits and prejudices?

This Shabbat we read perhaps the most repeated section in the Torah {Bamidbar 15:37-41), the commandment to wear the "tzitzit", the fringes of the garments. We read it in our daily prayers (morning and evening) every day of the year as the 3rd paragraph of the Shema. This is part of a larger section detailing laws and rituals. The tzitzit serve as a visual cue to remember and follow Hashem's laws, preventing us from being led astray by our own desires.

37 ADONAI said to Moshe,

38 "Speak to the people of Israel, instructing them to make, through all their generations, tzitziyot on the corners of their garments, and to put with the tzitzit on each corner a blue thread.

39 It is to be a tzitzit for you to look at and thereby remember all of ADONAI's mitzvot and obey them, so that you won't go estray your own heart and eyes

40 but it will help you remember and obey the mitzvot and be holy for ADONAI

41 I am ADONAI your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt in order to be your God. I am ADONAI your God.

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃

דַּבֵּ֤ר אֶל־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶ֔ם וְעָשׂ֥וּ לָהֶ֛ם צִיצִ֖ת עַל־כַּנְפֵ֣י בִגְדֵיהֶ֑ם לְדֹרֹתָ֖ם וְנָתְנ֛וּ עַל־צִיצִ֥ת הַכָּנָ֖ף פְּתִ֥יל תְּכֵֽלֶת׃

וְהָיָ֤ה לָכֶם֙ לְצִיצִ֔ת וּרְאִיתֶ֖ם אֹת֑וֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּ֗ם אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוֺ֛ת יְהוָ֖ה וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֣ם אֹתָ֑ם וְלֹֽא־תָתֻ֤רוּ אַחֲרֵי֙ לְבַבְכֶ֣ם וְאַחֲרֵי֙ עֵֽינֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּ֥ם זֹנִ֖ים אַחֲרֵיהֶֽם׃

לְמַ֣עַן תִּזְכְּר֔וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוֹתָ֑י וִהְיִיתֶ֖ם קְדֹשִׁ֥ים לֵֽאלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

אֲנִ֖י יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם אֲשֶׁר־הוֹצֵ֨אתִי אֶתְכֶ֥ם מֵאֶ֛רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם לִהְי֥וֹת לָכֶ֛ם לֵֽאלֹהִ֖ים אֲנִ֣י יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

Looking forward to seeing you from here on my computer screen and wishing all a

Shabbat Shalom,

Ron Becker,

Spiritual Leader

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ZOOM LINK FOR FRI AND SAT:

JCC is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Shabbat Services 06/20 @ 7:30 pm, 06/21 @ 9:30 am

Time: This is a recurring meeting Fri and Sat

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4979030958?pwd=YXJPT2FGVTdzVVV2bVQ3c1ZnS1lMZz09&omn=82666606437

Meeting ID: 497 903 0958

Passcode: 5QdVaA