Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
How can we make peace amongst ourselves? This is the major question we deal with in Parashat Naso.
This week we are reading from parashat Naso, the Torah portion for which I went up to the Torah for the first time as a Jewish adult 29 years ago.
29 is a number I am thinking of because it is exactly half of that number that I think of all the time: 58. Every day and every hour of every day, I am thinking of the 58 of our brothers and sisters that we hope can come home.
I am praying for them and for all of us that we can have peace, the greatest value of this week’s Torah portion. This idea of peace appears three times.
Naso is the longest Torah portion in the entire Torah. It discusses many different things from a census, to the Nazerite who takes on extra vows, to a man who is afraid that his wife is unfaithful, to the gifts of every tribe to sanctify and dedicate the Mishkan in the desert.
I want to start with the awful story of the Sotah. Of a man who is afraid that his wife is unfaithful. In this portion, in this part of the Torah portion, the man sends her into the water. There is a horrible ritual in which God’s name is written down and is erased in the water.
Our rabbis learn and teach from this so much of the importance of ‘Shlom Bayit’ ‘Peace in the Home.’ And will constantly say that even God is willing to give up God’s own honor and dignity and have God’s name be erased in order to create peace.
After the story, we read of the story of the different tribes. Twelve tribes were brought together to bring gifts for the mishkan, for the sanctuary. Every tribe, day after day, brings the exact same gifts, because instead of wanting to be in competition, they decide to be at peace. The twelve of them are one.
In the middle of all this, is the priestly blessing. Of God saying that the priests must bless us, the Jewish People, every day with a blessing of peace.
How important is peace in this idea that every part of our Torah portion comes back to the idea that we must find a way to be one.
In her new song, Israeli singer Gali Atari says that the time has come to make peace:
לעשות שלום
Me with myself!
Our Torah portion tells us to look for peace for ourselves, peace for our people.
That like the twelve tribes, we are actually twelve tribes who a all one (1).
This is the time for us to find out how in times of strife to come together, to work together to promote this peace.
God willing, we will see our 58 (hostages held in Gaza) back home and new life for all of us.
Shabbat shalom
(image of Gali Atari: Amir Gilad via wikicommons cc-by-sa 3.0)
Rabbi Arie Hasit, Associate Dean, Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, was ordained by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in 2016 and was in the second cohort of the Mishlei program. Prior, he served six years as the founding rabbi and CEO of 70 Faces — Mazkeret Batya, a unique community that promotes the values of Masorti Judaism and religious pluralism in the public sphere.
Rabbi Hasit volunteers as co-chair of the Masorti Movement’s Youth Committee and as a member of the Law Committee for the Israeli Rabbinical Assembly.
He lives in Mazkeret Batya with his wife, Sara Tova Brody and their two children.
