VOLUME 20, ISSUE 26 FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013 / 22 SIVAN 5773
CANDLE LIGHTING: 7:58 P.M. SHABBAT ENDS: 9:09 PM (CHICAGO)
TORAH PORTION: SH’LACH (NUMBERS 8:1 – 12:16)
This week’s CTN Shabbat Fax is sponsored in honor of Rabbi Yehuda and Mashie Polstein, and the fabulous work they are doing at the Jewish Family Experience (JFE). CTN is honored to partner with you in this vital project. Special ‘mazal tov’ wishes to JFE student Sol Zilberman, as well as to his parents, regular participants in JFE classes with Rabbi Katz, on the occasion of Sol’s Bar Mitzvah. May you grow to make your parents and the entire Jewish People proud!
1. We felt so small … and that’s how they looked at us. (13:33)
The Story of the Spies: It was after the Exodus. The Jews had left Egypt.
They’re about to enter the Land of Israel. And they send spies to check it out first.
The spies report back: “We can’t do it. The people there are too powerful. The cities fortified.
We are doomed.
We felt so small. And that’s how they looked at us.”
Jewish tradition sees a powerful lesson in these last words: “We felt so small. And that’s how
they looked at us”.
… That people see us as we see ourselves.
That if we know what we stand for. What we are trying to accomplish.
If we believe in what we are doing.
Then people will respect us.
But if we are unsure about ourselves. About our goals.
If we are small in our own eyes.
That’s exactly how people will see us.
… And it’s especially true for us. As American Jews.
If we – and our children – are in touch with our heritage. And our history.
Understand our mission as Jews. Are proud of it. And committed to it.
If we respect ourselves as Jews.
Then we can expect others to respect us as well.
Shmuel Agnon and Robert Aumann are two individuals who can serve as very good examples. Who can teach us a lot.
Two Israeli Jews who received the world’s most prestigious award for intellectual accomplishment.
The Nobel Prize.
Agnon in literature (1966) and Aumann in economics (2005).
Both observant Jews. Deeply committed to Torah values and observance.
In fact, they each celebrated Shabbat in Stockholm and then rushed over to the banquet hall.
Making it just in time for the Saturday night ceremony!
(Actually, Agnon had an added challenge. He had to light Chanukah candles first!)
This week’s CTN Shabbat Fax is sponsored in honor of Rabbi Yehuda and Mashie Polstein, and the fabulous work they are doing at the Jewish Family Experience (JFE). CTN is honored to partner with you in this vital project. Special ‘mazal tov’ wishes to JFE student Sol Zilberman, as well as to his parents, regular participants in JFE classes with Rabbi Katz, on the occasion of Sol’s Bar Mitzvah. May you grow to make your parents and the entire Jewish People proud!
They stood before the King of Sweden proudly wearing their yarmulkes.
They made other Jews proud. And earned the respect of people all over the world.
… And they both expressed the place that Israel has had in the hearts of hearts of the Jewish
People for the last 2000 years.
Agnon: “As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem … I was born in one of the cities of the Exile. But I always regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.
I am very small indeed in my own eyes … If I am proud of anything it is that I have been granted the privilege of living in the land which G-d promised to our forefathers … as it is written …”
Aumann: “Your Royal Highness, we have, over the years … participated in the scientific enterprise … studied and taught … and pushed forward the boundaries of knowledge … And I have participated in the realization of a 2000 year old dream – the return of my people to Jerusalem, to its homeland.”