Shabbat shalom! “Hear oh Israel, The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” Sound familiar? Called the watchword of our faith the Shema reminds us to pay attention to how we live our lives and of our connection to God and Israel (both the land and people). The paragraph which follows called the v’ahavta shows us how to make those connections: “You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.” The shema and v’ahavta were part of last weeks Torah portion Vaetchanan. The v’ahavta is a collection of verses from two sections of Deuteronomy. In our Reform service we recite an abridged version, “…inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and your gates.” The full version which we recite during the Conservative service includes a section from this weeks Torah portion, Eikev. We will read “therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, and teach them to your children – reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and your gates.” This section is both familiar and new to those who chant the Reform version of v’ahavta. What does it mean to “bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead”? These words led to the wearing of tefillin during morning prayer as a visible sign and connection to the text and our mindfulness of our relationship to God. For Reform Jews the wearing of teffilin is not usually customary. Without a daily minyan in the Conservative tradition at TBA tefillin is not something seen often in our building. The text goes on to mention mezuzah and in the section from Numbers we get the tradition of tzitzit which leads to Tallis. Without some of these visible signs I guess the question is what are the things either around us or that we add to our lives spiritually that serve as these visible reminders of our relationship to God and our community? Join me tonight during services at 7:30pm to discuss this question.
Thanks,
Margot
