Parshat B’har

In this week’s parashah, B’har, God commands the children of Israel not to take advantage of each other in business.“You shall not wrong one another; you shall revere your God. . .” In other words, reverence for God prevents misconduct. If we respect God, then we will treat God’s creatures with respect.

But the author of Sha’ar Ha-Hasidut turned the logic of the sentence around.  He read it according to the actual order of the words, in which respect for people comes first and reverence for God follows it. The Torah’s point, as he understood it, is that respecting one another leads us to revere God. If we are having trouble finding God in the world, if our spiritual life feels empty, then we should start by treating other human beings with the respect that they deserve as images of God. The rest will follow.

In our search for God, we naturally turn to community as our starting point. We understand instinctively that, among people who truly care for one another, God must be present. May our community always be such a place.

• The New Shul’s Shabbat services are on Friday evenings from 6 to 7 pm, and on Saturday mornings from 9 am to 12 noon. The kiddush-lunch this Shabbat, May 28, is sponsored by Mojdeh and Ben Bobrow.
• Childcare is available from 10 am to noon on Shabbat mornings. Learning services for children this Shabbat are from 11 to 11:30 am for toddlers and preschoolers, and from 11 to 11:45 am for grades 1 to 3.
• Minyanim during the week are on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am, Monday evenings at 7 pm, Wednesday mornings at 7 am and Wednesday evenings at 7 pm.
• Shavuot begins on Saturday night June 11. Join us for ourTikkun Leil Shavuot, our all night study-vigil, from 9:30 pm until Sunday morning at dawn. The theme is “Shabbat: A Sanctuary in Time.”