The New Shul

Parshat Ki Tavo

In this week’s parashah, Ki Tavo, Moshe commands the children of Israel to tithe from their crops to support the poor. Morever, Moshe commands them (it seems) to take credit for the mitzvah afterwards by declaring to God: “I have removed [the tithed produce] from my home. . .  I have done all that you commanded.”

The declaration seems presumptuous. How can anyone claim to have done all that God has commanded. Don’t we all fall short?

The Mikra M’forash explained that, when a farmer declared after tithing, “I have done all that you commanded,” he was not boasting. In fact he was not talking about himself at all. Instead he was reminding himself of an important piece of Torah. He was recalling what Rabbi Akiva taught — that“Love your neighbor as yourself” encompasses all other mitzvot.  What the farmer was really declaring was that every act of caring for another person, such as the mitzvah that he had just performed, is all that God commanded.Every time we honor the image of God in another person, we are fulfilling the entire Torah.

By honoring each other, may we become a true community of Torah.

  • 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. This Shabbat morning, September 24, we will celebrate the bat mitzvah of Shelly Pertsovsky. The kiddush-lunch is sponsored by the Pertsovsky family.
  • Childcare is available from 10 am to noon on Shabbat mornings. Our learning service for grades 2 to 4 is from 11 to 11:40 am.
  • Join us for our S’lihot service this Saturday night September 24 at 10 pm.
  • Weekday minyanim at The New Shul are on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am, Monday evenings at 7 pm, Wednesday mornings at 7 am and Wednesday evenings at 7 pm.
  • Rosh Hashanah is on Monday October 3 and Tuesday October 4. Complete information on our services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is available here.