Parshat K’doshim

In this week’s parashah, K’doshim, we learn the Golden Rule:  “You shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am YHWH.”

What does the second phrase, “I am YHWH,” have to do with the first: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”? Martin Buber understood the juxtaposition in this way: In our love for our neighbor, we meet YHWH. When we recognize the infinite value of another human life, we uncover the image of God in that person. We bring God out of hiding, and come face to face with the divine.

Buber’s point is that caring for others is not only a matter of ethical responsibiliity. It is a spiritual path. True kindness is a form of prayer, an opening to the transcendent.

By finding God in one another’s faces, may we bring a little bit of healing to this broken world.

• 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 11, will be sponsored by Alan and Dale Singer.
• Childcare is available on Shabbat mornings from 10 am to noon.
• Minyanim during the week are on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am, and on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7 pm.
• The festival of Shavuot begins on Saturday night June 8. Please join us for our all-night Tikkun Leil Shavuot, from 9:30 pm until dawn on Sunday morning. Our service for the first day of Shavuot, Sunday morning June 9, will begin at 4:30 am.
• Our service for the second day of Shavuot, Monday June 10, will begin at 9 am, and will include Yizkor, the memorial prayer.
• Please note that there will be no e-bulletin next week. The bulletin will resume on Thursday May 23.