Parshat Emor

This week’s parashah, Emor, teaches about the zevahtodah, the thanksgiving sacrifice. The Torah says: “It shall be eaten on that very day [the day that we offer it]. You shall not leave any of it to tomorrow. I am YHWH.”

Why is the commandment to eat the thanksgiving sacrifice on the same day that we offer it followed by the words “I am YHWH”?

To be grateful, in the deepest sense, is to feel the fullness of the moment. It is to be present here and now without thinking of tomorrow. Moments when we are deeply present are also moments of spiritual openness and insight, when we encounter the divine. YHWH (which comes from the Hebrew root “to be”) can be understood to mean “the One who is,” who is ever present . At times when we are truly present, we meet the One who is as well. We know with our whole selves that “I am YHWH.”

Shabbat, our day of wholeness, is a time not to become but just to be. In doing so, we come into the presence of the One who is.

• 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 21, is sponsored by Steve and Yael Wininger in honor of Steve’s birthday.
• 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, from 11 to 11:45 am for grades 1 to 3. and from 10:15 to 11:45 for grades 4 to 6.
• 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.
• Join us at The New Shul for an Israeli dance workshop led by Ora Kurland on Tuesday evening May 24 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.”