Welcome to the DAT Minyan! Shabbat Noach

November 2, 2019 - 4 Cheshvan 5780 Joseph Friedman, Rabbi | Mark Raphaely, President

Candle Lighting

(earliest)

(latest)

Havdalah

4:53p

5:40p

6:39p

DAT Minyan is a dynamic and friendly Modern Orthodox synagogue for all ages and dedicated to meaningful personal spiritual development, community growth, youth involvement, Torah education, and Religious Zionism.

DAT Minyan - 560 S. Monaco Pkwy., Denver, CO 80224 - 720-941-0479 - www.datminyan.org

D’var Torah with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Amid all the drama of the impending Flood and the destruction of almost all of creation, we focus on Noah building the ark, and hear one detailed instruction:

Make a tzohar for the ark and terminate it within a cubit of the top. (Gen. 6:16)

There is a difficulty understanding what “tzohar” means, since the word does not appear anywhere else in Tanach. Everyone agrees that it is referring to a source of illumination. It will give light within the ark itself. But what exactly is it? Rashi quotes a Midrash in which two Rabbis disagree as to its meaning:

Some say this was a window; others say that it was a precious stone that gave light to them.

The precious stone had the miraculous quality of being able to generate light within the darkness.

Bartenura suggests that what is at stake between the two interpretations is the etymology of the word tzohar itself. One relates it to the word tzahorayim, meaning “midday.” In that case, the brightness was to come from the sun, the sky, the outside. Therefore tzohar means “a window, a skylight.” The other view is that tzohar is related to zohar, “radiance,” which suggests something that radiates its own light, hence the idea of a miraculous precious stone.

Chizkuni and others suggest Noah had both: a window (from which he later released the raven, Gen. 8:6) and some form of artificial lighting for the prolonged period of the Flood itself when the sun was completely overcast by cloud and the world was shrouded in darkness.

It remains fascinating to ask why the Rabbis of the Midrash, and Rashi himself, would spend time on a question that has no practical relevance. There will be – God promised this in this week’s parsha – no further flood. There will be no new Noah. In any future threat to the existence of the planet, an ark floating on the water will not be sufficient to save humankind. So why should it matter what source of illumination Noah had in the ark during those tempestuous days? What is the lesson for the generations?

I would like to offer a midrashic speculation. The answer, I suggest, lies in the history of the Hebrew language. Throughout the biblical era, the word tevah meant an ark – large in the case of Noah and the Flood, small in the case of the papyrus basket coated with tar in which Yocheved placed the baby Moses, setting him afloat on the Nile (Ex. 2:3). More generally, it means “box.” However, by the time of the Midrash, tevah had come also to mean “word.”

It seems to me that the Rabbis of the Midrash were not so much commenting on Noah and the ark as they were reflecting on a fundamental question of Torah. Where and what is the tzohar, the brightness, the source of illumination, for the tevah, the Word? Does it come solely from within, or also from without? Does the Torah come with a window or a precious stone?

There were certainly those who believed that Torah was self-sufficient. If something is difficult in Torah it is because the words of Torah are sparse in one place but rich in another. In other words, the answer to any question in Torah can be found elsewhere in Torah. Turn it over and turn it over for everything is within it. This is probably the majority view, considered historically. There is nothing to be learned outside. The Torah is illuminated by a precious stone that generates its own light. This is even hinted at in the title of the greatest work of Jewish mysticism, the Zohar (see Bartenura above).

There were, however, other views. Most famously, Maimonides believed that a knowledge of science and philosophy – a window to the outside world – was essential to understanding God’s word. He made the radical suggestion, in the Mishnah Torah (Hilchot Yesodei Ha-Torah 2:2), that it was precisely these forms of study that were the way to the love and fear of God. Through science – the knowledge of “He who spoke and called the universe into existence” – we gain a sense of the majesty and beauty, the almost infinite scope and intricate detail of creation and thus of the Creator. That is the source of love. Then, realising how small we are and how brief our lives in the total scheme of things: that is the source of fear.

(Continued on Page 2)

We kindly ask you to pay any outstanding balances owed to the

shul. Please call the shul office or pay online after logging into your

account at www.datminyan.org. Thank you!

Shabbat Schedule (All services take place in the BMH-BJ Fisher Hall,

560 S. Monaco Pkwy)

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service.

FRIDAY

5:40 pm: Mincha / Kabbalat Shabbat / Maariv

(Shema should be recited after 6:40 pm)

SHABBAT

Parasha: Page 30 / Haftarah: Page 1131

7:50 am: Hashkama Minyan

8:20 am: Daf Yomi

Tefillah Warm-up with Ellyn Hutt will not meet this Shabbat

9:00 am: Shacharit

(Shema should be recited before 10:06 am)

Kiddush is available for sponsorship

4:15 pm: HS Boys’ Gemara Class will meet with Nathan Rabinovitch at the Rabinovitch home

5:35 pm: Mincha followed by Seudah Shlisheet

6:39 pm: Maariv / Havdalah

—————————————————— Weekday Schedule

(Weekday services Sunday through Friday morning take place at DAT School, 6825 E. Alameda Ave.)

SHACHARIT

Sunday: 8:00 am

Monday and Thursday: 6:30 am

Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday: 6:35 am

MINCHA/MAARIV

Sunday through Thursday: 4:40 pm

Friday: 4:35 pm

D’VAR TORAH CONTINUED

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service.

The case Maimonides made in the 12th century, long before the rise of science, has been compounded a thousand times with our accelerated knowledge of the nature of the universe. Every new discovery of the vastness of the cosmos and the wonders of the micro-cosmos, fills the mind with awe. “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?” (Is. 40:26).

Maimonides did not think that science and philosophy were secular disciplines. He believed that they were ancient forms of Jewish wisdom, that the Greeks had acquired from the Jews and sustained at a time when the Jewish people, through exile and dispersion, had forgotten them. So they were not foreign borrowings. Maimonides was re-claiming a tradition that had been born in Israel itself. Nor were they source of independent illumination. They were simply a window through which the light of God’s created universe could help us decode the Torah itself. Understanding God’s world helps us understand God’s word.

This made a significant difference to the way Maimonides was able to convey the truth of Torah. So for example, his knowledge of ancient religious practices – albeit based on sources that were not always reliable – afforded him the deep insight (in The Guide for the Perplexed) that many of the Chukim, the statutes, the laws that seem to have no reason, were in fact directed against specific idolatrous practices.

His knowledge of Aristotelian philosophy enabled him to formulate an idea that exists throughout both Tanach and the rabbinic literature, but that had not been articulated so clearly before, namely that Judaism has a virtue ethic. It is interested not just in what we do but in what we are, in the kind of people we become. That is the basis of his pathbreaking Hilchot De’ot, “Laws of ethical character.”

The more we understand the way the world is, the more we understand why the Torah is as it is. It is our roadmap through reality. It is as if secular and scientific knowledge were the map, and Torah the route.

This view, articulated by Maimonides, was developed in the modern age in a variety of forms. Devotees of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch called it Torah im derech eretz, “Torah with general culture.” In Yeshiva University it came to be known as Torah u-Madda, “Torah and science.” Together with the late Rav Aaron Lichtenstein zt”l, I prefer the phrase Torah ve-Chochmah, “Torah and wisdom,” because wisdom is a biblical category.

Recently, the science writer David Epstein published a fascinating book called Range, subtitled, How Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World. He makes the point that over-concentration on a single specialised topic is good for efficiency but bad for creativity. The real creatives, (people like the Nobel prize winners), are often those who had outside interests, who knew other disciplines, or had passions and hobbies outside their subject. Even in a field like sport, for every Tiger Woods, who had a feel for golf even before he could speak, there is a Roger Federer, who exercised his skills in many sports before, quite late in youth, choosing to focus on tennis.

Lehavdil, it was precisely Maimonides’ breadth of knowledge of science, medicine, psychology, astronomy, philosophy, logic, and many other fields that allowed him to be so creative in everything he wrote, from his letters, to his Commentary to the Mishnah, to the Mishnah Torah itself, structured differently from any other code of Jewish law, all the way to The Guide for the Perplexed. Maimonides said things that many may have sensed before, but no one had expressed so cogently and powerfully. He showed that it is possible to be utterly devoted to Jewish faith and law and yet be creative, showing people spiritual and intellectual depths they had not seen before. That was his way making a tzohar, a window for the tevah, the Divine word.

On the other hand, the Zohar conceives of Torah as a precious stone that gives light of itself and needs none from the outside. Its world is a closed system, a very deep, passionate, moving, sustained search for intimacy with the Divine that dwells within the universe and within the human soul.

So we are not forced to choose either the one or the other. Recall that Chizkuni said that Noah had a precious stone for the dark days and a window for when the sun shone again. Something like that happened when it came to Torah also. During the dark days of persecution, Jewish mysticism flourished, and Torah was illuminated from within. During the benign days when the world was more open to Jews, they had a window to the outside, and so emerged figures like Maimonides in the Middle Ages, and Samson Raphael Hirsch in the 19th century.

I believe that the challenge for our time is to open a series of windows so that the world can illuminate our understanding of Torah, and so that the Torah may guide us as we seek to make our way through the world.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Sacks (Continued from Page 1)

This Day in Jewish History - 2 Nov / 4 Cheshvan 4 Cheshvan 5302 (1541) - The Jewish community of Algiers is saved from capture by the navy of Karl V when the Spanish

fleet is destroyed by a storm. In celebration of their escape from the Spaniards, the Algerian Jews establish this date as “Purim Edom” (Red Purim), also known as Purim al-Naara.

November 2, 1883 - Jewish poet and author Emma Lazarus completes her sonnet, “The New Colossus,” famously known as the words that appear on the base of the Statue of Liberty. Lazarus, an activist for Jewish causes throughout her short 36 years, originally wrote the sonnet as a donation to an art auction raising funds to build the pedestal for the Statue. However, upon reading its inspirational message, the fundraisers determined the sonnet should have a permanent home on the actual base of the Statue.

November 2, 1917 - Arthur Balfour, British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, sends a letter to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, declaring the government's sympathy and support for the Zionist cause. Known as the Balfour Declaration, this document helped to supply the legal and international political foundation for the emerging Zionist movement. Almost thirty years to the day of the sending of this letter, the UN would vote to create a Jewish state in Palestine.

November 2, 1993 - The 28-year tenure of Teddy Kollek as mayor of Jerusalem comes to an end when Likud candidate Ehud Olmert defeats him in an election. The Hungarian-born Kollek was noted for his efforts to develop Jerusalem into a more modern city, especially after its reunification in 1967, and his work to promote religious tolerance and peace with the Arab community. He died in 2007 at the age of 95, and is buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

DAT MINYAN NEWS, EVENTS AND MILESTONES

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service.

Join us next Shabbat weekend, November 8 - 9, when we welcome Rabbi Barry Gelman, Rabbi of United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston, as our Scholar-in-Residence. Complete details on Page 6.

We seem to have acquired a large number of lost and found items, particularly children’s outerwear. There are also water bottles, books, sunglasses, a men’s suit coat (fortunately NO pants), and a kittel. If you have lost any items of this type, please check with the synagogue office. Unclaimed items will be donated.

Our Women’s Book Club returns Shabbat, December 14th, to discuss Ellyn Hutt’s new book, “Living in the Present Moment.”

Consider volunteering to lein on Shabbat! The sign-up website is www.datminyan.org/laining. Slots are open from now through Chanukah.

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS Mark your calendars for the KIDS MEGA CHALLAH BAKE, Sunday, November 3rd from 10-11:45 am. Event will take place

at the BMH-BJ social hall. RSVP at www.coloradokidschallah.com or email: coloradokidschallahbake@gmail.com or call 303-329-0213 for more information.

The Denver Academy of Torah presents and evening of inspiring music with world renowned musician Yosef Karduner, Sunday, November 3rd, 7:00 to 9:30 pm at BMH-BJ. For tickets, https://ticketbud.com/events/019b8878-f2de-11e9-a067-42010a717009 .

Build on your Hebrew reading and speaking skills with an exciting 8-class program through The Jewish Experience, beginning November 4th. Register online at www.theje.com/hebrew .

Action Israel presents a special program featuring Dr. Tawfik Hamid, Thursday, November 7th, 7:15 pm at BMH-BJ. Dr. Hamid will discuss his transition from an Islamic terrorist to Islamic scholar and reformer for a more peaceful Islam, in a lecture entitled “Inside Jihad, in Europe and America: How Racial Islam Works, Why It Should Terrify Us, How To Defeat It. Registration is required by 5:00 pm, Wed., 11/6, at bmh-bj.org/Insidejihad or 303-951-8237 .

A Women’s Melava Malka, hosted by EDOS, will take place Saturday evening, November 9th, 7:00 pm at the home of Shlomo and Raacheli Fried, featurning Mrs. Michal Horowitz discussing “Sara Imainu: The Paradigm of Womanhood and the Courage to Believe in Ourselves.

SAVE THE DATE - Denver Community 13th Daf Yomi Siyum Hashas on January 5th. The Denver Community will celebrate the global completion of the entire Talmud on Sunday, January 5th, 2020 at Aish Denver. Don't miss this unique gathering to honor the Torah and those who study it! For more information, contact Agudath Israel of Colorado at 720-589-1414 or office@agudathisrael-co.org.

We would like to thank our Legacy Society donors for investing in our future by naming the DAT Minyan with a gift in their will, trust, retirement account or life insurance policy. Our Legacy Society includes:

Rob Allen Graeme and Irit Bean

Myndie Brown

Steve and Ellyn Hutt Nathan and Rachel Rabinovitch

Mark and Sarah Raphaely Harley and Sara Rotbart

Michael Stutzer Steve and Lori Weiser

You can add your name to this list with a legacy gift to the DAT Minyan. To arrange for your gift or for more information about our Legacy Society program, please contact any of the following Committee Members: Rob Allen, Myndie Brown, Sarah Raphaely or Steve Weiser.

THANK YOU FOR INSPIRING FUTURE GENERATIONS WITH YOUR GENEROSITY

DAT Minyan acknowledges the following milestones* of our members this Shabbat and in the coming week: Graeme Bean, Haidi Demain, Mara Demain, Nili Fischer, Jonathan Fishman, Keren Gitler, Chaim Loewenthal, Julia Perlmutter, Doug Thorner, Michael Wechsler Don and Marla Jacobson - 33 years Philip and Marcie Munishor - 36 years

*These details were obtained from the DAT Minyan database, which contains information provided by the members when they joined. We apologize for any omissions or errors. For changes, please log on to your account and update the information as needed, or contact the

synagogue office at 720-941-0479.

Refuah Shelayma Please include the following names in your prayers. May each be granted a Refuah Shelayma. Names are kept on the list until the next Rosh Chodesh. Help us keep the list accurate by verifying the necessary details each month on the Cholim Document

at https://goo.gl/aeyJG2.

Bella bat Malka

Eliyahu Chaim ha Cohen ben Sara Rifka

Eliyahu Dovid ben Ita Sheiva

Guy Chaim ben Rita

Leibel ben Harriet

Levick Yitzchak ben Bracha

Leya bat Sara

Mascha bat Rus

Mayer Benya ben Nechama

Mendel Ila ben Frida Miriam

Michel ben Leah

Michoel Zisel ben Barbara

Miriam bat Sarah

Raphael Lior ben Miriam

Renah bat Shoshannah

Reuven Yehoshua ben Nachama

Roshka bat Bryna

Shmuel Aharon ben Jenny

Yonatan Zeev ben Netaa

Learning Opportunities @ the DAT Minyan

• Kitzur Shulchan Aruch: Daily, after Shacharit

• Daf Yomi Shiur (30 min): after Shacharit on Sun through

Fri , and 8:20 am on Shabbat

• Mishnayot: Daily, between Mincha and Maariv

• “Short & Sweet Talmud Class” (30 min-never longer):

Wed, 9:20 am, DAT Minyan offices at BMH-BJ (men only)

DAT MINYAN NEWS, EVENTS AND MILESTONES

Important Security Reminder

For the safety and security of everyone attending the DAT Minyan, we ask that all children either be

in attendance at one of our childrens’ programs or with a parent AT ALL TIMES when in the building.

Children may not be left unescorted to roam hallways or attend BMH-BJ Shabbat and High Holiday

programs and events unless accompanied by an adult. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Cleaning Up Our Act This November, the DAT Minyan will be one of over 50 Jewish organizations in Colorado participating in Clean Speech Colorado, a month-long campaign to unite our communities with the Jewish value of mindful speech. With easy-to-digest daily lessons, positivity-building events and broad communal participation, we will take a stand to spread shalom by cleaning up our conversations, one word at a time. Sign up to participate at CleanSpeechColorado.org.

YOUTH ANNOUNCEMENTS

“Morning Motivation” Program for teens

this Shabbat, November 2nd,

10:30 am in the Library

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during the service.

Youth Group Program Guidelines

1. All children must be escorted to their appropriate group/room. 2. All children must stay with their group at all times. 3. All children must be picked up by a parent or adult relative. Children will not be allowed to leave with siblings. 4. Children that are not dropped off at groups must be supervised by their parent at all times. 5. A parent or appointed guardian must be present in the building the entire time that his/her child(ren) is/are in groups. 6. Rip boards, skateboards, scooters and the like may not be used in or around the building during shul hours.

Toy Donations to the

Youth Program

We accept new and like new toys, books

and games. Please speak with Mor

Shapiro at youth@datminyan.org for

further information.

Minyan times on our website

have been updated to reflect the

change to Standard Time.

Your participation in our

minyanim, particularly our

afternoon minyanim with its

early start at this time of the

year, is greatly appreciated.