Building Solid Foundations for the Future Shabbat Parashat Noach Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
October 5, 2013 – 1 Cheshvan 5774
Building Solid Foundations for the Future
I hope you will join us as we celebrate the bar mitzvah of Sam Kluger this Shabbat! Mazal Tov to Sam and to his entire family!
Our weekly Torah portion includes the well-known story of Noach and the ark. Thanks to Noach’s strength of character and dedication, human beings and animals survived the flood. Now, we get to read the story and to strengthen our own appreciation of the sanctity and preciousness of life on this earth, and of holy connections.
After the flood, the Bible tells us that the people of Shinar decided to build a tower, known as the “Tower of Babel.” Our sages explain that the building of this tower occupied the minds and hearts of the people so completely that it caused them to be unattentive and uncaring in regard to the needs of one another. The people of Shinar forgot that the foundations of any lasting edifice must be justice and mercy.
Judaism has lasted throughout the centuries because the values of justice and of mercy, as expressed in our God-given Torah, have been the solid foundations of our lives and of our tradition.
Each time we celebrate the bar or bat mitzvah of a Jewish person, we remind ourselves that we are building our future upon a solid foundation of values which will guide us for the rest of our lives.
May we be blessed to celebrate Sam Kluger’s bar mitzvah, and many more simchas, together, and may we dedicate and re-dedicate our lives to projects and to causes that elevate the values of justice and of mercy in our world.
Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov [a good month]!
Rabbi Gilah Dror
Copyright © 2024 Rodef Sholom Temple. All rights reserved. Website designed by Addicott Web.
