{"id":3088,"date":"2019-06-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/?p=3088"},"modified":"2020-01-17T10:20:20","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T15:20:20","slug":"shlach-lecha-5779","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/shlach-lecha-5779\/","title":{"rendered":"Shlach Lecha 5779"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Gemara in Megilla 23a teaches the scriptural basis for\nthe definition of a minyan. There is a <em>gzera shavah<\/em>, deriving a concept\nfrom the appearance of the same word in two different verses: <em>And I shall be\nsanctified AMONG the children of Israel (Vayikra 22:32). <\/em>Later, in the\nKorach story, we see the verse: <em>Separate yourselves from AMONG this evil\nCONGREGATION (Bamidbar 16:21).<\/em> The repetition of the word \u201camong (Hebrew:\n\u2018toch\u2019)\u201d is a signal that God\u2019s name is \u201csanctified\u201d (with repetition of the\nAmidah, kedushah, kaddish, Barchu, Torah reading with blessings, etc) in a\n\u201ccongregation.\u201d The word \u201ccongregation (Hebrew: \u2019edah\u2019)\u201d appears again in this\nweek\u2019s parashah: <em>How long will I have to bear this evil CONGREGATION that\nkeeps complaining to me\u2026.(Bamidbar 14:27)\u201d <\/em>We know that a \u201ccongregation\u201d is\nten, because there were ten spies that came back from the land with a pessimistic\nreport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is significant that a minyan is defined by Biblical\nexamples of ten people who God punished for their lack of faith. In the case of\nthe spies, the majority of them came back fearful and unwilling to believe that\nGod would help them conquer the Canaanites, and the result was that they\nequivocated, then led people to their deaths in an unwinnable battle. In\nKorach\u2019s case, his followers were convinced not to trust Moshe, and they were\nable to be swayed by a self-serving demagogue because of their fear and anger\nin the wake of the incident of the spies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a clear reminder to the Jewish people against\narrogance and Jewish supremacism. We are not superior to others. The ten\nrequired to say kaddish are not based on paragons of spirituality, but based on\npeople who were fear-driven, as in the case of the spies, and easily swayed, as\nin the case of Korach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is also a reminder of what public prayer is supposed\nto accomplish. Prayer is the act of addressing the Ultimate, rather than hiding\nfrom our higher calling and purpose. It is a deeply personal activity, baring\noneself before the foundation of existence. Additionally, prayer as halachic\nobligation is fulfilling, rather than hiding from, responsibility. Public\nprayer, or <em>tefilah betzibur<\/em>, sanctifies God\u2019s name because \u201dgroupthink\u201d\nor \u201cmob-psychology\u201d does not naturally inspire our highest impulses, and so we\ndo something revolutionary: we do that which is most personal, most\ntranscendent, in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May our community always be one in which we can come\ntogether and reach higher. Let our shul always be a place that lives up to its\nname, \u201cThe Gates of Prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shabbat Shalom!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Gemara in Megilla 23a teaches the scriptural basis for the definition of a minyan. There is a gzera shavah, deriving a concept from the appearance of the same word in two different verses: And I shall be sanctified AMONG the children of Israel (Vayikra 22:32). Later, in the Korach story, we see the verse: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,43],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-3088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rabbi_blog","category-weekly-drasha","tag-44"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3089,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088\/revisions\/3089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}