Service/brunch at Nafshenu tomorrow morning

PRAYING FOR PEACE & SAFETY 

9:30am prayers, 11:30am brunch at Prince of Peace

from Rabbi David Goodman

The Mideast conflict came home to Pearl and me yesterday when we learned that Pearl's nephew and a friend had their Israel-bound flight turn around mid-Atlantic and return to JFK Airport. The stranded young Israelis are sleeping it off in our guest rooms.

I planned this Shabbat morning service and brunch to honor my late father, Bernard Goodman, on his 102nd birthday. I hope you can join us tomorrow for a short-ish service followed by the kind of nosh he loved: lox, smoked fish, bagels, salads, juice and coffee.

Israel's attack on Iran's nuclear weapons, and the counterattacks that followed, weigh on the hearts of Jews everywhere. We can offer prayers for peace and safety, as well as comforting one another, this Shabbat.

We'll have a chance to shout out to our living fathers and to say a memorial Kaddish for those we have lost.

No need to bring food: just yourself.

########### 

Our Torah portion this week, B'ha-a-lot'kha, tells how the "father of Israelite freedom," Moses, was repeatedly exasperated by his often-whiny people. Here's a link to some texts we looked at Thursday night in Bible study:

bit.ly/12June

###########

 Why a fish tail? 

My dad grew up in South Philly, one of four kids of an immigrant shopkeeper and his disabled wife. When the family got a smoked  whitefish, each member had their particular part of the fish, Dad's was the tail. And, boy, was he good at picking the bones clean! 

I hope that my brothers and I didn't give Dad the kind of aggravation that the Israelites gave Moses. Parashat B'ha'a-lot'kha (Numbers 8:1-12:16), tells of the Israelites' complaints about having to live on manna. "Why can't we have meat like we did in Egypt?" they gripe. 

Moses has had enough of their complaining. "Please, God, kill me now, so I don't have to put up with them anymore," Moses says. Instead, God gives the Israelites so much meat that it makes them sick.

We'll read from this passage on Saturday morning before we get down to some serious eating.