Another week! Shabbat approaches fast. Here's your weekly reminder of what we're doing here on the Gold Coast to celebrate this week:
- Friday evening at the Southport Community Centre, Room F5, at 6.30PM. Service to welcome Shabbat, followed by an Oneg featuring your culinary offerings. $15 per person requested donation and bring a dish to share.
- Saturday at the Levy home. 11.00AM Service followed by lunch provided. Then, after lunch a bit of Pirkei Avot. $15 per person requested donation.
Remember that we now have EFTPOS facility for accepting debit and credit cards when you attend, if you prefer to donate/pay that way. But the 'old' methods still work: cash, cheque (to 'Jewish Journeys'), or bank transfer.
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Thank you to those who brought in your 'treasures' which are gathering dust, for us to sell at Jewish Journeys' fund-raising garage sale on Sunday, 28 June at Paul's home: 142 Morala Avenue in Runaway Bay. Does anybody else have any stuff just taking up space? Of course you do...Clara and I have only been here three years, and even WE do! So...donate your surplus items to Jewish Journeys, and we'll raise a bit of cash for the treasury. If you're coming Friday evening or Saturday morning, you can bring small items then. If you're unable to come on Shabbat but have items, please contact me as to when to drop them off. If you have items that you'e unable to bring to us yourself, contact me and we'll arrange for us to pick them up.
Help out with your precious, surplus goods, but also plan to come and help - and have a good time doing so! - on the day. We'll be selling food and drink, and talking to people about Judaism and Jewish Journeys. Paul tells me that his street sees a lot of traffic on Sundays, so this will raise our profile. In the coming weeks, we'll circulate signup sheets to enable you to volunteer to cover cooking and greeting during specific times, but for now just mark your calendars for Sunday 28 June and stand by for additional information.
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We're now in a series of weekly thoughts in the area of Shemirat Lashon, literally 'Guarding the Tongue' but referring to the vast body of Jewish law concerning forbidden communications via speech or writing of any kind.
I believe with all my heart that this is THE problem in the Jewish community today; its pervasiveness makes a mockery of all our claims of the mantle of Torah. The essence of the laws is that we are forbidden to convey any adverse information about someone else except in very limited, rare circumstances.
I'm bringing to you the teachings of the Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan (1839-1933), who published extensively on the subject and indeed is considered the all-time master teacher on what the Torah has to say about it.
Rabbi Kagan teaches: it is forbidden to relate that someone has been remiss in matters of Jewish observance - whether a precept of the Written torah, a Rabbinic decree, or even something that is just minhag (custom). If you think about it, there are two obvious reasons for this.
- First, since lashon hara is forbidden, is it not tantamount to a travesty to violate the Torah's law (ie, Shemirat Lashon) in order to report to someone the breaking of another law (whatever the person in question may have violated)?
- Second, nobody likes people who are 'holier than thou'; everybody I know has at one time or another had a bad taste in their mouth after encountering such a person. Any 'benefit' that might have resulted from bringing a violation of the Torah to someone's attention, is negated by the use of the Torah to make oneself seem holier than someone else.
Therefore, even though superficially it might make sense to let members of the community know than a member has violated its standards, if one is truly thoughtful one can see that there's no benefit whatsoever to be gained. Don't do it!
I hope that everybody is having a great week and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Shabbat!
Rabbi Don
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