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Shul Opening Update
Daily and Shabbat services are now held in the main sanctuary. This necessitates extra vigilance to ensure a low-risk COVID-19 environment. Therefore, it is imperative that anyone wishing to attend services inform the rabbi in advance. In addition, anyone who has been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or has a cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, muscle pain, sore throat or new loss of taste or smell must stay home.
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The Rabbi's Blog: Living Jewish in San Francisco
Unfortunately, it seems this year’s Jewish month of Mar-Cheshvan has proven to be particularly “Mar” – bitter. Not only did the Jewish world lose two exceptional rabbis, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, but the non-Jewish world also lost a great man - Alex Trebek. Mr. Trebek was a unique individual, who demonstrated what it means to be a mensch to tens of millions of people for almost forty years. What am I talking about – you might ask? Read more. Photo courtesy of jurvetson
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Shabbat Toldot
Friday, November 20- Saturday, November 21
Z'manim:
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Friday, November 20
7:45am Shacharit
4:37pm Candlelighting
4:40pm Mincha/Ma'ariv
Shabbat, November 21
Toldot
Shema must be concluded by 9:26am
9:15am Shacharit
4:30pm Mincha/Ma'ariv
5:37pm Havdalah
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Sunday, November 22
8:00am Shacharit
4:40pm Mincha/Ma'ariv
Monday-Wednesday
November 23-25
7:45am Shacharit
7:00pm Ma'ariv
Thursday, November 26
8:00am Shacharit
4:35pm Mincha/Ma'ariv
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Meeting ID: 859 1987 7123
Password: 333274
Call-In Number: (669) 900-6833
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Meeting ID: 871 1028 7339
Password: 046597
Call-In Number: (669) 900-6833
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Meeting ID: 867 5437 5483
Password: 931188
Call-In Number: (669) 900-6833
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Meeting ID: 870 7344 7128
Password: 831234
Call-In Number: (669) 900-6833
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Meeting ID: 854 7019 6516
Password: 716117
Call-In Number: (669) 900-6833
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Meeting ID: 859 1987 7123
Password: 333274
Call-In Number: (669) 900-6833
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San Francisco Humanities, Inc. for Youth Programming – special thanks to Emil Knopf for his assistance in the obtaining this grant
Marty & Goldie Sosnick for the Yahrzeits of Myron and Robert Sosnick
Lev & Irina Dratva for the Yahrzeit of Vladimir Dratva
Fred & Rosa Suessmann for the Yahrzeit of Sam Akerstein
Bernard Backer for the General Fund
Masha Shifs for the Yahrzeit of her beloved mother, Judy Waserman
Yakov & Regina Kogen for the Yahrzeit of Yakov’s beloved mother, Tauba
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Adam & Carrie Dove in memory of Adam’s beloved grandmother, Anna Pomeanc
Sally Weiss for the Yahrzeit of her beloved mother, Judy Waserman
Virtual Kiddush
Thank you to Esther & Bob Berger for sponsoring a virtual Kiddush in memory of their beloved daughter, Brenna Ilana, and in memory of Esther’s beloved father, Mordko Szames
Weekly Minyan Sponsor
Thank you to Patty Ozeri for sponsoring the weekly minyan in memory of the Yahrzeit of her beloved mother, Mania
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Giving Tuesday Matching Campaign
Tuesday, December 1st is #GivingTuesday. This day of global generosity was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Over the past seven years, it has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give and celebrate generosity. Adath Israel has been blessed with an anonymous donor who will match dollar for dollar every donation made to the shul. As you know, due to circumstances beyond our control (i.e. COVID), the shul’s ability to raise funds has been significantly reduced. Therefore, anything you can contribute will be greatly appreciated. Look out for details on how to donate.
Thank you to Michael & Maureen Samson for being the first participants in our GivingTuesday matching funds fundraiser.
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Parasha in a Nutshell
Isaac and Rebecca endure twenty childless years, until their prayers are answered and Rebecca conceives. She experiences a difficult pregnancy as the “children struggle inside her”; G-d tells her that “there are two nations in your womb,” and that the younger will prevail over the elder.
Esau emerges first; Jacob is born clutching Esau’s heel. Esau grows up to be “a cunning hunter, a man of the field”; Jacob is “a wholesome man,” a dweller in the tents of learning. Isaac favors Esau; Rebecca loves Jacob. Returning exhausted and hungry from the hunt one day, Esau sells his birthright (his rights as the firstborn) to Jacob for a pot of red lentil stew.
In Gerar, in the land of the Philistines, Isaac presents Rebecca as his sister, out of fear that he will be killed by someone coveting her beauty. He farms the land, reopens the wells dug by his father Abraham, and digs a series of his own wells: over the first two there is strife with the Philistines, but the waters of the third well are enjoyed in tranquility.
Esau marries two Hittite women. Isaac grows old and blind, and expresses his desire to bless Esau before he dies. While Esau goes off to hunt for his father’s favorite food, Rebecca dresses Jacob in Esau’s clothes, covers his arms and neck with goatskins to simulate the feel of his hairier brother, prepares a similar dish, and sends Jacob to his father. Jacob receives his father’s blessings for “the dew of the heaven and the fat of the land” and mastery over his brother. When Esau returns and the deception is revealed, all Isaac can do for his weeping son is to predict that he will live by his sword, and that when Jacob falters, the younger brother will forfeit his supremacy over the elder.
Jacob leaves home for Charan to flee Esau’s wrath and to find a wife in the family of his mother’s brother, Laban. Esau marries a third wife—Machalath, the daughter of Ishmael. (Chabad.org).
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Parasha Thought
By Rav Mordechai Kamenestky
Two different brothers. Two different attitudes. Two different worlds. This week we learn about Yaakov and Esav, two brothers whose demeanors and attitudes toward life were as different as their physical make-up. Esav was hairy, Yaakov was smooth. And while Yaakov sat in the tent and studied Esav hunted. As different as they were, there was one similarity. Both brothers had name changes. The circumstances that led to the name changes were quite different for each brother. In two weeks, we will read that Yaakov had a fierce battle with no less a being then an angel. He was badly injured but he endured. And the angel changed his name. “No longer shall your name be Yaakov," declared the angel, “it shall be Yisrael," a word that interprets, “you fought with man and angels and you won” (Genesis 32:29).
This week we read about Esav’s name change. He enters his home (after Avraham’s funeral) exhausted. He sees his younger brother preparing a red lentil soup and shouts to him. “Give me some of that very red stuff!” And then the Torah testifies, “therefore his name was called, ‘Edom Red,’" (Genesis 25:30). Red is the name given to the blood-hungry wild man we know as Edom.
It is quite disconcerting. Each brother had a name change. But Yaakov had to have his hip dislocated, he had to battle an angel. All Esav had to do was slurp some soup, and he acquired a demeaning name for eternity. Is that fair?
In the years during the Revolutionary War, the fledgling colonial court system was in chaos. A judge in Bedford County, Virginia, took charge of law and order in his town by presiding over an unofficial court. According to all records, he was not only fair and reasonable meting fines and occasional whippings, he was merciful too. He did, however, deal one death sentence which, upon review in 1782 by the state government, was considered justified because of the looming danger during the war.
But that one death sentence earned the judge a place of notoriety. The otherwise merciful judge would never have known that the word that defines the vicious and despotic act of mob execution would be named for him. Judge Charles Lynch may have thought twice if he knew that 5,000 people, spanning the 1800s through the modern era, were executed in a manner that was named for his one deed the lynch mob.
The Chofetz Chaim used to contrast acts of distinction and those of notoriety. In order for Yaakov’s name to be changed to Yisrael, He had to struggle with Esav. He had to outsmart the cunning Lavan. And ultimately, he had to battle and defeat an angel. To earn a notorious name, however, all one must do is one reckless action. It’s a lesson for life. Back in the 1980s, Raymond Donovan, Labor Secretary in the Reagan Administration was exonerated on charges of connections to organized crime. After months of hearings, hours of testimony in various rooms in the Congressional Houses, he was vindicated. Before leaving the committee hearings, he sarcastically asked the panel, “Which room do I go to get my good reputation back?”
The Torah tells us that with one slurp of the soup Esav got a new name. It was not his hunting. It was not his wildness. It was not even the flaming color of his hair. It was his wild table manners and his animalistic quest for the red soup, in which he was willing to give up his birthright. It was that big gulp that earned him his reputation. And Esav went … from soup to nuts.
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