Handle With Care—It’s Precious and It’s Personal
Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
In Rabbi Yoshi’s first official sermon back from sabbatical, he teaches on Shavuot, the giving of Torah at Mt. Sinai, and what it means to see Torah as a gift. One of the traditional texts read on Shavuot, the Book of Ruth, tells of a Moabite woman who became Jewish by choice. In the opening verse, the story is set in the “days when the judges judged.” Why the redundancy? A cousin of Rabbi Yoshi’s, a rabbi who was murdered by the Nazis, taught that the reasoning behind that phrase was to show the good judgement of a relatively minor character: Elimelech. Though he dies by verse 5, his discernment of a famine in the Land of Israel as a precursor to the coming of the Messiah sets the events of the story in motion, and ultimately results in the birth of King David.
May 26, 2023 | 6 Sivan, 5783
Watch video of Rabbis Yoshi Zweiback’s sermon and all Shabbat sermons HERE.