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A View of the Parashah: Ki Tissa
Moses is commanded to take a census of the Israelites with each person paying half a shekel as an offering to God. The money is to be used for the service of the Tent of Meeting. God also tells Moses to make a copper washbowl and stand for the priests to use when they enter the Tent of Meeting, and to make a special oil for anointing the Tent, the Ark, Aaron and his sons.
Moses is told on Mount Sinai to remind the Israelites to keep the Sabbath forever as a sign of the covenant between God and the people. When God finishes speaking to Moses, he gives him the two tablets on which are inscribed the laws.
The people waiting below are impatient and ask Aaron to make them a god to lead them. Aaron takes the gold jewelry of the people and casts a Golden Calf. The next day the people offer sacrifices to the calf as they dance before it.
On the mountain, God tells Moses that the Israelites have turned away from the laws and that God will destroy them and make the descendants of Moses a great nation. Moses pleads with God to remember the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to spare the people. God agrees.
Moses descends from the mountain and, in his anger at seeing the gold idol, smashes the tables of the law. After the people have been punished and have repented, Moses must again plead with God not to forsake the covenant. God tells Moses to carve two new tablets of stone for God to inscribe again with the words of the law.
Moses ascends Mount Sinai with the tablets and God appears to him in a cloud and renews the covenant with the Israelites. Moses remains on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. When Moses descends from Mount Sinai the second time, his face is radiant. The Israelites are frightened by this. As a result, Moses wears a veil except when he is speaking to God or speaking God’s words to the Israelites.
(From Teaching Torah by Sorel Loeb and Barbara Kadden)
Celebrate the Joy of Shabbat at our Simchat Shabbat Service - Join us for a musical celebration of Shabbat as we experience a beautiful and inspiring Kabbalat Shabbat service, with instrumental accompaniment.
This service is offered on the 2nd Friday of the month, October through June.
Click here to listen to the musical selections from the Simchat Shabbat Service.
The Family Youth Shabbat service is offered every Shabbat morning beginning at 10:30 a.m.
The service is designed for children and their parents to share Shabbat with other families in a warm, relaxed atmosphere. The children sing songs and prayers, march in their own "torah procession," hear a Torah or Shabbat story, and celebrate birthdays in a service that follows the structure of the traditional Shabbat morning service.
The Family Youth Shabbat service then concludes with a Kiddush for the families, before joining the congregation in the main sanctuary for the conclusion of the service and the congregational Kiddush.
BJE Marshall Learning Center, Dundee Road in Northbrook, will be available every Wednesday evening until 9:00 pm for families wishing to check out the resources there and plan for interactive activities for the weeks they are leading.
If you are interested in participating as a leader for the Family Youth Service, please call the Synagogue office, 847/945-0470. Click here for flyer Family Youth Shabbat flyer
Would you like to read Torah at a Shabbat or Festival morning service? If so, please contact Anita Lurie at the Synagogue office, 847/945-0470 or e-mail, alurie@bnaitikvah.net.
