Parshat Ki Tisa Schedule

Shabbat Schedule

Friday, March 9

  • 06:50 am – Shacharit
  • 05:25 pm – Mincha
  • 05:26 pm – Candle lighting

Saturday, March 10

  • 07:45 am – Shacharit at Salem Towers
  • 08:45 am – Shacharit
  • 08:59 am – Latest time for Kriat Shema
  • 10:30 am – Jr. Congregation
  • 11:00 am – Kiddush
  • 11:30 am – Sermon by Rabbi Krems, followed by Question & Answer Session on Kashrut
  • 04:00 pm – Men’s class
  • 05:00 pm – Mincha and Se’udah Shlishit
  • 06:25 pm – Ma’ariv
  • 06:35 pm – Shabbat Ends

Remember to turn your clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Savings Time before going to bed on Saturday night.

Weekday Schedule

March 11 – 16

Shacharit

  • 08:00 am – Sunday
  • 06:40 am – Monday and Thursday
  • 06:50 am – Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday

Mincha

  • 06:30 pm – Sunday – Friday

Ma’ariv

  • 07:00 pm – Sunday – Thursday

To print this schedule, click here to go directly to the post, and then press ctrl-P (Windows) or cmd-P (Mac) to print it.

Weekly Words of Torah

Holy Work

Insights into Parshat Ki Tisa by Mr. Alex Finkelstein of Yeshivat Sha’alvim, by Rav Re’uven Ungar of Sha’alvim.

There are many important events in this weeks Parsha including Moshe receiving the Luchot, the sin of the egel, and the counting of Bnei Yisrael. The Parsha starts off with Hashem saying to Moshe “When you lift up the head of Bnei Yisrael according to their numbers. Each man shall give to Hashem an atonement for his soul when they are counted, and there shall be a plague when they are counted. This shall they give- each person who passes by the counters- half a Shekel. The rich shall give no more and the poor shall give no less than half a Shekel as a donation to Hashem to atone for your souls.” The counting of Bnei Yisrael was an opportunity for Moshe to “lift up the head of Bnei Yisrael”, to raise them to a higher spiritual level. How did this counting help them? Why did the Pasuk use the singular- head- as opposed to heads, the plural? The Pasuk says “head” to explain that each Jew has their own unique purpose. The Toldot Adam expands on this idea. He writes that each Jew must make himself into a dwelling place for the Shechinah by improving the specific character trait that he was sent to this world to correct. Meaning we each have unique traits, but also flaws that we need to fix in order to have that special and personal relationship with Hashem.

There is a Mishnah that says “kol Yisrael yesh lchem chelek l’olam haba. All of us have a portion in the world to come. The Mishnah uses the terminology of a portion TO the world to come rather than that we have a portion IN the world to come to place emphasis on the idea that we each have our own role in this world and are here for a certain unique purpose.

We see that after the sin, Moshe receives the second Luchot. There is a glaring difference between the first time Hashem gives Moshe the Luchot and the second time (in this weeks Parsha). The first time around, Hashem gave us the Luchot with the Torah written down on them. The second time, Hashem gave us the Luchot empty and Moshe had to write them down. What’s the root of the difference of why Hashem gave us the Luchot in two completely different ways? Rav Dessler in his Michtav Eliyahu, chelek bet asks a question that perhaps we can learn from to answer our question. Rav Dessler mentions two aspects of how we accepted the Torah. Was it that the concept of Torah existed before the world and therefore we needed to become perfect and only then did Hashem give us the Torah as a Matanah? However, we find the opposite, as Chazal quote Hashem saying “I created the Yetzer hara and in response I created the Torah to fix it”. We see that the Torah is not beyond this world but for it so we need to first perfect ourselves. These two ways of looking at the concept of the Torah and when it makes sense to receive it, precisely explains the difference of the two times that Hashem gave us the Luchot. In the first time, we initially needed to work on ourselves and become perfect to then receive the Luchot. But in this weeks Parsha we see that first we sinned and then we needed to receive the Luchot in order to perfect ourselves.

We derive from this an important lesson. Bnei Yisrael needed to work hard to receive the Torah and eventually come close to Hashem. Nothing came easy. All too often do we sit back and just hope that good things will come our way instead of working hard and going after what we really want. In order to get anything in life, one has to go after it and work hard. We should all be zocheh to have this attitude of working hard so we can come close to Hashem.