Weekly Newslinks

Please note that Rabbi Davies will be away from Monday, October 27th, through Sunday, November 2nd. Rabbi Davies will be somewhat limited in his communication due to travel and the time difference, but he will be checking WhatsApp and Email periodically throughout his trip.

Announcements & Upcoming Events

Schedule for the Weekend

I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share with you an excerpt from an article  by Rabbi Stephen Baars entitled "This is Boring!" that shares a novel perspective on Noach and the flood with a central lesson on how we approach meaning in life.

[...] "Man is exceedingly gifted at taking any aspect of life and turning it into a habit." (Rav Noah Weinberg) It is equally evident that there are no aspects of meaninglessness to which human beings won't apply great thought. Marriage, children, friends and family are engaged with numbing routine. Yet we read books, discuss ad-infinitum, think and rethink our work, our exercise, our diet, our clothes and even our dishes. Do you think these two phenomena are related? In other words, to the degree we obsess with making the meaningless meaningful, we in turn, make the meaningful meaningless. [...]

Noah's Ark was gigantic - about the size of a football field. The great flood was coming and God told Noah to build it to save himself and the future. The project took Noah 120 years of hard work. People came from far and wide to ask Noah what it all meant. Noah told them of the coming destruction. Nobody listened and many in fact ridiculed him. Noah was subject to tremendous alienation and social pressure. The Midrash says that people even wanted to kill him for building the Ark. However, when the waters finally came, a curious thing happened, Noah hesitated to enter the Ark. He wasn't ready to be saved through the very means he'd labored so hard to build. It was not until the waters came in great torrents that Noah finally entered the Ark. (Rashi - Genesis 7:7)

What happened? Anything, and more importantly, everything, when done repeatedly, can become boring. The more familiar, the less thought. At one time, driving was exciting. At one time eating was fun. There is an endless supply of examples. Look at your own life and see how many things you do that at one time you thought were thrilling. It means that the things you think would be thrilling are just as boring if done repeatedly.

"In of itself, nothing is meaningful except change, and changes are only meaningful when things stay the same." There are two types of changes, the ones that happen on the outside. Those occur when we move, do something different, drive a new car, etc. Those kind of changes don't make any difference: "The more things change the more they stay the same." (Alphonse Karr) Listen carefully to what Mr. Karr is telling us: The more things stay the same, the more they change. When we don't distract ourselves, then we think about what is really important. Anything meaningful needs repeating, and in the repetition, it will become more meaningful. The less we change on the outside the better we become on the inside.

Unless of course, we don't want to. There is a simple word for when we don't want to deal with a life filled with meaningful acts: boredom. You can be bored teaching the illiterate, feeding the poor, learning about life, even saving the world. That is, if you let it become a habit. Habit is not limited to saving the world. Marriage can never be boring if you face the inner challenges you would rather avoid. Anything and everything can be a habit, with disastrous effects. [...]

Hoping and praying for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org

We are excited to be partnering with Mizrachi World Movement to provide their publication of HaMizrachi Parasha Weekly.

Volunteers Wanted!

 Volunteers wanted to help with Kiddush - preparation, set up, and clean up! Please contact Yaakov Linder to get involved.
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Looking for someone to help with an organizing project in the shul. Please reach out to Chani Wiesman if this is your area of expertise and you may be willing to help out!
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Volunteers are needed to help with a Kitchen project. Please contact Debbie Fineberg with questions or to get involved. 

Thank you to the volunteers who helped with last week's Kiddush. 

Thank you to the volunteers who helped with last week's Seudah Shlishit.

Thank you to Aharon Yeres, Avi Rynderman, Baila Silverman, Andy Rauer, Shlomo Aronoff, Debbie Fineberg, Stuart Reiter and JFED Security Officer Bill DiCola for providing security on Shabbos.

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