Fri night open dinner - Dec. 25

Hope you're surviving & flourishing in this week's snowy weather.
Forecast for Friday -
Shabbat open dinner with a chance of davenning.
---

Folks who responded 'Yes' to the "Informal Poll" will be coming to a sit-down Shabbat dinner this week. Also among the guests will be friend and former resident of DC who is visiting from Jerusalem, Eric G.

If you would like to join in, just email info@ZooMinyan.org to make arrangements. It's not too late!

Shabbat Shalom

Poll re: Fri. night (end of Xmas 12/25)

An informal poll --
Will you be around next shabbos?

It's the week after TLS with instruments, so we'd usually have Friday night davenning. Will you be in town, and looking for some warm community and shabbat celebration? Or will everyone be either out of town or too tired from volunteering at the various service days? An instant Shabbat evening is there for the asking, so just say the word.

Write back to info@ZooMinyan.org and let us know.
Thurs. = Christmas Eve
Fri. = Christmas day
Fri. night = Shabbat -with Zoo?

For now, good shabbos, chodesh tov, and hag orim same'ach!
And keep warm!!


-------------
**Volunteers for hosting: Consider Fri nights & Saturdays, soon or in the future. A fabulous way to shorten your walk - Zoo Minyan comes to you
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Shabbat Chanukah at the Zoo -- we've got it all

We've got hot latkes; we've got a great parsha.  We've got rowdy Chanukah stories, and a rousing p'sukei.  We've got a forecast for sunny weather, and a harmonious Hallel.  Come join us for a Shabbat Chanukah celebration!! (NOTE: Hot latkes and other holiday treats will be served *before* the Torah reading, so no worries for our blood-sugar-sensitive friends)

Thanks to our leyning volunteers (still one or two left, check out the spreadsheet).

Last-minute davenning leaders or davenning treats are encouraged.  And we need some storytellers (Story-readers)!  Over the centuries, our tradition has accumulated a dazzling array of stories about the origins of Chanukah, which are rarely told today.  We'll share a few together -- if you want to give one of them over, just write back for your own sneak preview, so you can read your story in advance, before reading for the group.

Torah schlepping and Zoo Minyan veggies would also be appreciated.  And if you think you're coming this shabbos, let us know, so we can be sure we've got a minyan -- and that we've got plenty of latkes!

The Details:

Zoo Minyan

This Saturday, Shabbat Chanukah, 12 December 

10am sharp, with a rousing Psukei d'Zimrah, and much more... 

Pot-luck dairy/veggie lunch -- main courses especially appreciated

At the home of Deborah Hittleman Flank and Shalom Flank in Woodley Park -- please email if you need directions, or check your latest Zoo Mail. 

Zoo Minyan - Sat. Dec. 12

In the midst of all the familiar and wonderful stories of Breishit, we also get to tell the story of Chanukah -- at the next Zoo Minyan, the first day of Chanuakh, December 12th.

Or rather, stories of Chanukah. There's the pig on the altar, the daughter dancing naked, the woman emerging from the tent with someone else's head -- oh, and that little vial of oil, which seems pretty tame in comparison.

Why so many stories, why so wild, and why don't we tell them very much anymore? We'll get a chance to tell a few, dissect them a little (better than dissecting a pig!), and hopefully add some of our own. Come join us for davenning, torah reading, lunch, and learning, shabbat-after-next.

---

Hey, have you checked out the recently posted drashes on this website? Enjoy!

-----

We'll be gathering for davenning, lunch, shmoozing, singing, etc., next Saturday in
<{TBD - still seeking host - want to volunteer???}>
(within walking distance of the Zoo, as is Zoo Minyan custom) at <{TBD - your name here? }> ;)

If you'd like to Leyn there are several short aliyot this time...use the self-service (sometimes quirky) leyning spreadsheet to sign up, or email leyning@ZooMinyan.org.

Volunteers sought for Zoo Minyan veggies, davenning treats (i.e. Kavanot or creative tidbits, not actual food ;) also Torah Transporter, and davening leaders – write back to info@ZooMinyan.org.


The Details:

Zoo Minyan
Next Saturday, Vayeshev, 12 Dec.
10am sharp, with a rockin' (Rock of Ages, get it?) Psukei d'Zimrah
Pot-luck dairy/veggie lunch -- main courses especially appreciated

At the home of <{check back}>. For directions, check next week's Zoo mail, or email info@ZooMinyan.org

Chanukah, hu chag tov!

When God is asleep, do we rejoice or accuse?

The midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 68:12) opens up a startling interpretation of a well-known verse from last week's parsha

With thanks to Rabbi Jonah Steinberg, based on a class at last summer's Havurah Institute

Jacob awoke from his sleep, and he said, 'Surely there is God in this place, and I did not know!' (Br 28:16)

[We know of a teaching arising from the diverging interpretations of] Rav Hiya and Rabbi Yanai. One [of them, it has not been passed down which one] said, “Going up and going down [on it”, this refers to going up and going down] on the ladder. And one [of them] said, “Going up and going down [on it”, this refers to going up and going down] on Yaakov[?!]. From where can one say, Going up and going down on the ladder? It's obvious! But from where can one say, Going up and going down on Yaakov?

[This is explained by expanding the text thus:] “Going up and going down on it” -- Afazim bo, kafazim bo, shuntim bo [which doesn't fully explain anything, since these verbs are a bit obscure. So therefore a proof text is brought:] As it says [in Yishayahu 49:3], “Yisrael, in whom I am glorified” [which doesn't seem to explain anything at all! So therefore, we bring the following parable to tie everything together:]

[The angels who are ascending and descending exclaim:] “This [Yaakov] is the one whose image [“icon”] is engraved above [on the throne of glory, as is often taught elsewhere]. We ascend to the Above, and see his image; we descend to the Below, and find him sleeping!” This can be compared to a king, that is sitting [on the throne] and dispensing judgement. Those who go up to the Basilica [a Greek term for “tribunal of a king”, before it meant a particular kind of church], they find him dispensing judgement. Those who go out to the Parvod [a disputed term, but probably akin to “hunting lodge” outside of town], they find him sleeping.

And what do those obscure verbs mean? According to Rashi, the angels ‘going up and down’ on Jacob means that they were poking him, prodding him, goading him – jumping up and down on him, in an angelic version of Hop on Patriarch, in Jonah Steinberg's phrase. Why did they do this?

They come upon a creature made in the image of God; they go up to heaven to check the likeness; they think of the verse, Israel, in whom I [God] shall glorify myself (Isaiah 49:3); they come back down and they wonder: How can this creature be all that if it is asleep? Wake up, and be what you should be!

Yaa'kov, like us, lives in a world in which God seems to be asleep, or distant – because we, creatures who should manifest God’s being in this world, and should take part in the work of divinity, are instead inert – in effect, unconscious.

“God in this place, and I did not know!” -- meaning, I am in this place, humanity is here, and we are b'tzelem elokim, but did not know.

One final question posed by the commentators on this Midrash: when one makes such a discovery, that the divine absence is actually a presence, should one accuse or rejoice? Rashi interprets the odd verbs in the midrash as indeed poking and prodding, out of annoyance at the laziness of the sleeping version of Ya'akov. But the Matnot Kehuna (R. Issachar Katz-Berman HaKohen, 16^th century Poland), already knowing Rashi's interpretation, teaches instead that the angels are singing and dancing (on top of Ya'akov!).

Renewed realization of the potential of the divine in the world may not be sufficient – it can lead to frustration, a heightened awareness of missed opportunity. To bring joy into the world, awareness of the divine focuses instead on the reassurance of knowing that every element of that world is suffused with sacred potential. Like Ya'akov, may all we be awakened to this presence, in joy.

Cheshvan and Cheshbon Nefesh

Yesterday we celebrated Rosh Chodesh Kislev, looking ahead to Chanukah. Cheshvan is now in the rear-view mirror – but worth a look back.

The month is called “Mar Cheshvan”, bitter Cheshvan, because it has no holidays whatsoever, not even a fast day. After the marathon of holidays during Tishrei, it's almost shock therapy – and even a bit of a relief. But why specifically do we have this 30 day stretch that is purposefully barren?

To answer that question, let's look at a bit of halacha, and a bit of psychology. On Shemini Atzeret, we recognize the change of seasons in the Land of Israel and begin saying “Mashiv ha-ruach u-morid ha-geshem”, You cause the wind to blow and the rain to fall. Or at least, we're supposed to begin saying it in all our davenning thereafter – but sometimes we're distracted, or reciting by rote, or maybe we're fortunate enough to be so caught up in the kavannah of the last bracha that we're not really focusing on the next one. And if we didn't insert Mashiv ha-ruach, then we may need to go back, at least to the beginning of the bracha, or perhaps even repeat the whole Amidah (nusach sefard davenners who mention the year-round phenomenon of Tal, dew,  may be able to avoid such repetitions -- it gets a little complicated).

Recognizing our fallibility in establishing new habits, the halacha has extensive guidance for what to do if one is unsure whether the proper words were said. The first question: how long have you been saying Mashiv ha-ruach? The longer a new habit is in place, the more confident we can be that we've done the right thing, even if we weren't concentrating on it (see OC 114:9; MB 114:40-44). Thirty days is deemed sufficient, according Rabbeinu Peretz. Ah, but the Maharam of Rottenburg says, during 30 days we repeat the davenning 90 times (apparently not counting Musaf) – repetition is more important than duration, so you can just practice saying that bracha (without shem ha-Shem presumably) 90 times, and then you can be confident in your new habit.

Here's where modern psychological research is catching up with our medieval rabbis. Establishing a new pattern in life takes a lot of elements working together – time, repetition, and perhaps a certain expanse that has been cleared for routine to dominate. Cheshvan is the open field where we plant the fruit of Tishrei. Decisions made in the throes of teshuva have a chance to grow sturdy roots in the quiet of Cheshvan. And while 28 days or 30 days or 90 repetitions aren't hard and fast rules for establishing new habits, a solid month is a pretty good trial period.

So how did we do this past month? Change the “vuv” in Cheshvan to a “vet”, and we get Cheshbon, as in Cheshbon nefesh. A full month has gone by since the chaggim, and the check is due for a spiritual accounting. Do our routines match our spiritual aspirations? Is there alignment between keva (fixed practice) and kavannah (intention)?

In Karen Armstrong's new book, The Case for God, she writes about religion in the old days:

Religion... was not primarily something that people thought, but something they did. It's truth was acquired by practical action. It is no use imagining that you will be able to drive a car if you simply read the manual or study the rules of the road. You cannot learn to dance, paint, or cook by perusing text or recipes. The rules of a board game sound obscure, unnecessarily complicated, and dull until you start to play, when everything falls into place. There are some things that can be learned only by constant, dedicated practice, but you find that you achieve something that seemed initially impossible. Instead of sinking to the bottom of the pool, you can float, you may learn to jump higher and with more grace than seems humanly possible, or to sing with unearthly beauty. You do not always understand how you achieved these feats, because your mind directs your body in a way that bypasses conscious logical deliberation, but somehow you learn to transcend your original capabilities.

This exposition brings to mind a famous dictum in the Talmud (Hagigah 9b):

“Repeating one's Mishnah one hundred times is not the same as repeating it one hundred and one times.”

Often taken as a piece of the instruction manual for Jewish meditation, the idea is that repetition takes one to a different place. The brain somehow wraps itself around what is repeated in a tighter and tighter way, freeing itself to reach new heights. As Karen Armstrong observes:

Some of these activities bring indescribable joy. A musician can lose herself in her music, a dancer becomes inseparable from the dance, and a skier feels entirely at one with himself and the external world as he speeds down the slope. It is a satisfaction that goes deeper than merely "feeling good." It is what the Greeks called ekstatis, which means a stepping outside the norm.

Rav Soloveichik gave a Yahrzeit shiur in memory of his father, Reb Moshe, focusing on this passage in the Talmud.  Interestingly, he quotes Reb Shneyer Zalman in the Tanya, saying “Sometimes I must be a hasid and cite hasidic sources”. Up to the 100^th repetition is understood as part of the learning process (or in our context, the process of acquiring the habit). The 101^st repetition (and beyond) is not about content, it's about spiritual devotion, i.e., living a life constituted by spiritually-ground habits.

The Rav writes that he never understood what was accomplished by “learning” a text that is already completely learned. But he observed the 101^st repetition and its effect – watching his father, and his grandfather Reb Chaim, deep into the night on Rosh Hashana and on Yom Kippur, chanting the words that they knew so well  of the Mishnah and Gemara for those days. Not learning the text, specifically – “they both certainly knew these texts by heart.” But rather, living the text -- “they recited these words with so much enthusiasm and ecstasy that they could not stop.”

The Rav's description matches precisely with Armstrong's. The habits of religious practice deliver us, if we reach such a madreiga, such a level, to a state of ekstatis – outside the norm – and help to create a new madreiga, a new norm. Interestingly, the Chatam Sofer (his commentary on Orach Chaim siman 20) goes beyond the Maharam in the number of repetitions of Mashiv ha-Ruach needed to establish the new pattern: he says it's 101, surely a tribute to this same passage in the gemara.

Religion is a practical discipline that teaches us to discover new capacities of mind and heart. ... It is no use magisterially weighing up the teachings of religion to judge their truth of falsehood before embarking on a religious way of life. You will discover their truth -- or lack of it -- only if you translate those doctrines into ritual or ethical action. Like any skill, religion requires perseverance, hard work, and discipline.

Much of the modern debate about whether halachic practice is desirable is framed as keva vs. kavannah – that the supposedly mindless repetition of stale words and rituals interferes with the ability to focus true intention through one's actions. But the older truth is that kavannah is often possible because of keva. Mindfulness, and even ecstasy, depend on the structures of habit and repetition. Not just the pinnacles of Tishrei, but the flat plains of Cheshvan, lead us higher and higher.

Fri. night Zoo Minyan - Nov. 13

After a month of rest following the Chaggim, Zoo Minyan gladly resumes this Fri. night. Come transform the warmth of vibrant Autumn colors into a warm and vibrant Erev Shabbat.

We'll have spirited songful Davening and delicious dinner (catered entrees from Sienna's). This week we'll be in Woodley Park, at the home of Deborah & Shalom Flank. We're seeking davenning leaders, and there's always room for davenning treats, special niggunim, etc., just write back to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org to volunteer.

Please make a donation toward dinner and/or bring a potluck contribution (veggie/dairy) -- details below.


The Details:
This Friday night, Nov. 13
Shmoozing plus set-up: 6:00pm (check website Wed. to confirm times haven't changed)
Rockin' Kabbalat Shabbat -- 6:30pm sharp!
Followed by Ma'ariv, dinner, singing, drashing, more shmoozing....

At the home of Deborah & Shalom Flank

For directions, check your Zoo mail, or email info@ZooMinyan.org.

ABOUT DINNER (it's not just a pot-luck!)

We will have main courses from Siena's! Kosher, lots of dairy plus at least one non-dairy option, all veggie, and all yummy! Vegetable lasagna, eggplant parmesan -- send in your requests

For shabbat dinner, the community provides some hearty entrees. You can:

1. Contribute to the kitty to help pay for the entree AND / OR
   
2. Bring a side dish, salad, or desert as a dairy / veggie pot-luck contribution.
   

Don't worry about whether your kitchen is kosher (or “kosher enough”), everyone gets to contribute. But please be prepared to explain what's in your dish, to help people avoid allergy or kashrut issues.

If you're worried about whether you'll be able to eat at Zoo Minyan, there is always a critical mass of pot-luck contributions with a heksher or cooked in someone's heksher-only kitchen. There are always hekshered challot and grape juice, plus the entree is hekshered. And you'll get to know people as you ask who brought which dish. Questions? Ideas? Want to help? Need the address or directions? Write back to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org. Shabbos is coming!

-------

For more FRIDAY NIGHT INFO, get all the details here. And for all the upcoming Friday night dates (through Feb.), check the Zoo Minyan Google calendar (yep, it's there, just to your left, top of the page).

Sweet Circles of Torah Together

Hakafot for Shemini Atzeret!

We'll have low-key dancing with the Torah, with wonderful niggunim (let us know your favorites). We'll have some neo-hassidic-style teachings about the cycles of Torah, while inviting the 14 shepherds, the Ushpizin and Ushpizan from all of Sukkot.

There will also be plenty of time for schmoozing and snacking (in the sukkah, if that's your custom). Kiddush and motzi will be provided, and please bring along some serious snacks if you can (heksher-only, please).

Please let us know if you're coming:

• Fill out the survey
• Or add your name to the RSVP list
• Or just email us
  

-------------
So come gather together your tzitzit, your favorite niggunim, your verses of Tanach, and your dancing shoes!

These are the sweet, heartfelt, warm-up, and relatively brief kind of hakafot that are the hassidic minhag for the night of Shemini Atzeret -- possibly for the first time ever in DC?

-------------
THE DETAILS:
Friday night, October 9th, Shemini Atzeret
Starting at 8pm (enough time to daven elsewhere if you prefer)
At Deborah and Shalom's house in Woodley Park
(write to hakafot@zoominyan.org for directions)

Chag same'ach!

Wed. - Sukkah building, Thurs. - decorating (9/30, 10/1)

Now is the time to build and beautify, as we transition from the time of introspection to the joy of harvesting and community.

WEDNESDAY (Sept 30)
4pm - 7pm

We'll raise the Sukkah (mostly big nuts & bolts, pretty much hammer-free)


THURSDAY (OCT 1)
4pm - 7pm

We'll put up the panda-leftovers (bamboo) for schach, and
decorate the Sukkah (hang stuff from the rafters, attach tapestries, string lights)
---

No experience necessary!
Hope to see you there.

----------
The Details:

At the home of Deborah Hittleman Flank and Shalom Flank. For directions, check your Zoo mail, or email info@ZooMinyan.org


Chag Sameach!

Sweet Shabbat Shuva - Sept. 26

Shana Tovah!

Every year there are seven days between the end of Rosh Hashana and the beginning of Yom Kippur. Not surprisingly, the seven days are spread out across all the days of the week. We thus have the opportunity to make Teshuva for each day -- where did we fall short on Tuesday's during this past year? How did we let Sunday's be some much less than they could have been? What insults against Wednesday's did we wreak, intentionally or otherwise?

We have the chance, instead, to return each day of the week to its full self -- or really, to our full selves. And most of all, on Shabbat Shuva, we have the chance to return to Shabbat. Whatever we may have missed on Shabbatot during the past year, we can create some of it this Shabbos. Want a little more singing on Shabbos this year? Want to be with friends more? Do a little more learning? Take on more of a role in leading or leyning or organizing? This Shabbat of Returning is the shabbos to do a little more, be a little more.

So come celebrate Shabbat together as we each move towards the "me" we want to be.

-----

We'll be gathering for davenning, lunch, shmoozing, singing, etc., this Saturday in Woodley Park (within walking distance of the Zoo, as is Zoo Minyan custom) at Deborah and Shalom's house.

Volunteers still sought for Zoo Minyan veggies, davenning treats (i.e. Kavanot or creative tidbits, not actual food ;) also Torah Transporter, and davening leaders – write back to info@ZooMinyan.org.

If you'd like to Leyn there are several short aliyot this time...use the self-service leyning spreadsheet to sign up, or email leyning@ZooMinyan.org.


The Details:

Zoo Minyan
This Saturday, Shabbat Shuva, 26 Sept.
10am sharp, with a sweet as honey Psukei d'Zimrah
Pot-luck dairy/veggie lunch -- main courses especially appreciated

At the home of Deborah Hittleman Flank and Shalom Flank. For directions, check your Zoo mail, or email info@ZooMinyan.org

Shana Tovah Tikatavnah v'Taychatamna
and Tikateivu v'Taychateimu!

Fri. night Zoo Minyan Sept 11, + coming soon

UPDATE: We're at Maya's house!  Details below.

Welcome to Elul, a thoughtful time of reflection, anticipation, and accounting. Come bring your spirit, soul, thoughts, Kavannah/intention -and of course your Neshama Yetayra, that fabulous extra soul you gain each week to celebrate Shabbat.

We'll have spirited songful Davening and delicious dinner (catered entrees from Sienna's). This week we'll be in Cleveland Park (though the real estate agents call it Garfield Park), at the home of Maya Bernstein.   We're seeking davenning leaders, and there's always room for davenning treats, special niggunim, etc., just write back to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org to volunteer.

Please make a donation toward dinner and/or bring a potluck contribution (veggie/dairy) -- details below.

But first, COMING SOON:

!!! NEXT ZOO -------
Zoo Minyan will meet Shabbat Shuva --the Shabbat between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur-- Saturday morning, September 26th.
Grab your leyning slot now, at www.TinyURL.com/Leyning. (Note: also HAFTORAH opportunity)

!!! SUKKAH BUILDING -------
SEPT 30: The Wednesday after Yom Kippur we'll raise the Sukkah (mostly big nuts & bolts, pretty much hammer-free -- plus panda-leftovers for schach) 4pm - 7pm
OCT 1: Then Thursday we'll decorate the Sukkah (hang stuff from the rafters, attach tapestries, string lights) 4pm-7-pm
----------

SHABBAT
The Details:
This Friday night, Sept 11
Shmoozing plus set-up: 6:30pm
Rockin' Kabbalat Shabbat -- 7:00pm sharp!
Followed by Ma'ariv, dinner, singing, drashing, more shmoozing....

At the home of Maya Bernstein

(not downstairs in the party room, as for so many other events that Maya has graciously hosted, but actually in her apartment -- we rate!)

For directions, check your Zoo mail, or email info@ZooMinyan.org.

ABOUT DINNER (it's not just a pot-luck!)

We will have main courses from Siena's! Kosher, lots of dairy plus at least one non-dairy option, all veggie, and all yummy! Vegetable lasagna, eggplant parmesan -- send in your requests

For shabbat dinner, the community provides some hearty entrees. You can:

1. Contribute to the kitty to help pay for the entree AND / OR
   
2. Bring a side dish, salad, drink, or desert as a dairy / veggie pot-luck contribution.
   

Don't worry about whether your kitchen is kosher (or “kosher enough”), everyone gets to contribute. But please be prepared to explain what's in your dish, to help people avoid allergy or kashrut issues.

If you're worried about whether you'll be able to eat at Zoo Minyan, there is always a critical mass of pot-luck contributions with a heksher or cooked in someone's heksher-only kitchen. There are always hekshered challot and grape juice, plus the entree is hekshered. And you'll get to know people as you ask who brought which dish. Questions? Ideas? Want to help? Need the address or directions? Write back to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org. Shabbos is coming!

-------

For more FRIDAY NIGHT INFO, get all the details here. And for all the upcoming Friday night dates (through Feb.), check the Zoo Minyan Google calendar (yep, it's there, just to your left, top of the page).

Sat. Aug. 22 - w/ special 'Labor on the Bimah' learning over lunch

Can't you just hear the Shofar blowing? It's a call to prayer!

We'll be gathering for davenning, lunch, shmoozing, and a special
"Labor on the Bimah" drash during lunch, all this Saturday in Woodley
Park at Deborah and Shalom's house. (details below)

Howard's "Labor on the Bimah" learning during lunch (even though we
don't have a bimah) is one of many events sparked by Jews United for
Justice (JUFJ), leading up to Labor Day. (JUFJ "Labor on the Bimah" events)

Volunteers still sought for Zoo Minyan veggies, davenning treats (i.e.
Kavanot or creative tidbit, perhaps from Summer Institute) also Torah
Transporter, and davening leaders – write back to info@ZooMinyan.org.

There are still short Aliyot available if you'd like to Leyn, (see 2, 3, & 4) - please use the self-service leyning spreadsheet.


Check for Drash-blogging and keep an eye on our Google calendar (Fall
dates will be posted soon) at our new-ish website: www.ZooMinyan.org

Community Announcement:
There's a light brunch this Sunday, August 23, for Kibbutz Hannaton, a
renewed community and educational center, in a beautiful setting in
the Galilee, where diverse, committed young Jews are working to claim
Israel's future by living and teaching the ideals of Pluralism,
Spirituality, Social Justice, Environmentalism, and Peace and
Reconciliation, all in the context of rigorous text study. For more
info, click here.

Now, back to Shabbat...
------------------------------
The Details:

Zoo Minyan
This Saturday, Shoftim, 22 Aug.
10am sharp, with a melodious Psukei d'Zimrah
Pot-luck dairy/veggie lunch -- main courses especially appreciated

At the home of Deborah Hittleman Flank and Shalom Flank. For directions, check your Zoo mail, or email info@ZooMinyan.org

Welcome to Elul, and
Shabbat Shalom!

Kibbutz Hannaton (this Sunday)

James and Debbie Jacobson-Maisels write in:

Kibbutz Hannaton is a renewed community and educational center, in a beautiful setting in the Galilee, where diverse, committed young Jews are working to claim Israel's future by living and teaching the ideals of Pluralism, Spirituality, Social Justice, Environmentalism, and Peace and Reconciliation, all in the context of rigorous text study. Our programs will include full time beit midrash study, spiritual retreats, seminars, and internships which engage our core values. Along with a group of passionate rabbis and educators from multiple denominations, our goal is to engage contemporary Jews with a meaningful, open, ethical and transformative Judaism. 

We would love to share our vision for new center with you and invite you all to partner with us in making this dream a reality. We are seeking your support – both financial and in any other way you can - to be part of our endeavor to strengthen the spiritual future of Israel.

Please join us for a light brunch this Sunday August 23rd , at 10am at the home of Shalom Flank and Deborah Hittleman Flank (write to Hannaton@ZooMinyan.org for address or directions), where we will share more extensively the vision and reality of Hannaton and engage together in the kind of meaningful Jewish learning which is our mission. Please feel free to pass this invitation onto friends and colleagues who are interested in supporting pluralistic Judaism, Jewish learning, Jewish spirituality or Israel and looking for new ways to get involved.

Please RSVP to James at jamesmoshejm@gmail.com. We are looking forward to seeing you all and updating you on our new project. 

Brachot, 

James and Debbie

 
Rabbi James Jacobson-Maisels

Debbie Jacobson-Maisels

Back home

Good shabbos!  Zoo Minyan was well represented at the Havurah Summer Institute last week.  Lots of ruach, new melodies, and new friends should animate the davenning back here in DC -- at TLS tonight and at Zoo Minyan next shabbos.

We'll be meeting for shabbat morning davenning next week, August 22nd.  Details to follow in next week's Zoo Mail -- but you can sign up now to bring some davenning treats home from the Institute (or from anywhere else), or for leyning, davenning, hosting, torah schlepping (such holy schelpping!), Zoo Minyan Veggies etc.  Just write back to info@ZooMinyan.org

Don't forget to check www.ZooMinyan.org for the latest updates.  There's a new drash for tomorrow's Shabbos Mevarchin, you can add Zoo Minyan to your Google Calendar, sign up for an automatic (RSS) feed, find out the name of Becca & Michael's beautiful daugther, sign up for leyning, and lots more.  We're also thinking about adding niggunim to the website -- anyone want to help?

Last but not least, the returning Zoo Minyanaires brought home brand new copies of Siddur Birkat Shalom!  If you would like to purchase your very own (at cost -- with updated grammar, a better binding, and infused with all the latest kavanah), write back to siddur@ZooMinyan.org

Birkat ha-Chodesh for Elul

Tonight is Shabbos Mevarchin for Elul, kicking off the yontiff season.  During Birkat ha-Chodesh, you may hear the haunting nusach of yamim noraim.  It's a bit shocking, here in the midst of August, still during the month of Av, to be transported for a few seconds into the middle of Erev Rosh Hashanah -- which is surely the intent.  

And in a few days (this coming Friday morning, in fact), it will be the first day of Elul.  At the end of Rosh Chodesh davenning, not only do we begin the yontiff pracitce of adding Psalm 27, but you may get to hear the season's first blasts of the shofar.

So what do we mean by shabbos "mervachin", and what might it mean for this approaching season?  Literally, we just mean the shabbos when we bless the upcoming new month (i.e., recite Brikat ha-Chodesh (link) while holding the sefer torah).  Small problem though -- there's no actual bracha in Birkat ha-Chodesh.  Neither of the Baruch Ata nor the Brucha At variety.  It there's no extra bracha, why call it the "Shabbos that is blessed"?  And who's doing the blessing or getting blessed here?  The month herself?  The Sh"tz holding the sefer torah?  All of us reciting the Birkat ha-Chodesh?

One interpretation: For most months, Shabbos Mevarchin is about giving and receiving the blessing of "chodesh" -- which means both "new" and month.  When we recite the Birkat ha-Chodesh, we bless the project of "re-newal" that we collectively pledge to undertake in the coming month.

But Tishrei doesn't get a Birkat ha-Chodesh, nor a Rosh Chodesh, but instead a Rosh Hashana.  So the blessing for Elul has to cover Tishrei as well, a blessing of "shana" -- which means both "change" and year, may it be a good and sweet one.  When we recite the Birkat ha-Chodesh tomorrow, we bless the project of change that we collectively pledge to undertake in the coming holiday season.

May we be blessed this yontiff, to offer, be a conduit for, and receive overflowing blessings of change for all of us.

Mazel Tov! (this Sunday)

Mike Wenthe writes in:

I am very happy to announce that on Monday, July 27, Rebecca Boggs gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Mother and daughter are both doing well. (Dad is okay, too.) As of yet, the child has not officially been named, though she has heretofore been known as "the critter" and Juniorina...

But a formal naming ceremony will be held this Sunday, August 2, starting at 2:30 P.M. at Adas Israel Congregation, 2850 Quebec Street NW, Washington, DC (just around the corner from the Cleveland Park Metro, Red Line).

You are most welcome to join us for the event, at which we will reveal our daughter's names and some of the thinking behind the choices thereof. Also, it being a Jewish event, we will eat: probably a buffet of pastries, bagels, fish, fruit, and vegetables, with coffee and tea available, and some bourbon to honor the child's Kentucky heritage.

Best wishes to all,
--Mike

P.S.  Welcome to the world, Shira Rose Boggs Wenthe!

The Voices of Eicha

(suggested by Rabbi Chuck Feinberg)

Who speaks in the Scroll of Lamentations?

Many voices:

• The witness: I've seen such terrible things
  
• The community: How could this happen to us
  
• The survivor: Woe is me!
  
• The angry victim: It's all the fault of our leaders
  
• The narrator: Look at how bad things have gotten
  

On Tishe b'Av, the daled amot of torah (literally “four paces of the law” -- the breathing room for learning torah, a defined space that is nonetheless big enough to move around) shrinks to Megillat Eicha and a handful of other passages. So it makes sense to spend a little extra time pondering a text that is unpleasant and often ignored the rest of the year.

1:1 to 1:10 – The Narrator
1:11 to 1:22 – The Survivor

2:1 to 2:10 – The Narrator
2:11 to 2:22 – The Witness

3:1 to 3:66 – The Survivor
(3:40 to 3:47 – The Community)

4:1 to 4:10 – The Witness
4:11 to 4:16 – The Angry Victim
4:17 to 4:20 – The Community

5:1 to 5:22 – The Community

One voice is completely absent. Though it fills most of the books of the prophets – namely, the voice of the prophet – we never find the people of Israel referred to in the 2nd person: You, Israel, have been laid low, got what you deserved, will yet see redemption, etc., etc.  

Another voice is so expected, yet so sparse, as to cry out in its absence – the voice of prayer. How rarely we ask, on Tishe b'Av, for God to make things better!

What do we ask ha-Shem to do? In many places, we ask ha-Shem to see, to hear, to listen, to behold, to remember – but not to act. Only to acknowledge our existence and our suffering. And we never use the “jussive” voice, may God cause such-and-such to happen, as in, “ha-Shem oz l'amah titen, ha-Shem tivarech et olamah va-shalom” (May ha-Shem bring about strength for Her people, may ha-Shem cause peace to bless Her world)

Our actual requests of ha-Shem are appear to be quite limited:

• 1:22 – Wreak the same misery on my foes as you did upon me
  
• 3:64-66 – Pursue my foes in anger and destroy them 
  
• And the famous second-to-last verse (5:21) – Return us to You, Renew our days as of old
  

What can we conclude from this accounting of the voices present and absent in Eichah? It is an unusual text, because our relationship with ha-Shem and with the future is so blunted. We don't ask ha-Shem to make things better. We just acknowledge, and ask ha-Shem to acknowledge, how miserable everything is.  

That's not a bad description of the function of Tishe b'Av itself. We're not trying to rouse ourselves to teshuvah, as if this were Yom Kippur. Or to tell ourselves of the miracles that ended the misery, as if this were Pesach. We're not even trying to get drunk and forget how bad it was, as if this were Purim. We're just here, permitting ourselves to see, opening our eyes and hearts to just how bad it can get. It's the one day of the year we force ourselves, not to try to make things better, but instead, simply to not turn away.

The last Fri. night Zoo Minyan of summer - July 24

Come for a beautiful evening!

This is our last Fri. night Zoo Minyan of the summer, as we're on an "every 6 weeks" schedule for Fri nights. (By the time the next one rolls around it will be almost the Chaggim!) So come for sweet summer Erev Shabbat.

We'll have spirited songful Davening and delicious dinner (catered entrees from Sienna's). This week we'll be in Woodley Park, at the home of Deborah & Shalom. We're still seeking davenning leaders, and there's always room for davenning treats, special niggunim, etc., just write back to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org to volunteer.

Please make a donation toward dinner and/or bring a potluck contribution (veggie/dairy) -- details below.

The Details:
This Friday night, July 24th
Shmoozing plus set-up: 6:30pm
Rockin' Kabbalat Shabbat -- 7:00pm sharp!
Followed by Ma'ariv, dinner, singing, drashing, more shmoozing....

At the home of Deborah Hittleman Flank and Shalom Flank. For directions, check your Zoo mail, or email per below.

+++ ABOUT DINNER (it's not just a pot-luck!)

We will have main courses from Siena's! Kosher, lots of dairy plus at
least one non-dairy option, all veggie, and all yummy! Vegetable
lasagna, eggplant parmesan -- send in your requests

For shabbat dinner, the community provides some hearty entrees. You
can:
1) Contribute to the kitty to help pay for the entree
AND / OR
2) Bring a side dish, salad, drink, or desert as a dairy / veggie pot-luck contribution.

Don't worry about whether your kitchen is kosher (or “kosher enough”), everyone gets to contribute. But please be prepared to explain what's in your dish, to help people avoid allergy or kashrut issues.

If you're worried about whether you'll be able to eat at Zoo Minyan, there is always a critical mass of pot-luck contributions with a heksher or cooked in someone's heksher-only kitchen. There are always hekshered challot and grape juice, plus the entree is hekshered. And you'll get to know people as you ask who brought which dish. Questions? Ideas? Want to help? Need the address or directions? Write back to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org. Shabbos is coming!

!!! NEXT ZOO -------
And the next time Zoo Minyan meets will be Shabbat Shoftim --right after Rosh Chodesh Elul-- Saturday morning, August 22nd, when folks have returned from NHC Summer Institute. Grab your leyning slot early, at www.TinyURL.com/Leyning
-------

For more FRIDAY NIGHT INFO, get all the details here. And for all the upcoming Friday night dates (through September), check the Zoo Minyan Google calendar.

Changed August date to: Aug 22nd

Greetings Zoo Minyanites,
after some discussion, the date for the August Zoo Minyan has been changed (due to a Bar Mitzvah in the greater community).

We will now be meeting on Sat. Aug. 22.
------

Please adjust your calendars. The Zoo Minyan Google calendar has been updated - and if you are a Google Calendar person, feel free to add the Zoo Minyan Events calendar to your view.

Shavua Tov.

Good ol' fashioned Sat. at Zoo Minyan - July 11th

We'll be gathering for davenning, lunch, shmoozing, singing, etc., this Saturday in Woodley Park at Deborah and Shalom's house.

Volunteers still sought for Zoo Minyan veggies, davenning treats (i.e. Kavanot or creative tidbits, not actual food ;) also Torah Transporter, and davening leaders – write back to info@ZooMinyan.org.

If you'd like to Leyn there's one aliyah left (Revii)...use the self-service leyning spreadsheet to sign up, or email leyning@ZooMinyan.org.


The Details:

Zoo Minyan
This Saturday, Pinchas, 11 July
10am sharp, with a joyous Psukei d'Zimrah
Pot-luck dairy/veggie lunch -- main courses especially appreciated

At the home of Deborah Hittleman Flank and Shalom Flank. For directions, check your Zoo mail, or email info@ZooMinyan.org

Shabbat Shalom, hey!

July 11th - coming soon

Shabbos is coming!

Reb Deb here with a brief reminder that Zoo Minyan will be meeting next week, Parshat Pinchas, July 11th.

(I kinda' wish it was this week so i could drash on Parshat Balak, and use my famous utterance from a Tish preceding a wedding ceremony, where i had the opportunity to shout as the groom spoke about Balak & Balaam, "Tell us about your as&!" (referring to the talking donkey, not groom's backside of course!) Oy!

So, re: Pinchas, come bring your thoughts on Brit Shalom, or on continuity or succession (Joshua & Moses). Or just come for the Ruach and the singing ;)

Leyners, davenners, davenning treats, Zoo Minyan veggies, torah schlepping-- it's all yours for the asking. Just write back to info@ZooMinyan.org. Or for leyning, head to tinyurl.com/leyning to claim your slot.

(location Details in your next Zoo Mail)

Shabbat Shalom!
zoominyan.org

**Afternoon** Sat. June 27 - Seudah Shlisheet / Minchah

Zoo Minyan Sat. **afternoon**
for
summertime Seudah Shlisheet!

Something for everyone -- eating, singing,
brief davenning / leyning, a little learning
---
(We've taken two items as a sign - not a lot of Leyners signed up this week, and there's a farewell Community Lunch for Cherrie Daniels & Jeff Fistel (moving to Oslo - she's a diplomat!) in a nearby party room (see Adas Trad Egal Minyan for details if you're interested.)
Now back to Zoo Minyan...
-----------------------------

The Details:

Zoo Minyan
Saturday, SEUDAH SHLISHEET, 27 June
**5pm**, niggunim, noshing, & Minchah
Pot-luck dairy/veggie supper

Last minute volunteers for davenning and davenning treats are all welcome, just write back to info@ZooMinyan.org

At the home of Deborah Hittleman Flank and Shalom Flank in Woodley Park.
For directions, check your Zoo Mail, or write to info@ZooMinyan.org.

-----------------

And don't forget to mark your calendars for the fast approaching July 11th Zoo Minyan (Sat.). Grab your leyning slot early, at www.TinyURL.com/Leyning

For more FRIDAY NIGHT INFO, get all the details here. Next Fri night Zoo Minyan - July 24th. And for all the upcoming Friday night dates (through September -- can you believe it?), check the Zoo Minyan Google calendar.

Fri night June 19th - Cleveland Park

Zoo Minyan davenning in the Miller -&- Potluck at Stefan's (Under the Stars)!

'Tis a shabbos for diversity within community. Those who participated
in sunrise services on Shavuot experienced first-hand the ruach of
many Minyanim davenning together.

This week Zoo Minyan will be davenning together with Ruach Minyan
(which started as Van Ness Minyan, and is now housed and blossoming at
Adas Israel). Afterwords we will have a joint potluck in the building
next door, at the home of Stefan. Rumor has it, he'll be hosting us
outside under the stars.

Speaking of Under the Stars -- Zoo Minyan cordially invites people to
mix-and-match davenning and dinner with the broader Adas Israel
community's "Shabbat Under the Stars" (http://adasisrael.org/
newsletter/KesherIshi_ThisWeek.htm#stars), the one-year anniversary of
Rabbi Gil Steinlauf's arrival in our community.
If the early 6:15 dinner doesn't match your schedule, join Rabbi
Steinlauf for davenning on Adas's front porch at 7:30, then come down
to Zoo / Ruach at Stefan's for a pot-luck dinner 8:30ish *after*
davenning. If dinner with the Adas community is appealing, but you
prefer a shomer shabbos space for davenning (no instruments), and/or
nusach shivyoni, then come join us in Adas' Miller Chapel at 7pm.

So come enjoy the cool evening, and see old friends and new friends.

We'll have spirited songful Davenning (in Zoo Minyan Nusach Shivyoni -
adapted language) and delicious dinner. We're still seeking davenning
leaders, and there's always room for davenning treats, special
niggunim, etc., just write back to
Fridays@ZooMinyan.org to volunteer.

NOTE: there will not be catering from Sienna's this week. Please bring
a potluck contribution (veggie/dairy) -- details below.

The Details:
This Friday night, June 19th
Rockin' Kabbalat Shabbat -- 7pm sharp!
----> Miller Chapel, Adas Israel

Followed by pot-luck dairy/veggie dinner, singing, drashing,
shmoozing....(main courses especially appreciated)
----> At the home of Stefan, in Cleveland Park.

For directions, check your Zoo Mail, or write to info@ZooMinyan.org.


+++ ABOUT DINNER - it's a pot-luck!

Don't worry about whether your kitchen is kosher (or “kosher enough”),
everyone gets to contribute. But please be prepared to explain what's
in your dish, to help people avoid allergy or kashrut issues.

If you're worried about whether you'll be able to eat at Zoo Minyan,
there is always a critical mass of pot-luck contributions with a
heksher or cooked in someone's heksher-only kitchen. The challot and
grape juice are always hekshered. And you'll get to know people as you
ask who brought which dish. Questions? Ideas? Want to help? Write back
to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org. Shabbos is coming!

And don't forget to mark your calendars for the fast approaching June
27th Zoo Minyan (parshat Korach!). And feel free to grab your leyning
slot early, at www.TinyURL.com/Leyning

For more FRIDAY NIGHT INFO, get all the details here. And for all the upcoming Friday night dates (through September -- can you believe it?), check the Zoo Minyan Google calendar.

A Moveable Feast of Torah

An idle thought about modern minyanim --

We're not very tied down, at Zoo Minyan and its various havurah-nik and minyan cousins. Last shabbos, we comforably fit a Moveable Minyan into one car-load:

• siddurim (three sets)
  
• chumashim
  
• pews (a half-dozen backjacks)
  
• catering (okay, really just dishes, utensils, etc)
  
• tallesim, kippot, madrich, luach, etc
  
• yad, torah blessings, tikkunim, and torah coverings
  

and most important, a sefer torah!

That's pretty much all we need to have a minyan (besides a minyan, of course). No permanent building, no stained glass and no organ (just our vocal chords), not a lot of paraphenalia and bulk. And of course that's by design -- not just a contrast between independent minyanim vs institutionalized religion, but also an essential aspect of yiddishkeit. Maybe it's a reaction to so many generations living in the shadow of so many exiles, needing the ability to flee and then re-establish a community quickly. Or maybe it goes back even earlier...

We just paused in the midst of our Torah-reading cycle in the middle of Perek Dalet in B'Midbar. We're reading about the duties of the various clans of Levites for moving the Mishkan -- the original Moveable Mishkan. Through forty years of wandering in the desert, and some more wandering even after we arrived in Eretz Yisrael, we had to assemble, disassemble, and re-assemble our sanctuary and altar over and over again. The instructions in these parshiot are detailed, practical, and quite a bit of work! Yet everything was clearly designed for mobility from the beginning, with carrying staves built into various large objects, ballasted foundations to support the erection of anything vertical, etc.

But we interrupted the reading of these instructions this past shabbat with a yontiff commemorating our receiving Torah, which happened even before the Mishkan was constructed. And Torah is the ultimate in mobility. A sefer torah is really the only thing that a Jewish community absolutely must have. And some Torah-learning is really the only thing that a Jewish community must know. All the rest, as it says, is commentary.

So how do we take full advantage of this unencumbered religion? What do we do with this weightlessness of the spirit? At Zoo Minyan, it means we get to bring davenning to your living room (check the calendar for dates that still need volunteers to host!). What are your stories of moveable -- and therefore ubiquitous -- torah?

PS: If you didn't get enough of Megillat Ruth over Shavuos, you can feast on this wonderful reading / drashing by Reb Zalman.

Shavuot at the Zoo

It's the only one-day yontiff of the year, but we've got a lot going on for Shavuot at Zoo Minyan. Check the calendar for details on the Tikkun, starting Thursday night -- until we all reach Sinai and receive the Torah at dawn.

Then sleep to your hearts content on the 1st day of Shavuot, wake up and join us for:

Blintz Fest at Deborah and Shalom's
- 1st Day of Shavuot
- 4pm, May 29

No RSVP necessary.

-----------------------------

Come join Shalom & Deborah for their Annual Shavuot Blintz Fest!
(Fri. 5/29) Come by starting at 4pm.
Blintzes come fresh from Grandma's heirloom blintz pan - you are invited to bring toppings. If you are in the mood, other hekshered potluck items are welcome but certainly not required. Eat bubbelah eat!

Fri. night Davening will follow the Blintz Fest.  It will be both yontiff and shabbos, so there will be an abbreviated Kabbalat Shabbat.  Though since we'll be following the nusach Shivyoni / nusach Sefard minhag, not quite as abbreviated as nusach Ashkenaz -- Ps. 29, 1st two and last two verses of l'cha dodi (no limit on the ya-dai-dai's), and then mizmor shir l'yom ha-Shabbat.

After davenning, we'll have a pot-luck shabbos dinner.  Even if you're stuffed from blintzes, stay, shmooze some more, have a ka-zayit of challah....Unlike the usual Zoo custom, please bring heksher-only pot-luck contributions (if you're not sure whether your kitchen counts as heksher-only, just write back to info@zoominyan.org and ask).

And if we still have any energy after dinner, there could even be a little of learning (a "micro-tikkun"?).  Maybe just some highlights of people's favorite learning from various tikkunim the night before; or if you've got something you want to share, bring it along!

Tossing Desserts in the Desert this Shabbos

With the glorious spring weather we've been having here in DC - the breezes, the greenery, and the rain showers that make all that growth possible, it's a bit of a contrast thinking about this week's parsha - Bamidbar. The desert! Which is similar but slightly different in spelling than 'dessert'. Which reminds me, there will be time during the torah reading for throwing candy, but we're getting ahead of ourselves...

This Shabbat:

We'll be gathering for davenning, lunch, shmoozing, singing, etc. this Saturday at the home of Laura, Darya, Sarah, & Scott. Once again we will be on the Mount Pleasant side of the Zoo. We'll also have the joy of an Aufruf this Shabbos i.e. the traditional pelting with candy of 2 beloveds about to be ritually joined for life under the Chuppah. The whole community is invited, so don't skip this week just because you may not know the Bride or Groom - Nechama and Toby.

Volunteers for leyning are not needed (there is one left if you want it), but volunteers for leading, davenning treats, torah schlepping, and the famous Zoo Minyan veggies are very much appreciated – write back to info@ZooMinyan.org.

The self-service leyning spreadsheet is:
tinyurl.com/leyning
(maybe sign up for June?? 'tis the season of Torah after all, what with Shavuot coming soon!)

Please check out our Google calendar and all sorts of other goodies at
our (still excitingly new) website: www.ZooMinyan.org. Two new drashot are up this week, the link for contributing to the Friday night kitty, plus lots of other goodies. You can even add the Zoo Google calendar to your Google Calendar view --
AND... we now have dates through
THE CHAGGIM (Oct.)

A huge line-up of events for next week, from co-sponsoring the Tikkun Leil Shavuot with TLS and Adas, to Blintzfest and Kabbalat Shabbat.  More details on the Zoo calendar, as always.

For help adding Zoo Minyan to your calendar, email EzratSysAdmin@ZooMinyan.org ;)

The Details:

Zoo Minyan
This Saturday, 23 May 2009
Parshat Bamidbar,
10am sharp, with a joyous Psukei d'Zimrah
Pot-luck dairy/veggie lunch -- main courses especially appreciated

At the home of Laura, Darya, Sarah, & Scott, in Mt. Pleasant.

For directions, check your Zoo Mail, or write to info@ZooMinyan.org.

Professor Robert Alter was the visiting scholar at Adas this past shabbos. His shiur Friday night focused on the use of repetition as a literary device in Tanach. He dismissed the idea that minor variations in re-tellings were a glitch in oral transmission, and pointed instead of the use of those variations to draw comparisons or to intensify a pattern.

Looking fairly randomly into Tanach, two examples in the first and second chapters of Melachim Bet (II Kings 1:9-15 and 2:1-6) jump out. Let's take a quick look.

The first example is a classic three-tuple: two identical repetitions with negative outcomes, and a third with a dramatically different outcome that shows what should have happened in the first place. A divine messenger instructs Eliyahu the Prophet to rebuke the wayward King Ahaziah. The message reaches the King, who send a troop of 50 soldiers to...well, it's not clear what the military mission is, we don't hear the orders of the King himself. The captain with the first troops arrives at Eliyahu on the mountaintop, and shouts out that the King orders him to come down ("reida"). Instead what comes down, at Eliyahu's command, is fire from heaven (1:10), consuming the troops and the captain. Events with the second troop of 50 soldiers and their captain unfold exactly the same way, word for word, except that the command is come down NOW! ("meheira reida").

The third captain, a devout or at least an observant soul, tries a different approach, acknowledging the fate of his predecessors, and imploring Eliyahu that his soul, and the souls of these fifty servants, may be precious ("tikar-na") in Eliyahu's eyes. At which point the divine messenger tells Eliyahu to go with them to the King. The message driven home by this three-hold repetition could not be clearer -- in a contest between military force and divine force, there is no contest. And it doesn't hurt to say please.

The second example seems subtler. It is time for Eliyahu's ascent to heaven, and he instructs his disciple Elisha three times to stay behind. Elisha refuses all three times, and eventually accompanies Eliyahu up to the moment of his ascent, and literally assumes Eliyahu's mantle ("aderet Eliyahu"). The three repetitions, as Eliyahu makes his way to Beit El, then Jericho, and finally the midst of the Jordan River, are *nearly* identical, but not quite.

Beit El	Yericho	Yarden
Va-yomer Eliyahu el Elisha, "Sheiv-na...	Va-yomer lo Eliyahu, "Elisha, sheiv-na...	Va-yomer lo Eliyahu, "Sheiv-na...
Eliyahu said to Elisha, "Please stay...	Eliyahu said to him, "Elisha, please stay...	Eliyahu said to him, "Please stay...
Va-yerdu Beit El	Va-yavou Yericho	Va-yelchu sh'neihem
They went down to Beit El	They came to Yericho	They went together

These tiny variations in the midst of a nearly identical three-fold repetition carry a potent message. Eliyahu is about to leave this earthly existance forever; Elisha may or may not be a worthy successor. With each repetition, Eliyahu addresses his friend in just-slightly more intimate ways. And with each repetition, their travel together becomes more unified, until the conclusion of Eliyahu's request that Elisha stay behind is stated with utter clarity: "They went together".

These are small, nicely self-contained examples of the power behind Professor Alter's method, a method which the meforshim (classical commentators) have long employed. What examples in Tanach have you noticed lately?

Now that Lag b'Omer has past, we are into the final stages of Sefirat ha-Omer (and yashar koach to those who are still in the midst of their bracha for the counting).

Sefirat ha-Omer has many cycles and movements within it. But the two poles (separated by Lag b'Omer) are marked by barley and wheat, and by Rabbi Akiva and Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai (the Rashbi). As those who were at Zoo for the last Friday night Raza d'Shabbat drash already know, the Omer period begins with the barley harvest (an "omer" is the measure of barley offered at the altar), starting the day after the Pesach holiday.

Now barley is not an impressive offering. Nowadays, mushroom-barley soup may be comfort food, and foodies may delight in a Barley Risotto with Asparagus and Hazelnuts. But in biblical times, barley was basically animal feed, just barely fit for human consumption.

Sefirat ha-Omer ends with Shavuot, associated of course with Matan Torah (received Torah at Sinai) but also with the beginning of the wheat harvest. Ah, now, wheat -- there's a proper offering: finely ground, baked into challot, rich with oil.

So the first phase of the Omer encourages us to be "barley Jews" -- take whatever we've got, even if it's just barley, and offer it. The important thing is to take action, without worrying about whether it's good enough. But that can't be the end of the story. After Lab b'Omer, we're striving to be "wheat Jews" -- not satisfied until we reach the highest of the high, still striving even after we've given our all.

These are the poles represented by R. Akiva and the Rashbi. Akiva took action, even when one couldn't be sure if it was the perfect time -- most famously, in the Bar Kochba rebellion. But the Rashbi sought only perfection, immersing himself (and his son) in the pure study of Torah for seven years.

So after Lab b'Omer -- we move from Akiva's, "it's good enough, let's just get going already" to, the Rashbi's "we can go to the next madrega; Ha-Shem, make me higher." Lag b'Omer, the Rashbi's yahrzeit, is the day we affirm that dreams don't have to stay dreams.

It would be nice to stop at that point, all aglow from the inspiration of the Rashbi. But Lag b'Omer also involves remember the costs of traveling farther because we dared to reach higher. We remember the thousands of "students" (soldiers) of Rabbi Akiva who did in the "plague" (battles with the Roman Legions). We remember the poor farmer turned to a pile of bones by the fiery gaze of the Rashbi (B. Shabbat 33b). There is nothing linear about the Omer count -- spiritual heights mingle with tragedy, and it can be hard to distinguish one from the other.

So on Lag b'Omer, we not only affirm that dreams don't have to stay dreams. We take on the even harder task, of affirming that the price of turning those dreams into reality can sometimes be worth paying.

May Day at the Zoo

Come celebrate May Day at Zoo Minyan this Friday night!

May Day's earlier origins include a focus on May Flowers, indeed the Roman goddess of flowers (Flora). Even with the wild gyrations of April weather, what have you noticed blossoming this season? Either literally or figuratively?

At the Zoo Minyan version of May Day, we'll have spirited songful Davening and delicious dinner (catered entrees from Sienna's). We're meeting this week at Deborah & Shalom's house, on the Woodley Park side of the zoo. We're still seeking davenning leaders, and there's always room for davenning treats, a special niggunim, etc., just write back to
Fridays@ZooMinyan.org to volunteer.

Please make a donation toward dinner and/or bring a potluck contribution (veggie/dairy) -- details below.

The Details:
This Friday night, May 1st
Shmoozing plus set-up: 6pm
Rockin' Kabbalat Shabbat -- 6:30pm sharp!
Followed by Ma'ariv, dinner, singing, drashing, more shmoozing....

+++ ABOUT DINNER (it's not just a pot-luck!)

We will have main courses from Siena's! Kosher, lots of dairy plus at
least one non-dairy option, all veggie, and all yummy! Vegetable
lasagna, eggplant parmesan -- send in your requests

For shabbat dinner, the community provides some hearty entrees. You
can:
1) Contribute to the kitty to help pay for the entree
AND / OR
2) Bring a side dish, salad, drink, or desert as a dairy / veggie pot-luck contribution.

Don't worry about whether your kitchen is kosher (or “kosher enough”), everyone gets to contribute. But please be prepared to explain what's in your dish, to help people avoid allergy or kashrut issues.

If you're worried about whether you'll be able to eat at Zoo Minyan, there is always a critical mass of pot-luck contributions with a heksher or cooked in someone's heksher-only kitchen. There are always hekshered challot and grape juice, plus the entree is hekshered. And you'll get to know people as you ask who brought which dish. Questions? Ideas? Want to help? Need the address or directions? Write back to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org. Shabbos is coming!

And don't forget to mark your calendars for the fast approaching May 23rd Zoo Minyan, where the usual joys of Shabbos and Zoo Minyan will be even further enhanced by the opportunity to celebrate the Auf Ruf of Nechama & Toby! Whether you already know them or want to make new friends, all are welcome and encouraged to attend! Grab your leyning slot early, at www.TinyURL.com/Leyning

For more FRIDAY NIGHT INFO, get all the details here. And for all the upcoming Friday night dates (through September -- can you believe it?), check the Zoo Minyan Google calendar.

Not a good shabbos -- a "great" shabbos

Friday night begins "Shabbat ha-Gadol", the last shabbos before Pesach. We'll be celebrating with a great shabbos at the Zoo Minyan -- and a picnic lunch at the Zoo!

The Details:

Zoo Minyan
This Saturday, Shabbat ha-Gadol, 4 April
10am sharp, with a great Psukei d'Zimrah
Pot-luck dairy/veggie picnic lunch -- bring all your chametz, main courses especially appreciated (note: crumbs left behind at the Zoo are definitely Hefker, ie ownerless)

Last minute volunteers for davenning, davenning treats, Zoo Minyan veggies, and leyning (tinyurl.com/leyning) are all welcome, just write back to info@ZooMinyan.org

Davenning at the home of Deborah Hittleman Flank and Shalom Flank in Woodley Park. Write to info@ZooMinyan.org for directions.

Picnic lunch at the National Zoo, starting at approximately 1:15.
During lunch, we'll have some learning for Shabbat ha-Gadol, including text from the special Yotzer for the day, and/or the haggadah review traditional for the afternoon of Shabbat ha-Gadol. Opportunities for extra brachot abound -- maybe birkat ha-ilanot (the annual blessing on blossoming fruit trees), and certainly mishane ha'briot (the wondrous variety of creation / creatures).

Directions:
From the Conn Ave entrance, walk down the main path (Olmstead Walk) about 250 yards to the picnic tables at the Panda Cafe -- on the right, opposite the Rhea (who lives just past the Zebra -- and how often do you get davenning directions like *that*?)

Spring Davenning on Spring Pl.

Spring Has Sprung! Chodesh Aviv (the first month of the year, also known as Nissan) starts on Wednesday night. Come celebrate the first Shabbat of spring at Zoo Minyan this Friday night.

We'll have spirited songful Davening and delicious dinner (catered entrees from Sienna's). We're lucky to be hosted this week by Avodah House on Spring Pl, just off 16th Street. We're mostly set for davenning (thanks Zach, thanks Sara), but there's always room for davenning treats, a special niggunim, etc., just write back to
Fridays@ZooMinyan.org to volunteer.

Please make a donation toward dinner and/or bring a potluck contribution (veggie/dairy) -- details below.

The Details:
This Friday night, March 28th
Shmoozing plus set-up: 6pm
Rockin' Kabbalat Shabbat -- 6:30pm sharp!
Followed by Ma'ariv, dinner, singing, drashing, more shmoozing....

+++ ABOUT DINNER (it's not just a pot-luck!)

We will have main courses from Siena's! Kosher, lots of dairy plus at
least one non-dairy option, all veggie, and all yummy! Vegetable
lasagna, eggplant parmesan -- send in your requests

For shabbat dinner, the community provides some hearty entrees. You
can:
1) Contribute to the kitty to help pay for the entree
AND / OR
2) Bring a side dish, salad, drink, or desert as a dairy / veggie pot-luck contribution.

Don't worry about whether your kitchen is kosher (or “kosher enough”), everyone gets to contribute. But please be prepared to explain what's in your dish, to help people avoid allergy or kashrut issues.

If you're worried about whether you'll be able to eat at Zoo Minyan, there is always a critical mass of pot-luck contributions with a heksher or cooked in someone's heksher-only kitchen. There are always hekshered challot and grape juice, plus the entree is hekshered. And you'll get to know people as you ask who brought which dish. Questions? Ideas? Want to help? Need the address or directions? Write back to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org. Shabbos is coming!

And don't forget about *next* Shabbos, when we'll celebrate Shabbat Ha-
Gadol (the really big shabbos) together on Saturday morning, April
4th. Grab your leyning slot early, at www.TinyURL.com/Leyning

For more FRIDAY NIGHT INFO, get all the details here. And for all the upcoming Friday night dates (through September -- can you believe it?), check the Zoo Minyan Google calendar.

Solidarity (Taanit Esther)

In Megillat Esther (4:16) we read:

לֵךְ כְּנוֹס אֶת-כָּל-הַיְּהוּדִים הַנִּמְצְאִים בְּשׁוּשָׁן, וְצוּמוּ עָלַי וְאַל-תֹּאכְלוּ וְאַל-תִּשְׁתּוּ שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים לַיְלָה וָיוֹם--גַּם-אֲנִי וְנַעֲרֹתַי, אָצוּם כֵּן; וּבְכֵן אָבוֹא אֶל-הַמֶּלֶךְ, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-כַדָּת, וְכַאֲשֶׁר אָבַדְתִּי, אָבָדְתִּי

Esther asks Mordechai to convey a message to everyone in her community, asking them to stand in solidarity with her as she prepares to risk her life for their sake: "gather the Jews...and fast for me...and if I perish, I perish."

In honor of Esther's call for solidarity, we...well, what do we do today? Many fast, though technically it is a "voluntary" not obligatory fast. What else can we do that recognizes and builds on the midot (character) of our holy ancestor Esther?

Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments. Here's one suggestion:

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty is campaigning in countries around the world, asking people to pressure their own governments to fulfill commitments to fight poverty, increase education, and end gender inequality. They have issued a call to solidarity (perhaps a bit like Esther's, but without the risk of death), welcoming everyone to make an individual pledge in response to that call:
http://www.whitebandaction.org/act-now


Here are some great pictures that people have posted along with their personal pledges:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/inmyname/sets/72157607345873610/

Whether it's through GCAP, the Purim mitzvah of matanot evyonim, or something else -- what's your response to Esther's call?

Multiplying Simcha

Our sages taught, Mi she-nichnas Adar, marbim l'simcha – whoever enters the month of Adar, their joy increases. “Marbim” connotes multiplying. That is, the joy in Adar doesn't come out of nothing. It multiplies, based on what was there before. “Marbim” also connotes multitudes. That is, by being amongst many, joy increases.

So come bring whatever joy you have, and come be in the midst of community for this Shabbat Zachor, the shabbos before Purim.

Leyners, davenners, davenning treats, Zoo Minyan veggies, torah schlepping-- it's all yours for the asking.  Just write back to info@ZooMinyan.org.  Or for leyning, head to tinyurl.com/leyning to claim your slot.

The Details:

Zoo Minyan
This Saturday, Shabbat Zachor, 7 March
10am sharp, with a joyful Psukei d'Zimrah
Pot-luck dairy/veggie lunch to follow -- main courses especially appreciated

At the home of Deborah Hittleman Flank and Shalom Flank in Woodley Park (for directions, write to info@ZooMinyan.org)

Purim is coming! We get to partake of the four mitzvot of purim (a warm-up for the four cups of pesach, but that's another story):

• Reading the Megillah
  
• The Purim Seudah (a feast during the day)
  
• Mishloach Manot (e.g., giving out hamentaschen)
  
• Tzedakah (Matanot l'Evyonim or Gifts to the poor)
  

This year, there are some new opportunities to help fulfill those mitzvot:

Tikkun Leil Shabbat is having its first-ever Megillah reading on Monday night, starting 6:45pm at the Josephine Butler Parks Center (2437 15th St NW). More details at www.tikkunleilshabbat.org.

Deborah is reprising her delicious JSC course from last year, hosting a hamentaschen baking on Sunday at 1pm, at her and Shalom's house. RSVP to yummm@zoominyan.org.

Finally, among the many, many deserving places for tzedakah: Purim is the only holiday that commemorates something that happened to us in a foreign land (without an exodus from that land). If you're looking for opportunities to help the poor help themselves in foreign lands,check out www.GlobalGiving.org

*****

Make sure you have Shalom & Deborah's annual Erev Shira on your calendar! Next Shabbos, March 14th, In honor of their joint birthday-week

5:30pm to ???

• Seudah shlishit, with plenty of niggunim and chassidic stories
• Into Havdalah, then we break out the guitars
  
• And the copies of Rise Up Singing (bring your own if you have them)

Zoo Minyan next shabbos (March 7th)

There will not be a Fri. night Zoo Minyan tonight after all.

Heartfelt apologies to those who had planned to celebrate Shabbat at Zoo Minyan this evening. Zoo Minyan management only just returned from safari in South Africa, where planning was stymied due to lack of internet access (i.e. none at all). The next Fri night davenning extravaganza will be *March* 27th instead. The calendar on the here on the website is now fully up to date.

We will daven as planned *next* shabbos morning, March 7th (Shabbat Zachor, the shabbat preceding Purim). Volunteers for leyning, leading, davenning treats, torah schlepping, and the famous Zoo Minyan veggies are very much appreciated – write back to info@ZooMinyan.org.

Or use the self-service leyning spreadsheet:
tinyurl.com/leyning

We bring regards from Jeff Dorfman, former Zoo Minyan Leyner with red hair & ponytail who left a few years ago to research malaria in Kenya. We wish him Mazal Tov on his wedding to Karen in Cape Town. They are part of a new Minyan you might enjoy. Let us know if you'll be in Cape Town and you are interested, and we'll connect you.

Shabbat Shalom,
the Zoo Minyan Maskirah

This Friday night, Zoo Minyan will be meeting again to welcome Shabbat with prayer, food, & song. What a fine way to finish this festive and joyous week in the political hothouse that is our home here in DC.

If you came last time (for the "inaugural" Fri night davening) welcome back! if you're already a Saturday Zoo Minyanite, come enjoy the "change" as we add Friday nights to our regular schedule. If you are new to Zoo Minyan, we "hope" you will join us.

The Details:

• This Friday night, January 23rd
  
• Shmoozing plus set-up: 5:30pm
  
• Rockin' Kabbalat Shabbat -- 6pm sharp!
  
• Followed by Ma'ariv, dinner, singing, drashing, more shmoozing....
  

ABOUT DINNER (it's not just a pot-luck!)

We will have main courses from Siena's! Kosher, lots of dairy plus at least one non-dairy option, all veggie, and all yummy! Vegetable lasagna, eggplant parmesan -- send in your requests (and vote for your favorite -- the poll on the left side of this site). 

For shabbat dinner, the community provides some hearty entrees. You
can:

1. Contribute to the kitty to help pay for the entree  AND / OR
   
2. Bring a side dish, salad, drink, or desert as a dairy / veggie pot-
   luck contribution.
   

To contribute to the kitty, please go to: http://tinyurl.com/ZooDinner

Don't worry about whether your kitchen is kosher (or “kosher enough”), everyone gets to contribute. But please be prepared to explain what's in your dish, to help people avoid allergy or kashrut issues.

If you're worried about whether you'll be able to eat at Zoo Minyan, there is always a critical mass of pot-luck contributions with a heksher or cooked in someone's heksher-only kitchen. There are always hekshered challot and grape juice, plus the entree is hekshered. And you'll get to know people as you ask who brought which dish.

• Questions? Ideas? Want to help? Write back to
  Fridays@ZooMinyan.org. Shabbos is coming!
  
  

At the home of Deborah Hittleman Flank and Shalom Flank in Woodley Park. For address and directions, please write to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org


+++ A few things to expect (besides the unexpected)

** Creative rituals and Kavanot
For example: To add sweetness from the week to shabbat, we will pass around the kiddush cup during kabbalat shabbat. For each of the mizmorim (psalms, corresponding to each of the days of the week), a few people at a time will share something from their week to add to our overflowing cup of joy.

** Nigunim
Both soulful and spirited tunes, with lots of repetition and space to sink into the melodies. (Sometimes, you don't really start singing a good melody under you've been singing it for 20 minutes!)

** Nusach shivyoni
Davenning leaders will be using our photocopied siddurim with egalitarian language (see the Guide for the Perplexed).  Other siddurim will also be available, and everyone is welcome to
daven from their own siddur. Certain kinds of cacophony / pluralism create their own harmony.

** Raza d'Shabbat ("the mystery of shabbos")
Between Kabbalat Shabbat and Ma'ariv, where Nusach Sefard has a passage from the Zohar and Nusach Ashkenaz has a passage from the Mishnah, we will have a (three minute) drash. Drawing on the text of the tefillot (or parshat shavua or other relevant texts), we aim to provide kavannah for davenning and for our entry into shabbos.

+++ LOGISTICS -- Helping out:

• Procure dinner entrees from Rockville
  
• Helping to organize clean-up
  
• Leading Kabbalat Shabbat
  
• Raza d'Shabbat: Kavanah / Torah between Kabbalat Shabbat and
  
• Ma'ariv
  
• Leading Ma'ariv
  
  Write back to Fridays@ZooMinyan.org to help out!
  
  Shabbat Shalom.

A good day for ice

It's been cold here in Washington.  In the old days, besides thoughts of warm gatkes, days like this might be seen as good for business -- if you were in the ice business.

Before electric refrigerators in every house and apartment, food stayed fresh and drinks stayed cold only because of regular deliveries of ice, deposited into your kitchen's "ice box" -- a term that crossed over to modern refrigerators, even as we forget its origins.

But ice harvesting was an important business for a while.  Very rarely, it could even get too cold to harvest (pdf).  And ice delivery was one of the fabric of neighborhood jobs that provided employment for unskilled labor.

All of which brings to mind a partly-remembered story from Shlomo Carlebach.

After his family escaped from the Nazis and came to the U.S., they lived in New York City in the early 1940s.  Like everyone else in the neighborhood, they had an icebox -- the kind that needed real ice.  The ice was delivered regularly by the neighborhood iceman, a good yid (like everyone else in the neighborhood), whom they got to know over the years.

After some time, the war ended, steel production could be devoted to something else besides tanks and airplanes, and Reb Shlomo's family acquired a different icebox -- this one made its own ice.  A modern convenience, true...but also a modern dilemma.  For this new technology threatened to disrupt an old relationship.  What could they tell the ice man?

In fact, they didn't tell him anything.  Shlomo's parents understood the importance of parnasa b'kavod (being able to earn an honorable living).  They put the new electric refrigerator in their bedroom, and kept the old icebox in the kitchen.  The ice man would come, deliver his ice, shmooze a bit, maybe have a cup of tea.  He was getting older, it was hard work to deliver ice, a little break would be nice, yes, another cup of tea would be fine.

This wasn't tzedakah.  If no one bought his ice anymore, then yes, he might need tzedakah, being too old to learn a new trade at that point.  He worked hard at his job -- it's just that Shlomo's family had a different understanding of what his job was.  Since he delivered ice to everyone, he knew everyone.  And he would share news of the community -- not lashon ha-ra, has v'shalom, but the kind of news that a Rav or a Rebbetzin might need to know in order to extend a kind word at the right time, or quietly re-direct some of the community kupa (tzedakah fund) to someone who needed it most.

The ice man wasn't delivering ice.  He was delivering netzutzot!  


Or at least, the opportunity to free those holy sparks from the ice -- for someone who could look past the poverty, the obsolescence, all the klipot that hide us from each other.  He stayed a valued, treasured member of the community, and saw himself as the mensch that he was, until he was zakein, ba-b'yamim (Br. 24:1), and ha-Shem blessed him, so that he could bless everyone else.

Here in Washington, it's often easiest to think in terms of job re-training programs, employment statistics, which component of a stimulus package will have which effect.  But it's also good for a little cold weather, and a story from not so long ago, to remind us of the whole picture.

Pre-Inauguration Havdalah event

This election season resulted in an historic shift of power- but our work is far from over. 

How can we realize our vision for justice in the coming years? 

On Saturday, January 17, 2009, join HIAS Young Leaders, Jews United for Justice and the AVODAH-AJWS Partnership for an evening of havdalah, discussion, and celebration preceeding the inauguration of President-Elect Obama. The event will feature a Havdallah service following a panel with: 

• Ronit Avni, founder of Just Vision, which supports Israeli and Palestinian non-violent civic peace builders through media and education. 
  
• Ben Brandzel, formerly of MoveOn.org and now an online organizing consultant for progressive organizations such as SEIU and Avaaz.org. 
  
• Saul Garlick, founder of Student Movement for Real Change, supporting young people in their work for sustainable international development. 
  

DATE: Saturday, January 17th, 2009 
TIME: Snacks at 5:45pm, Havdalah at 6:15 sharp 
WHERE: The Theatre at Mt. Vernon Methodist Church (900 Mass. Ave NW) 
Click here to RSVP!

Summing up Breishit: Biology is not destiny – people as partners in Creation

[Note: we promised a drash tonight – so here it is. The conclusion will be turned into complete sentences, and the links and citations will be corrected, as soon as possible. But for now, read and enjoy.]

The Torah ends with seven verses marking the death of Moshe Rabbeinu, often ascribed to the authorship (or at least penmanship) of Yehoshua, leading directly into the haftarah for Zot haBracha, the beginning of the book of Shoftim. Sefer Breishit ends with five pasukim marking the death of Yosef Acheinu. We don't usually ascribe the rest of the book of Breishit to either the authorship or penmanship of Yosef. But the Joseph story dominates the narrative, in a way that is almost comparable to the prominence of Moshe Rabbeinu in the remaining four books of the Chumash.

What is so compelling about Yosef's story that we devote so many of the precious chapters, verses, words, and letters of Torah to such an extensive telling? One lens for this question is that Breishit shows us a unified tale, repeating a motif of sibling strife through many generations, reaching its apotheosis and its nullification in Yosef Acheinu.

We begin at the beginning, with the very first humans to be born – Kayin and Avel. Hava proclaims (Br. 4:1):
 וַתֹּאמֶר, קָנִיתִי אִישׁ אֶת-יְהוָה.
Even Everett Fox demurs, “Hebrew difficult” for this passage. But Rashi points us to Nidda 31, to understand “et ha-Shem” as “with God”. And we understand “kaniti” not as “acquired” but as "created" – Ilana Pardes offers a lovely drash supporting this interpretation in her book, “Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach”. So we take Hava's statement as:
I have created a being, as a partner with ha-Shem.
From the beginning, people have viewed their role as a partnership in ma'aseh breishit, in the works of creation. But Hava, and most of Sefer Breishit, sees that partnership as a biological one.

We do not have long to wait before seeing the first, and most virulent, appearance of sibling rivalry (4:10).
קוֹל דְּמֵי אָחִיךָ, צֹעֲקִים אֵלַי מִן-הָאֲדָמָה.
The voice of the bloods of your brother, they cry out to me from the earth.

 And worse, the bloody cycle of non-redemption is part and parcel of Kayin's murder. Kayin objects to his sentence, that his punishment for murder will only lead others to murder. And ha-Shem's response (4:15) seems only to escalate the cycle further:
 לָכֵן כָּל-הֹרֵג קַיִן, שִׁבְעָתַיִם, יֻקָּם
Therefore, anyone who murder Kayin, [the punishment] will be seven-fold upon them.

In a quick tour through all of Breishit, we see Lemech raising the ante on the cycle of non-redemption another order of magnitude (4:24). Avraham attempts to quell the cycle of strife by separating between himself and Lot, for (13:8) “are we not brothers”? Nonetheless, his relationship with Lot leads to war (14:1) and destruction (19:23), and as far as we know from the text of the Chumash, Avraham and Lot never speak again. Lot's daughters appear to have some level of cooperation (19:36), yet the fruit of that labor (19:37-38) is emblematic of conflict and strife to this day.

Within the nuclear families of our foremothers and forefathers, the same cycle of non-redemption constitutes the pattern of each generation. Sarah and Hagar, Yitzchak and Yishmael cast each other out, physically and in the family relationships. We see a small glimpse of redemptive behavior when Avraham's two sons come together to bury him (25:9) – but it remains but a glimpse. For the next generation continues the strife even before it is born (25:21):

וַיֶּעְתַּר יִצְחָק לַיהוָה לְנֹכַח אִשְׁתּוֹ, כִּי עֲקָרָה הִוא; וַיֵּעָתֶר לוֹ יְהוָה, וַתַּהַר רִבְקָה אִשְׁתּוֹ.  
And Yitzchak entreated ha-Shem on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and ha-Shem was so entreated, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 
  וַיִּתְרֹצְצוּ הַבָּנִים, בְּקִרְבָּהּ, וַתֹּאמֶר אִם-כֵּן, לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי; וַתֵּלֶךְ, לִדְרֹשׁ אֶת-יְהוָה. 
And the children struggled together within her; and she said: 'If it be so, why do I live?' And she went to demand [an explanation] of ha-Shem. 
  וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה לָהּ, שְׁנֵי גֹיִים בְּבִטְנֵךְ, וּשְׁנֵי לְאֻמִּים, מִמֵּעַיִךְ יִפָּרֵדוּ; וּלְאֹם מִלְאֹם יֶאֱמָץ, וְרַב יַעֲבֹד צָעִיר.
And ha-Shem said to her: Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from your bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Thus Yosef's father and uncle, in utero re-enact and pre-enact the conflicts of his own generation. They too, Esav and Yaakov, offer a glimmer of how to break the cycle of non-redemption, but the text (33:4) is ambiguous:

וַיָּרָץ עֵשָׂו לִקְרָאתוֹ וַיְחַבְּקֵהוּ, וַיִּפֹּל עַל-צַוָּארָו וַיִּשָּׁקֵהוּ; וַיִּבְכּוּ

Esav ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept.

Masoretically, the word “al tzavarav” famously has six dots above the letters, which midrashically is taken to represent Esav attempting to bite his brother's neck in the midst of a pretended embrace.  The brothers do emulate their father, by coming together to bury him. But again, no further contact – much less healing -- between them is observed

Nor are the women exempt from replicating these cycles of non-redemption. Similar to Sarah and Hagar, Rachel and Leah have their own virulent form of sibling rivalry, reaching the point (30:1) where Rachel contemplates death:
 וַתְּקַנֵּא רָחֵל, בַּאֲחֹתָהּ; וַתֹּאמֶר אֶל-יַעֲקֹב הָבָה-לִּי בָנִים, וְאִם-אַיִן מֵתָה אָנֹכִי
Rachel was jealous of her sister, saying to Yaakov, “Give me children, for if I have none, I will die.”
A key passage, to which we shall return shortly.

It is worthwhile to pause amidst this tour of Breishit to note the absence of certain kinds of conflict. Unlike much of the rest of Chumash, we see essentially no strife between people and ha-Shem (with the exception of the Tower of Bavel). We humans do not act like angels, certainly. But the focus of text is markedly different from the repeated rebellions of the other books (e.g, the Golden Calf in Shmot, every alternating chapter in Bamidbar, and in the re-telling, most of Devarim). Nor do we see much conflict between parents and children. Indeed, even the supposedly evil Esav is complimented rabbinically for his scrupulous observance of kibud av v'eim.

So the strife, the jealousies and rivalries between Yosef and his brothers is nothing new under the sun. It is the apotheosis of everything observed in the world up until that point – how could we expect it to be otherwise? And for many years, it is not....until Yehuda steps forward.

You might think, “until Yehuda steps forward”, meaning (44:18), before the Regent of Egypt who happens to be his hidden brother. But rather, until Yehuda steps forward, and acknowledges (38:26) to Tamar, “You are more righteous than I”. It is this lesson in teshuva that he applies in the climactic moment in Egypt, and it arises, interestingly, from some unspecified tzuris (38:7) among the brothers who were supposed to be husbands to Tamara (Er, Onan, and Shelah).

So far, this tour of Breishit matches many commentaries and analyses. Yet perhaps the moment “va-Yigash Yehudah” is not the climax it appears. True enough, Yehuda exhibits all the marks of a baal teshuvah (being truly repentant). He is placed, through Yosef's machinations, into a situation similar to the one where he previously sinned. Instead of enslaving another brother, this time Binyamin, he takes it upon himself to prevent the tragedy from recurring.

But how? Essentially, by perpetuating the cycle of non-redemption! Instead of having Yosef enslave Binyamin, Yehudah demands that he be enslaved instead. This may be progress, and it is sufficient for Yosef to end the masquerade quite ecstatically. But it seems meager progress indeed.

Fortunately, at the very end of Sefer Breishit, we find the real Big Finish, though it may not receive the attention it deserves. The cycle of non-redemption is broken once and for all; family reconciliation is truly completed.

In the final passage of the entire book (save those five pesukim we mentioned at the outset), the brothers fear that the death of their father Yaakov exposes them to Yosef's pent-up wrath from their old patterns (50:15-21). Despite all those years living peacefully in Mitzrayim, when Yosef clearly had the power to do to them as he wished, they fear that the sole restraint was Yaakov's presence, not any true change to their family patterns. So they make up some story (and the meforshim are quite clear that it's made up) about Yaakov's death-bed instructions, and they ask for forgiveness – which they receive! End of story.

Except...let's look a little more closely at the interaction. The brothers actually don't ask for forgiveness, at least not directly. They send an intermediary (50:16):
וַיְצַוּוּ, אֶל-יוֹסֵף לֵאמֹר
They send [a messenger] to Yosef, [instructing the messenger] to say...

It is only when Yosef weeps in response to their message that they enter his presence themselves. And ironically, they tell him (50:18):
 הִנֶּנּוּ לְךָ לַעֲבָדִים
Behold, we are slaves to you.

Precisely the outcome that Yehudah tried to avoid / volunteered for! And Yosef's response may be the lynchpin, if we can propertly understand it. He says:
וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם יוֹסֵף, אַל-תִּירָאוּ: כִּי הֲתַחַת אֱלֹהִים, אָנִי

The first half of his response is, “Fear not” -- as opposed to, “I forgive you.” He acknowledges that there were wrong committed by his brothers against him, that he would have every right, as they would have every expectation, for retribution and the perpetuation of family violence into yet another generation. But he clearly intends to forgo that option, to break the cycle, hence, “Fear not.”

The second half of his response is much harder to parse – and therefore, even more of an invitation to interpretation. Ha-tachat Elohim ani? Often translated as, “am I in God's place?”. Now, where have we seen that precise phrase before?

Yosef often ascribes outcomes as originating with ha-Shem's intentions, as opposed to those of human actors. But this precise phrase, ha-tachat Elohim ani, directs us right back to his own birth story. Rachel is lamenting her barrenness, pleads with Yaakov to give her children – and Yaakov responds (30:2):
וַיִּחַר-אַף יַעֲקֹב, בְּרָחֵל; וַיֹּאמֶר, הֲתַחַת אֱלֹהִים אָנֹכִי, אֲשֶׁר-מָנַע מִמֵּךְ, פְּרִי-בָטֶן
Yaakov grew angry with Rachel and said, “ha-tachat Elohim anochi”, am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruitfulness of the womb?

Same phrase, but such different affect (and effect). Yaakov is angry, Rachel is unappeased, and the strife continues (though with a partial solution that we'll discuss in a moment). Yosef speaks the same words, but with chesed (loving kindness and mercy), and cycle is definitely broken.

Ah, but it's not exactly the same phrase. Yaakov says “anochi”, Yosef says “ani”. Perhaps it is over-interpreting (as if there could be such a thing for Torah), but “anochi” is a formal, distancing version of the pronoun “I”. It is the very first utterance of the Ten Commandment, by the terrifying God of Sinai, the word before which all the people of Israel quail and retreat 12 miles (or drop dead and need to be revived by ha-Shem, depending on which version of the midrash you follow [Shabbat 87b?]). “Ani”, on the other hand, is almost colloquial, leveling, simply “I”.

So let's try translating these almost-equivalent yet utterly different phrases again. The different pronouns may speak of a different meaning for “tachat” -- in place of, or under. Ya'akov, in anger, says, “Would I try to usurp ha-Shem's role in human affairs? Barrenness, strife, jealousy – these are decreed from above, and it's not my place to change them.” Yosef, with chesed, says, “Am I in a position subservient to (“under”) ha-Shem? No, we are partners in the works of creation, and it is my responsibility – all people's responsibility – to dispense mercy just as ha-Shem does.”

Yosef's theological shift here (if indeed he is making such a statement) is a radical one – people are partners with ha-Shem, not merely in the biological sense that Hava intended when “creating” Kayin. But if there's one consistent characteristic of Yosef's personality, it is surely that he suffer no lack of self-worth. If anyone could make that leap, it would be Yosef. And to such an end! To conclude Sefer Breishit with an emphatic re-definition of humanity's place in the universe, coinciding with the end of so many generations of the cycle of non-redemption!

There's is one other key piece that may cement this interpretation, as well as giving us a new appreciation for one of our ancestors. The two passages we just discussed, where we find “ha-tachat Elohim anochi / ani”, share one other commonality.  

In the first, when Rachel fails to gain satisfaction with Yaakov, she chooses a messenger in her place. She frees her maidservant Bilhah, so that she may marry Yaakov and bear children “upon my knees” (30:3). In the second, when the brothers fear that cycle of strife will re-commence, they a choose in messenger in their place: Bilhah! The midrash universally agrees that she is the one to appear before Yosef (except that Rashi tries to morph Bilhah into Bilhah's sons). But none of the classical texts offers any explanation for Bilhah's role in this key passage.

For Rachel, biology was destiny. Without children, she sees only death. But for Bilha, she becomes the mother of Rachel's children. When Rachel died in childbirth, Bilha becomes the adoptive mother for both Yosef and Binyamin. When Yosef tells of his dream in which the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bow down before him – the prophecy can only be accurate if the moon is Bilhah, not Rachel (as the midrash makes clear, Rachel has died before anyone is bowing down to Yosef).

So for Bilhah, instead of biology, it is chesed that establishes her place in ma'aseh breishit.
(A lesson she learned from Rachel, in fact – Proem 24, Eicha Raba). Look at the relationship between Binyamin and Yosef. If ever a sibling relationship could heal the strife of generations of rivalries, it is Binyamin's adoration of his older (and the painfully absent) brother. Just one midrashic example -- he names every one of his ten sons after some marvelous remembered characteristic of Yosef. Where does he learn such capacity for love, in the context of a sibling relationship? Logically, it must be the only mother he has ever known, Bilhah.

Bilha plays a subtle yet absolutely central role in this story.  We have Bilha, substituting for Rachel in Perek Lamed, giving birth in her stead, and ultimately becoming the mother of Rachel's biological children.  And again we have Bilha, substituting for the brothers, absenting herself from the competition among the biological children of Yaakov, and finally transcending that competition, in Perek Nun. She displays chesed as the language of healing in both, refusing to see biology as destiny.

Our passage at the end of Breishit contains an explicit echo of the language of healing – the brothers' message is (50:17):

 וְעַתָּה שָׂא נָא

And now, please, forgive!

We hear in their plaintive syllables some of Moshe Rabbeinu's famous plea to heal the pains of sibling rivalry, when he asks ha-Shem to heal his sister Miriam – El na, r'fah na lah.

In Va-yigash, why is Yehuda the primary brother to demonstrate the principle of Teshuva, when he has three older brothers?  And subsequently, why are we "Yehudim", Jews in his name?  Because biology is not destiny – throughout Breishit, primogeniture is rejected.  Each of his three older brothers each ran afoul of the same principle:

• Reuven attempts to sleep with Bilha after Rachel dies (vYisrael shma, 35:21, with a much longer narrative in Jubilees Ch.33).  But Bilha does not pass to the oldest son as property.

• Shimon and Levi attempt to avenge the honor of Dina (under the interpretation that her relationship with Shchem was consenual).  But daughters are not property.

• Yehuda attempts avoid responsibility for impregnating his daughter-in-law.  But mothers are not the only parents, and Yehuda unlike his older siblings, learned his lessons thanks to Tamar.  He demonstrated his ability to make teshuva, repeated so crucially in Va-Yigash.
   
  

So our teachers in breaking the cycle of redemption are first Tamar, daughter of a Canaanite woman.  And then Bilhah, daughter of the Aramean who tried to destroy our Father, Yaakov (and whose own father, Milcha, tried to poison Eliezer and block the destiny of his daughter Rivka, averted only by a literal turning of the tables by the angel Gavriel that led to him consuming his own potion – but that's another story).  Thanks to them, Yosef has the opportunity to break the cycle of non-redemption with finality, in this final story of our first book of stories.

Yosef confirms that chesed is what creates not just biological families, but whole families, and indeed, a whole people. The transition from biological family to the Jewish people that concludes at Sinai is begun at the closing of sefer breishit, when the brothers choose Bilha is the most appropriate messenger, and when Yosef understands and confirms their choice.