A 3 Hour Walk

Last week, we returned from a trip to South Africa for my sister’s wedding, just in time for Shevy`s sister’s wedding which took place last night. Yocheved`s entire family flew in from all over the world to join the celebrations. As she is the fourteenth child out of a total of fifteen, and many of the Lew siblings are parents to eight, nine or ten kids, you can only imagine how many cousins were running around! The immediate family alone tallied in at over 100 people! Needless to say, it was one heck of a fantastic experience!

The Shabbat Sheva Brachot will take place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The good news is that despite our location, services at the Marriot Hotel will be on as usual, because luckily, Crown Heights is within walking distance. On Shabbat morning, I will G-d willing be waking up at 5am and start heading out to Manhattan at about 5:30am. The plan is to arrive by 8:30am, just in time for our Torah class at 8:45am, since it is a three hour trek. Now, if I can make it from Brooklyn, you can make it from a few blocks away! Join us at shul - don’t be late! In fact, if you’d like to meet me on the way, I’ll be walking up First Avenue.

This week’s Parsha chronicles the Israelites` greatest and most tragic national sin, the construction of the Golden Calf. Barely forty days after their marriage to G-d at Mount Sinai, the Jewish people betrayed Him. On that fateful day, they requested of Aron the Kohen Gadol to assemble the idol. Not wishing to transgress the Law of G-d, and at the same time afraid of their murderous wrath, Aron stalled for time, promising to build it the following morning. Aaron hoped that by that time Moshe would have already descended and the nation would be appeased by him. He had no way of anticipating that the people, in their excited state, would arise extra early and would have sinned by the time Moshe returned.

Let us transform the Israelites` negative enthusiasm into a positive one. We too should arise extra early with the intention to perform Mitzvot, just like Avraham who arose with dawn to fulfill G-d`s command of sacrificing Yitzchak.

See you on Shabbat morning!

Shabbat shalom!