My 2nd Drasha in Hebrew

Last night, I delivered my 2nd drasha (sermon) in Hebrew at our Reform congregation, Emet vShalom, in Nahariya. Rabbi Israel Horowitz had asked me a couple of weeks ago to do it. If you'd like to read it in the Hebrew original, I posted it on my Hebrew blog at this address (I don't think it will be a clickable link here -- you'll probably have to copy and paste it):

http://harpatkaot-beretz-haniflaot.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post.html

Here's my English translation of it:

Shabbat Shalom!

This week's Torah portion is Shmini. In this portion we read about many sacrifices and about the precise procedures that the priests followed in order to offer all these offerings in the tabernacle in the wilderness. We also read about the strange death of Nadav and Avihu, sons of Aaron who offered "foreign fire" before Adonai. After that, it is written: "And fire went out from before Adonai and consumed them and they died before Adonai"! Perhaps even worse than this, Aaron was not allowed to mourn for these sons of his! It's very hard to understand stories like this!

In the haftara, there is a similar story. This happened after King David had established his capital in Jerusalem. He decided to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem, to a place in the capital of the kingdom. King David arranged a big party, with all kinds of music and dancing, and all the people went up in great happiness. But, apparently, the road was a little rough, and the Ark almost fell from the new cart on which it was riding. A man named Uzzah touched the Ark to prevent it from falling. We might think that he would be thanked for this. But the exact opposite occurred! God killed him immediately, right on the spot!

When we read things like this in the Tanakh, we today may feel that we live in a completely different world from that of the Tanakh. But, as I thought more about this, I realized even now things happen that we can't explain or understand. Perhaps our world is NOT so different.

There is also a story of hope in this haftara. King David wanted to build a house for Adonai. Nevertheless, God wouldn't let him build the Temple. But King David did receive a very good promise. Adonai promised him that his kingdom would be forever and that his son would build the Temple of Adonai in Jerusalem. And until this very day, whenever we celebrate a simcha, we sing "Siman tov umazel tov umazel tov usiman tov ... David, King of Israel, lives on!" And, at the end of every Havdalah ceremony, we sing, "with mashiach, son of David."

Shabbat Shalom!