Shabboom! Weekly Announcements

Energize your week with Ohev Sholom                                      November 26, 2020

Shabbat Times and Announcements

Erev Shabbat,
November 26 (Kislev 10)
3:00p D'var Torah with Rabbi Herzfeld via  Facebook Live
3:55p Laining of the Torah by Talia Loeffler​​​​​​​
join here
4:25p Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat/D'var Torah (in person,  advance registration requiredMincha via Zoom  join here )
4:29p Candlelighting

Shabbat, November  27 (Kislev 11)
Parashat Vayetzei
8:45a Shabbat Morning Services (in person, advance registration required)
4:30p Mincha/Maariv (in person, advance registration required)
5:29p Havdalah via Zoom at 5:32p Join here

For more information and details on how to sign-up for our limited outdoor in-person services, please visit ostns.org/reopening.

The shul has two YouTube accounts which have recordings of past classes, shiurim, and events. They can be accessed here:

• Ohev Sholom Channel
• Rabbi Herzfeld's Channel

Last year we participated in a faith & mental health survey for researchers at Catholic University. They have built a follow-up survey focusing specifically on mental health during the pandemic, and we invite all members to participate (it should take 15 minutes.) In addition to helping support their research, Ohev's participation will also give the shul leadership useful information on the challenges and experiences of our members during the pandemic, which will allow us to serve you better. For the results to be accurate and useful, we need as high a response rate as possible. So we ask all adults to please fill out the survey. The survey is completely anonymous; we do not collect names or email addresses. You can find the survey here. Thank you for your participation!

Comments on the Weekly Portion and Haftorah Contributed by Rabbi Ben Mintz

This week's parsha, Vayetze, describes Yaakov's journey to the house of Lavan, his mother's brother, in Charan, and his building of a family.

The parsha begins with the words, "Vayetze Yaakov miBe'er Sheva." "And Yaakov left the city of Be'er Sheva:  The rabbis ask: Did only Yaakov leave the city? Were there not many other people who left the city on that day? The rabbis answer that when a righteous person lives in a city, he or she is the city's glory and its excellence. When the righteous person leaves, it makes an impression, because the city's glory and its excellence also depart.

Yaakov meets Lavan's two daughters, Leah and Rachel. The Torah says that the eyes of the older daughter, Leah, were "rakos", sensitive. Why was this true? The answer given is that people in the community had said that Lavan had two daughters and Rivka had two sons, so in the future the older son would marry the older daughter and the younger  son would marry the younger daughter. This meant that Leah, the older daughter, would marry Eisav, the older son. The prospect of marrying Eisav was traumatic to Leah, and she shed tears when she thought about it. Her crying caused her eyes to become "rakos."

Yaakov loved Rachel, and he made an agreement with Lavan to work seven years in order to win the right to marry her. Lavan, however, believed that Leah should be married first because she was older.  He made a party in honor of the wedding, but substituted Leah for Rachel as the wife of Yaakov. The Torah says that following the wedding night, Yaakov awoke and was surprised to discover that he had married Leah and not Rachel. Why was Yaakov surprised? The midrash explains that Yaakov had expected some trick by Lavan, so he had given Rachel signs that she would give to Yaakov so he would know that it was she he had married. But when Lavan substituted Leah on the wedding night, Rachel feared that when Leah did not know the signs and Yaakov realized that it wasn't Rachel he had married, it would humiliate her older sister. So Rachel gave the signs to a veiled Leah, who showed them to Yaakov on the wedding night. And for this reason Yaakov was surprised the next morning to discover that it was Leah, and not Rachel, that he had married.

The parsha continues. Yaakov agrees to work for Lavan for an additional seven years in order to also marry Rachel, after which, he leaves Lavan's house and 
Charan, with his wives and his family. The next parsha, Vayishlach, tells of the "reunion" of the two brothers.

The haftorah for Vayetze is from the prophet Hoshea (12:13-14:10). It begins with a reference to Yaakov's flight to the land of Aram (also called Charan) and concludes with a well-known saying: "The paths of the Lord are straight, and the righteous will walk on them and sinners will stumble on them.

Haftorah Video, by Hal Brodsky z"l

Upcoming Events and Weekly Schedule

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Contact Us

Synagogue Office
info@ostns.org
(202) 882-7225
Alejandra Benitez, Office Manager
Alejandra@osts.org
(202) 882-7225
Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld
RabbiShmuel@ostns.org
(202) 812-8900 
Maharat Ruth Balinsky Friedman
MaharatRuth@ostns.org
(202) 882-7225, ext. 107
Monica Wolfe, Executive Director
Monica.Wolfe@ostns.org
(202) 882-7225, etx. 103
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board@ostns.org
Hospitality & Welcome Committee
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