From The President
David P Lewis
e: president@greatsynagogue.org.au
Dear Friends,
Protest Outside TGS Sunday 14 July
As we outlined in our weekly newsletter last week and in our message to members yesterday, we are grateful to NSW Premier Chris Minns for his swift response to our request for a meeting to discuss the recent events that took place targeting our Synagogue.
The Premier committed to working with our community to prevent the recurrence of socially divisive action by protestors and to enable freedom of worship in the Sydney CBD. The Premier affirmed the right of all citizens to go about their daily lives in safety and security, without fear of being targeted by those who want to import foreign conflict into Australia.
I have stressed to the Premier that the time has come for action and that as the situation has now changed, we need a change to protect our community.
I will continue to work with the Premier and his advisers to achieve that objective.
Great Vine
Our annual magazine, the Great Vine, is approaching publication date and submissions are CLOSING SOON for Simcha Photos, Articles, Advertisements as well as High Holiday Greetings. Go to www.greatsynagogue.org.au/tgv for Ads and High Holiday greetings. Please email your article submissions and HIGH resolution Simcha photos to greatvine@greatsynagogue.org.au.
WOW 2024 – “Women of Worth” – Sunday 21st July
The WOW Event– Women of Worth event was an outstanding success with over 130 people attending the full day programme. Plans for the 2025 WOW event are already underway.
Erev Tisha B’Av – Monday Night 12 August
The Eruv Tisha B’Av service will commence at 6.30pm on Monday 12 August with Maariv. After that TGS is proud to announce a special film screening of Dreyfus Drei.
Dreyfus Drei is not only a documentary but a dialogue across time, inviting viewers to reflect on the impact of history on personal identity and the arts as a medium for understanding and reconciliation. The film was made possible through the support of the Dreyfus Family, Goethe-Institut, Sevenpeaks Films, and was commissioned by the 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany Festival in 2021. Free Admission, All Welcome – Entry via main entrance on Elizabeth Street.
Next week I will include details of the service times and arrangements for Tisha B’Av.
TGS AGM
Finally, an early reminder, The Great Synagogue, Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on 22 September at 5pm. Under our rules, the AGM must always be held not less than 8 days prior to Rosh Hashanah and we must advertise the holding of the AGM not less than 30 days prior to that Meeting.
To all those in our community who are suffering an illness, we wish you a Refu’ah Shleima — a complete and speedy recovery; and to all those commemorating a Yahrzeit, or who have recently suffered a loss, we wish you a long and good life, full of Simchas.
Shabbat Shalom
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From The Rabbi
Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton
e: admin@greatsynagogue.org.au
Devar Torah: PINCHAS 5784
I want to congratulate the team behind WOW for a very successful event last Sunday. I have heard rave reviews from several of the many participants who took part and enjoyed and were inspired by the program.
This Friday night in a new initiative we are hosting a Friday dinner for Bnei Mitzvah families from last year, this year and next year, to promote and maintain a strong connection with the Shule and with each other. We will be addressed by our member Dr Anthony Milch, an expert in teen psychology, and there will be a Devar Torah by my friend and fellow Sacks Scholar Rabbi Seth Grauer, who is the Head of the Bnei Akiva schools in Toronto.
We have now entered the three weeks, the period of mourning for the Temple that culminates on 9 Av with a twenty five hour fast to mark its destruction. This year our evening service will feature a showing of the film Dreyfus Drei, which explored family, identity and returning to Germany from Australia. That will be followed by a question and answer session with the film’s maker, Ella Dreyfus. The program, including Maariv and the reading of the Book of Lamentations will begin at 6pm on Tuesday 13 August.
One of the most fascinating episodes in the Torah concerns the daughters of Tzelophchad. Their father had died leaving no sons and the law seemed to indicate that they as a result they would enjoy no inheritance. They brought their case to Moses and he took it to God, Who told Moses that they had a good point and in the absence of a son they should inherit.
The Talmud teaches that the daughters were wise, they were astute interpreters of verses and they were righteous and that these three attributes were necessary for their decision to speak out and their success when they did so. They were wise because they chose an opportune time to speak, which was when Moses was teaching the relevant verses, they analysed the texts under discussion and did not just embark on an unfocused ramble, and their motivations were pure. The result was a total and unexpected overturning of the law as it was understood, which had come from God Himself! God reversed His position because of the way the daughters presented their case.
In Judaism, certainly over time, almost anything is possible. That is the genius of the developmental part of the Torah, known as the Oral Law. But there are conditions. Issues have to be raised at appropriate and opportune times. We have to base ourselves on our sacred texts and feel for them and show them all the reverence they deserve. We also have to approach every topic, especially if it is controversial or we are hoping for a change, with sincerity, piety and a righteous outlook. If we do so, then with patience we will see movement.
Indeed, if that is the spirit in which we approach difficult issues then we can even say that God wants us to undertake this work. Why else would he have allowed one law about inheritance to be promulgated only for the daughters to protest and for it to be altered? It is because God wants us to bring our moral intuition, our scholarship and our religious feeling to these questions and to seek to move them along. That is the fundamental and permanent lesson from the daughters of Tzelophchad, and it is relevant in every generation.
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