Portion of the Week; Rabbi Grossman

{singing/chanting a prayer in Hebrew?} {singing/chanting a prayer in Hebrew?} {singing/chanting a prayer in Hebrew?} Portion of the week. The Bible as read in the Synagogue, with Rabbinic commentary This evening we hear Rabbi Rafael Grossman, spiritual leader of the Orthodox Congregation Brothers of Israel at Long Branch, New Jersey "{Hebrew} But to fear God your God {Hebrew} {Hebrew} to go in all His ways {Hebrew} and to love Him {Hebrew} And to serve The Lord, thy God

{Hebrew} With all thy heart {Hebrew} And with all thy soul I've often heard people say Religion is a form of paganism, of idolatry. Even today, a matter of service to a god, giving homage, paying tribute continuous forms of exaltation and extolation of some supernatural being. And, I've heard one such person, indicate this particular verse as the source of it. 'And what does God ask of thee but to fear him and to love him, and to walk in his ways.' But what is implied by fearing God and loving God? Surely he who merely utters words of extolation, he who will merely sing the Psalms and praises of God and not walk in his ways is in

every conceivable way denouncing and certainly desecrating the name of God. The scripture continues to say 'He, God, does execute the judgment of the fatherless and the widow and love of a stranger and giving him food and raiment.' How does one love God? By loving that which God has created. By emulating God. And, as God, loves the poor, the impoverished, the hungry, the widowed, the orphaned, the fatherless {duplicate from above?} and as he gives them, so must we. One of the most difficult verses in the bible to understand is found in this very paragraph.

'{Hebrew} And you shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked.' To circumcise the heart and the ultimate result would be the removal of stiff-neckedness. Seems rather so platitudinous and ethereal; so removed from actuality and reality. What was implied by this mystifying verse? The heart has always been the symbol of man's emotions. The call and the plea to every man is to love God. For by learning to love god he will learn to love his fellow

man. If he will allow an opening in his heart for emotions; for expressions he will know that the cold and callous and often indifferent expressions of the mind are contrarian. Not only to the desire of God but to the well-being of man. I believe that one of the great tragedies of our time is the fact that we have become so terribly obsessed with scientific creativity. Oh surely it is a great blessing that we have advanced so that we have created so much that we have expanded longevity of man. And, surely, it is incumbent upon every one of us to seek to pursue the mysteries of this world and

to uncover the solutions, particularly those that {heal?} But, there must be a line of demarcation in the standing. Our method of education for instance today. Not too very long ago a Senator returned from a visit to the Soviet Union and he wrote an article for the magazine of the New York Times. And there he declared, 'The Soviet's are far ahead of us. The percentage of engineers being developed in their colleges and universities is far greater. Their technological know-how is slowly, but surely, surpassing us.' And we became terrified and alarmed. And particularly when they, our adversaries, the Soviets succeeded in sending a satellite into space before we did we declared that there is nothing else for us to do but to take our entire educational system and to convert it into a media

of technological advancement. And one great national leader said 'Forget the Humanities. Let us now begin to study the practical things. Let us teach of children the important things! So that our nation can survive!' Survive because we have yielded. Survive at what price. Survive and take the great cultural contribution of two millenniums of western civilization and cast it to the sea? Survive with a mind and without the heart? Let me tell you that there are ways of penetrating even irons made of curtain. And

they come not with missiles. They come not with satellites. But the channel is a far more significant one. It is through the heart. The voice of the heart. The message of the heart. The path of God. Yes it may be an old one. Its ways though the words of the prophet are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace. Where will this arms race get us? Will this infatuation with technolog... technology bring us? What will we ultimately achieve from it and by it? I don't dispute nor do it in any way imply that we should desist. Shall we or dare we forget the beauty of the meaningfulness and if you will the power of the heart. God created man for but one

purpose. To learn. To understand. To create. To blossom forth. To come forth and multiply. So that this world of His will become one great glorious symphony. Singing a song of brotherly love. Calling unto peoples everywhere{s} to come forth as the children of God. Under the fatherhood of one heavenly creator. No my dear people. No. Peace will not be achieved by present methods and present attitudes and present convictions. It is time now to build new laboratories. Yes, new laboratories committed to research but seeking not

the new, but, if you will, the old. The old questions and the old mysteries. And finding in the old the solutions to the age old problems of man. Finding in the old, the key which will open the door to a new horizon, to a new dawning, and to a new awakening. To that day in that morrow when man will awaken and know that he need no longer live in fear but can. That peace will forever prevail. prevail. Love become eternal. Cast from your heart its foreskin. Tear from it that steel curtain that surrounds it. And yes, that stiff- neckedness, which will not move right or left to see another. Which will not to be moved by the plight of another or forever be gone. This is all, but all,

that God asks of you. And how do we do this? By following. By walking. By marching proudly in his path. Not with words, but with deeds. By living in accordance with the tenets prescribed by God's sacred spoken and written word. Which emanated from Mount Sinai the day of man's greatest glory." You have been listening to Portion of the Week The Bible as read in the synagogue with rabbinic commentary. This evening you have heard Rabbi Rafael Grossman, spiritual leader of the Orthodox Congregation Brothers of Israel at Long Branch, New Jersey. The cantor for Portion of the Week is Eliza Crombine of the Congregation Beth Shalam of King's Bay in Brooklyn, New York. {Hebrew singing/chanting} {Hebrew singing/chanting}

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