Every year we talk about how we are going to free our selves once and for all. The next year comes and we talk about it again. Is there a way to break the cycle? We will talk about that this Sunday Morning, 3/17 at 10am at Adat Shalom as part of hamakOhm. Everyone is welcome.
Here are the texts we will look at if you would like to get a head start, but it is not required to do so for the session.
“Leaving the Narrow Land—How to Liberate Yourself from
All the Things that Hold You Back”
Rabbi Aaron Bergman
A Prayer for Openings and Closings
Brachot 60b
Blessed is God who has formed humans in wisdom and created in them many
orifices and many cavities. It is obvious and known before Your throne of
glory that if one of them were to be ruptured or one of them blocked, it would
be impossible for a person to survive and stand before You. Blessed are You
that heals all flesh and does wonders.”
The Book of Exodus
Chapter 1
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor,
and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the
more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the
Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14
They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all
kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them
ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were
Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during
childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but
if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not
do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then
the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you
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done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian
women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became
even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave
them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is
born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
Chapter 2
1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became
pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she
hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a
papyrus basket[a] for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed
the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His
sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her
attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the
reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby.
He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew
babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the
Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9
Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I
will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the
child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son.
She named him Moses,[b] saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people
were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a
Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no
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one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went
out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are
you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”
14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking
of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and
thought, “What I did must have become known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from
Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a
priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill
the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and
drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered
their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have
you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even
drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him?
Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to
Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him
Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
Psalm 118
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let Israel say:
“His love endures forever.”
3 Let the house of Aaron say:
“His love endures forever.”
4 Let those who fear the LORD say:
“His love endures forever.”
5 When hard pressed (From the narrow place), I cried to the LORD;
he brought me into a spacious place.
6 The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?
7 The LORD is with me; he is my helper.
I look in triumph on my enemies.
8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in humans.
9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.
10 All the nations surrounded me,
but in the name of the LORD I cut them down.
11 They surrounded me on every side,
but in the name of the LORD I cut them down.
12 They swarmed around me like bees,
but they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns;
in the name of the LORD I cut them down.
13 I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the LORD helped me.
14 The LORD is my strength and my defense[a];
he has become my salvation.
15 Shouts of joy and victory
resound in the tents of the righteous:
“The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!
16 The LORD’s right hand is lifted high;
the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!”
17 I will not die but live,
and will proclaim what the LORD has done.
18 The LORD has chastened me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
19 Open for me the gates of the righteous;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
20 This is the gate of the LORD
through which the righteous may enter.
21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
23 the LORD has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 The LORD has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad.
25 LORD, save us!
LORD, grant us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
From the house of the LORD we bless you.[b]
27 The LORD is God,
and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up[c] to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will praise you;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.
29 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
Rabbi Aaron Bergman's Blog 