PE Progressive Jewish Congregation

PE Progressive Jewish Congregation This page is for members and friends of Temple Israel Port Elizabeth.

02/10/2026

✡️ This week we read Parshat Vezot HaBerakhah on Saturday 3 October from Deuteronomy 33:1 - 34:12. We follow the same Torah reading schedule as Israel and together with Israel we celebrate Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah

✡️ This portion contains the final words of Moses. He blesses each of the 12 tribes of Israel, before he starts his journey and ascends to Mount Nebo ( which today is located in Jordan )

On Simchat Torah, we take out all the Torah Scrolls from the Ark and carry them around the Bimah with much joy and celebration, and this is repeated again on Saturday morning

Simchat Torah is the only holiday, the Torah Scrolls are kept wrapped, it is a day of celebration where we rest our minds from study and give it feet as we become the Torah’s feet

✡️ In Deuteronomy 34:4, Ha’shem says to Moses: “ This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘ I will give to your offspring. ‘ I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross over them “

✡️ According to Midrashic traditions, when Moses travelled from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo he walked 15km and climbed over 800 meters above sea level, which gave Moses a view of the Promised Land, stretching over the Dead Sea and the Jordan River Valley

In Deuteronomy 34:7, we read: “ Moses was a 120 years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor had his natural vigor fled “. We learn from this that even though Moses was not able to enter the Promised Land, the Land entered him

✡️ Mose’s sight was good in both of his eyes, yet we read above “ his eye was not dim “. Jewish sages explained this as follows, that instead of Moses’s seeing with both eyes, he looked at everything with a single eye and this single eye refers refers to the prophetic insight he possessed

✡️ Chag Simchat Torah Sameach and Shabbat Shalom

25/09/2026

✡️ The laws and observance of Sukkot are read from Parshat Emor which is found in Leviticus and read from: 22:26 to 23:44. This portion is read as a special holiday Torah portion, which is read on the very first few days of Sukkot as well as on Passover and Shavout

✡️ In the Hebrew Year of 5787, the first day of Sukkot falls on a Shabbat, being 26th September 2026

✡️ Good Shabbos and Chag Sameach ✡️

I have been reading a beautiful idea about this Saturday, which I would like to share with you

Tomorrow morning- it is both Shabbat and the First Day of Sukkot - this is a rare calendar alignment, and because of this, the regular Torah reading is paused, and we read the holiday section from Parshat Emor instead

✡️ Shabbat is a shelter built of time, it is structured and predictable, whilst the Sukkah is a shelter built of physical space, which is open to the outside elemental and is also fragile in nature

Because Shabbat and Sukkot fall on the same day tomorrow, it forces us to ask where we can find our own security

We build many things to feel safe, permanent homes, use technology, bank accounts to feel safe, yet Sukkot reminds that the Israelites, whilst living in the desert, lived in flimsy huts, protected by Ha’shem

Because it is Shabbat tomorrow, we don’t wave the Lulav, even through the Torah commands us to take the four species on the very first day of Sukkot, this ritual is paused, whenever the first day of Sukkot coincides with the Sabbath

The sages decreed that we do not handle or wave the Four Species on Shabbat, however from Sunday 27th September, being day 2 through to day 7, before sunset Friday 2 October, we can make the blessing and wave the Lulav and Etrog

Wishing you a peaceful Shabbat and Yom Tov on Sukkot ❤️

18/09/2026

✡️ This week’s Parshat is Ha’azinu and is read on 19th September from Deuteronomy: Verses 32:1 to 32:52

Ha’azinu means “Listen”. From verses 32:1, we read a 70 line poetic song, known as The Song of Moses, where Moses details The Rock of Justice and Perfection:

✡️ “ He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for his ways are justice; a G-d of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right he is “

✡️ In verse 32:15, Moses continues: “But Jeshurun grew fat, thick and gross, then he forsook G-d who made him, and scornfully, and contemned the Rock of his salvation”

Some clarity: Jeshurun translates to The Upright One and represents the nation of Israel as being pure and beloved and when we read the words: fat, thick and gross; these words are portrayed as being “bloated with complacency and comfort”

✡️ Maimonides view of Yom Kippur is a mechanism which helps a person in achieving their life’s purpose. He says Yom Kippur is designed to break a cycle of over indulgence, be it material or physical, and forces us to abstain from eating, drinking and physical comforts and temporary silences the “animalistic nature” of the body.

✡️ Maimonides in his Guide for the Perplexed outlines the steps we need to take for Teshuvah ( repentance) and the need to actively perform acts of kindness and charity by bringing balance to the world

✡️ On Yom Kippur, we shout out loud:
“ Baruch Shem K’vod malchuto l’olam va ed”
On all other days, these words are traditionally spoken in a whisper

Shabbat Shalom and G’mar Chatimah Tovah
A peaceful Sabbath and may you be sealed well in the Book of Life ❤️

11/09/2026

🌍 This evening at sunset, Jews around the world welcome in Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, as we move from the year 5786 to 5787

✡️ What makes this Shabbat so special is that Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat this new year

On Saturday we pause reading Deuteronomy and move to Genesis 21: where we read the promise made to Abraham and Sarah and their desire of having a son is blessed upon them by Ha’shem

✡️ The 10 day period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur gives us time to reflect on our past actions, and to apologize to those we have offended, to reach out to those we have hurt, forgive those who we have wronged and even to reach out to loved ones from whom we have drifted away from

✡️ We use three pillars which can transform our self reflections into external actions. These pillars are:

✡️ Teshuvah: the process used to reflect upon the past year and to use these 10 days to mend fractured relationships

✡️ Tefilah: we are given a direct line through prayer and repentance by connecting with Ha’shem

✡️ Tzedakah: Jewish tradition views this as an ethical obligation to bring balance to the world and to share our resources in equitable ways

❤️ We wish everyone

“ Shana Tova U’metuka, Leshanah Tovah Titatevu”
A good and sweet year and may you be inscribed for a good year

Shabbat Shalom

03/09/2026

✡️ Parshat Nitzavim - Vayelech is a combined portion and is read on 5 September from Deuteronomy: 29:9 - 31:30

✡️ Nitzavim means “ Standing firm ” and the first verse reads: “ You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your G-d”

✡️ Vayelech means “and he went”. In this verse Moses hands over his leadership to Joshua and tells the Israelites, “ Chizku v’imatzu “ which means:

“ Be strong and resolute, be not in fear or in dread of them ( the Canaanite nations ), for it is indeed the Lord your G-d, who marches with you - who will not fail you or forsake you”

Moses gathered all the Israelites together from the highest to the lowest, and tells them all, that every single one of them is equal and part of the community

Teshuvah Tefilah Tzedakah

The Ten Days of Repentance, known in Hebrew as Aseret Yemei Teshuvah or the Days of Awe, start from sunset Friday and end on Yom Kippur

✡️ Here we are given 10 days to reflect and look at our lives and ask forgiveness of those we have hurt. Moses urges the Israelites to “ choose life “ and renew our covenant with Ha’shem

✡️ It takes immense courage and humility to look inwards and see how the destructive consequences of anger are followed by silence and emotional withdrawal

Teshuvah is all about being prepared to take the blame, to ask for forgiveness from your family, friends and others, by dropping your ego, and to repair and rebuild your relationships

✡️ In our human relationships, when we offend someone, we damage the relationship
between our soul and theirs

Shabbat Shalom ❤️

27/08/2026

✡️ Parshat Ti Tavo is read on 29 August from Deuteronomy 26:1 - 29:8, which means “when you come” or “when you enter”

We read of the commandment given to the Israelites, to bring their “bikkurim”, which are the first ripened fruits in a basket to the Holy Temple as an offering of thanks upon entering the Promised Land

Amongst the commandments outlining the agricultural tithes, Moses reminds the Israelites and lists the blessings for keeping the commandments and the punishments for abandoning them, as read in:

✡️ Deuteronomy 28:47: “ because you did not serve the Lord your G-d with joy and a good heart, out of an abundance of everything”

✡️ As this Torah portion directly deals with the rewards and punishments in the physical world: We should ask ourselves:

Is it not better to be blessed than punished not because we have to follow the commandments and our promise to keep the covenant, but because we want to ?

Shabbat Shalom ❤️

21/08/2026

✡️ This week’s Parshat: Ki Teitzei is read on 22 August, from Deuteronomy 21:10 - 24:19

In Hebrew it means “When you go out”. This portion always falls during the final month of the Jewish year

It outlines ethical laws for daily living, focuses on family welfare, societal justice, safety, and kindness to all humans, including animals

TWO WORLDS: One Broken and One Whole

In Deuteronomy 22:6, the commandment of Shiluach Haken (sending away the mother bird before taking her eggs or young chicks), connects to a boy climbing a tree and the tragedy which befalls this boy and his family when obeying his father, and resulting in his death

Ha’Shem commands us to obey our parents and promises “that our days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you”

✡️ Even though the boy has honored his parents and the commandment of sending away the “mother bird” and has fulfilled the only two mitzvots in the Torah, which promises a long and good life, he slips and dies instantly

✡️ This story violently breaks all beliefs in our world, and has been used to define how we look at Ha’Shem, ourselves and the very purpose of life

✡️ “ A famous passage in the Talmud highlights the problem of suffering through the story of a boy who tragically dies while honoring his father and sending away a mother bird

Rabbi Yaakov resolved this paradox by explaining that divine rewards are not paid out in physical and worldly benefits, but are preserved for the spiritual eternity of the world to come”

✡️ This portion has been debated for eternity, some Rabbis, have come to opposite conclusions, and have lost their faith in Ha’shem and their beliefs in the teachings of Torah

So how can it be, when we believe in doing good through deeds and actions, we obey laws and commandments, and the moment we are hit with bad luck, illness, financial problems and tragedies, we lose our faith ?

Rabbi Yaakov explains to us “ There is no reward for commandments in this physical world” S’char mitzvah be’hai alma leika

✡️ Our physical world is fragmented, it is filled with drama, chaos, light, darkness, accidents and gravity (the boy falling from the tree)

The world was created with a mixture of good and bad, and despite any brokenness, problems, poor health, it is a world of action, where we learn to work, to build and we choose to do good by our actions

✡️ The spiritual world is different, here we are whole, and it is in this world, that our good deeds and actions are realized

✡️ The study of Torah is good for our soul and to follow the path of good, being righteous and following the ways of Ha’shem, builds credit in the world to come

✡️ Shabbat Shalom ❤️

14/08/2026

✡️ Parashat Shoftim in Hebrew means “Judges” and is read on 15 August, from Deuteronomy 16:18 - 21:9

The central theme is one of justice and perfect judgement - “Justice, justice you shall pursue, so that you may live and inherit the land” (16:20)

The Revealed versus The Secret

✡️ “Shivim Panim la’Torah” is a classic rabbinic phase which interprets as - The Torah has 70 faces and applies to every single paragraph, every chapter and every single verse in the Torah

The number 70 in Torah and in Jewish tradition symbolizes: totality, completeness, wholeness with a multi-dimensional depth

✡️ Compare the Torah to a diamond, tilt the diamond, and see how each facet reflects the light and how it differs with each movement

When we read Shoftim (or any Parashat) we may look at the surface and here we read about the judges, courts, borders, rules of war, and look at this as history, versus reading it as living wisdom and how it applies when we bring our own personal human experiences into the text

✡️ In the spiritual universe, we are whole and our souls are taken care of. In the physical world we have unfulfilled desires, anxiety and uncertainties

✡️ In Deuteronomy 18:10 - 11, the Torah sets a boundary and forbids engaging in occult practices and consulting the dead to influence the physical world

✡️ “ You Shall Be Wholehearted (Tamin) with the Lord, your G-d” (18:13). Rashi explains that being Tamin means walking with Ha’shem and trusting Him, and by not investigating the future means “Whatever Ha’shem brings my way, I will accept and handle it with the tools I have”

✡️ “There are some things we know and many things we do not know and have no need to know them”

This is defined by the word, Temimut, which is the intentional choice to embrace the limits of human knowledge because you trust the One who runs the entire universe

✡️ Torah belongs to everyone, it remains the same and as we change, Torah reveals a new face to us each time

✡️ Shabbat Shalom ❤️

07/08/2026

✡️ Parshat “Re’eh” is read on 8 August from Deuteronomy 11:26 - 16:17

It means to “See” and opens with Moses telling the people of Israel: “ I place before you today a blessing and a curse”

Moses tells the Israelites that the blessings will come when they fulfill Ha’shem’s commandments and the curses if they abandon them

Moses continues speaking and tells them to remember his words when they cross over into the Promised Land

✡️ In this Parashat, we learn about free choice as being the central principle, dietary laws, keeping kosher, destruction of idols, offering of sacrifices and tithes, the cancelling of debts every seven years and a designated home of study and prayer

✡️ Living a life filled with Blessings or Curses

Itkafia is an ancient word used in Chassidic philosophy and means “ subduing or forcing into submission “

We are taught that Avodah, a word which refers to ‘spiritual labor and service’ to Ha’shem; that whenever any negative thoughts, desires or temptations enter into our thinking, we are to actively fight it, and force ourselves to choose the right path in life

✡️ Jewish mysticism says that Ha’shem finds the greatest joy and comfort; not in us being perfect but how we struggle and overcome and choose a blessing rather than a curse

✡️ Avodah requires sweat and consistency in retraining our brain in transforming negative thoughts to positive thoughts and actions which builds upon our spirituality

✡️ Shabbat Shalom ❤️

31/07/2026

Parshat Eikev is read on 1 July from Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25. Eikev means “because” or “as a consequence of”

✡️ In this portion, Moses continues addressing the Israelites and reminds them of their travels in the wilderness and the principals of the covenant made with Ha’shem. He further tells the Israelites to learn from the lessons of the wilderness, and reminds them that “Man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord”

✡️ Moses promises the Israelites material and spiritual blessings when they obey Ha’shem’s commandments and in chapter 10:12 says to them “ and now, Israel, what does G-d require of you, but to fear the Lord your G-d, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your G-d with all your heart and all your soul”

From Blessings to Responsibility

✡️ May it be your will, Ha’shem, to open my eyes to the blessings which surround me, to quiet my ego, banish the thoughts or illusion that my success is my own, and to remind me, what I have is from you alone

✡️ Help me turn my blessings into action which will care for Your world, by being aware of the environment and our consumption which have real and ethical consequences

✡️ To help the stranger as we were strangers in the wilderness, to honour your commandments and reflect light unto the nations and let our good actions serve as a moral compass to the entire world

❤️ Shabbat Shalom ❤️

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