Covid updates

Tefillot
​​​​​​​To sign up for Weekday Tefillah January 24 - 29 click here.
To sign up for Shabbat Tefillah January 29 - 30 click here.
6:45am: Shacharit Zoom link to in-person Bayit service

Dial-in audio at +1 646 558 8656; Meeting ID: 613 613 3700
​​​​​​​7:50am: Shacharit Zoom service (non-minyan) 

Dial-in audio at +1 646 558 8656; Meeting ID: 613 613 3700
4:50pm: Mincha/Maariv Zoom link to in-person Bayit service

Dial-in audio at +1 646 558 8656; Meeting ID: 613 613 3700

Today's Way to Help
If you would like to suggest a way to help please email yael@thebayit.org.

Interfaith United-NYC Presents:

Food Justice in Brooklyn and NYC
Wednesday • February 3 • 10:00am - 11:15am
Join the discussion on how we can come together across faith communities to address the food crisis we are facing around NYC.

Panelists:

Jessica Chait, Managing Director, Food Programs MetCouncil

Joel Berg, CEO, Hunger Free America

Mohammad Razvi, CEO, Council of Peoples Organization

Andrew Wandzilak, Director, Brooklyn Relief Kitchen

Rabbi Melinda Zalma, Program Director, JCRC-NY

Moderator:

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice President, The New York Board of Rabbis

For Zoom link click here to register.

Closing Message - Rav Steven
View video version here.



I love Shirat HaYam, the Song at the Sea, because it gives us an opportunity to recognize the multi-dimensionality of our Torah. It's not just the Godly message to the Jewish people and humankind; it's not just our ethical and legal grounding; it’s not just our book of history and our charge of how to live our lives. It's also a work which contains poetry, which contains song and, as I want to share with you, which contains visual representation – artwork.

These are words of Torah which my father shared with me and I had a chance to share in person with our Bayit a number of years ago, and it's now making its Closing Message and Facebook debut!

What does it mean that the Torah is a work of art?

The Song at the Sea (last few lines in the image above) is depicted in the Torah as brickwork, in which we see narrow lines on the end and wider lines in the center, creating a brick wall effect. The very last line, a summary of what occurred, is the pasuk:

כִּ֣י בָא֩ ס֨וּס פַּרְעֹ֜ה בְּרִכְבּ֤וֹ וּבְפָרָשָׁיו֙ בַּיָּ֔ם וַיָּ֧שֶׁב יְהֹוָ֛ה עֲלֵהֶ֖ם אֶת־מֵ֣י הַיָּ֑ם וּבְנֵ֧י יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל הָלְכ֥וּ בַיַּבָּשָׁ֖ה בְּת֥וֹךְ הַיָּֽם׃
For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and God brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea. (Ex. 15:19)

Look closely at the image above to see how the Torah divides up the last part of that last verse in the final line of brickwork in the song:

HaYam         Uvnei Yisrael halkhu bayabashah betokh          HaYam

The sea         and Bnei Yisrael walked on dry land amidst       The sea

“The sea” is on the left and right, and in the middle is “the Children of Israel walk on dry land in the middle”!

This is a visual depiction in letters of what actually took place!

Of course, in addition to seeing it in letters and words, we're invited to close our eyes and picture that extraordinary moment, imagining ourselves as though we were there, visualizing God's saving grace and power in those moments.

May it be a week in which we appreciate and are inspired by and invited to delve into the depths of the visual, of the poetic, of the literary, of the musical, of the many dimensions and angles of our extraordinary, extraordinary Torah. And may we merit to share words of Torah, as my father has with my family and our extended community, with each other and those close to us and beyond.
​​​​​​​
Reminder to all to take good care of ourselves and each other.  Try to do something specific today that strengthens you, and something else that strengthens someone else.

Hebrew Institute of Riverdale - The Bayit
3700 Henry Hudson Parkway
Bronx, NY 10463