Dear Congregation Beth Ohr,
Happy Shushan Purim! Today is the day to celebrate Purim if you live in a city that was walled in ancient times, such as Jerusalem’s Old City. Here in Bellmore, of course, we celebrated Purim yesterday, and are now preparing for Shabbat Ki Tissa.
Commentators usually focus on the story of the Golden Calf, which is the focus of this year’s Triennial reading. However, I want to draw your attention to what happens afterward. Because after every dramatic encounter, something must follow. We expect God to give Moses clear prohibitions against idolatry, and God delivers. But the section immediately following “You shall not make molten gods for yourselves” is all about. . . the Three Pilgrimage Festivals.
Think about that. They are engaged in their first pilgrimage, of sorts, as a people, journeying through the wilderness to the Land. But they are not in the Land yet. They cannot celebrate the Festivals we now call Pesah, Shavu’ot and Sukkot as instructed here, because there is not yet a central place of worship to which to pilgrimage. The temporary Tabernacle hasn’t even been built yet!
While we ponder why our Torah chooses to juxtapose idolatry and Festivals, I offer the following listening experience.
CLICK HERE to listen to Se’u Zimra
Text: Psalm 81:3-4
Composed by Cantor Sarah Myerson
Recorded and arranged by Ilya Shneyveys (flutes, banjolele, percussion) and Cantor Sarah Myerson (voice)
The text is familiar to us from a different festival, Rosh HaShannah. We recite Psalm 81 verse 4 before the silent evening amida, as a reminder of which festival we are celebrating. In this setting, I imitated the sound of the shofar mentioned in the psalm.
This text also happens to be the psalm of the day for Thursdays, as part of our series of daily psalm settings that I’m sending out in these emails. If you missed the previous settings, please click here for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Sarah Myerson
Affiliated with United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism