Bulletin MIKETZ

Welcome • ohtcv ohfurc
Shabbat Shalom • ouka ,ca
Shabbat Parshat Miketz
4 Tevet 5784 • December 16, 2023
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Yahrtzeiten
Dec 17
Lisa Ratner
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Dec 15 • 3 Tevet Irene Goodman – Mother of Robert Goodman
Sol Danoff
– Father of David Danoff
Dec 16 • 4 Tevet Leo Wallack – Father of Sharon Zoldan
Laila Treadwell – Sister-in-law of Norma Rosen
Jack Schwartz – Father of Elliot Schwartz
Dec 17 • 5 Tevet Philip Fant – Father of Ray Fant
Dec 19 • 7 Tevet Eugene Jacobs – Father of Howard Jacobs
Fred Engel
– Father of Joel Engel
Dec 20 • 3 Tevet Anita Wertheim – Mother of Alex Wertheim
Dec 21 • 9 Tevet Mark Kovenat – Father of Anat Kuperman
Dec 22 • 10 Tevet Harriett Post – Mother of Ben Post
Birthdays
Anniversaries
Dec 20 Judith & Neil Adelman (64)
Dec 21 Sue & Jack Brown (43)
Bea & Elliot Schwartz (60)
Shabbat Kiddush Sponsored by:
David & Marcia Danoff
In memory of his father Sol Danoff
Judy & Neil Adelman
In honor of their anniversary
Mavens: Rosalee Bogo & Steve Chizzik
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Assisted by: Marcia Cohodes, Shelley Goodman, Lee Henson,
Arlene Levin, Isabel Ramos, Liuva Sando, Eleanor Scheffler,
Shep Scheinberg, Arleen Sivakoff, Joyce Toub
and Sue Wasserman
Sponsor a
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Kiddush
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Contact Arleen Sivakoff:
dsivakoff@aol.com • 239.455.8811

Torah & Haftarah Readings:
Shabbat Parshat Miketz: Genesis 41:53-43:15 (Cycle 2) (Etz Hayim p. 257)
1. 41:53-57 2. 42:1-5 3. 42:6-18 4. 42:19-28
5. 42:29-38 6. 43:1-7 7. 43:8-15 M. 44:14-17 (p. 269)
Torah Commentary
D’var Torah:
Haftarah: I Kings 3:15-4:1 (p. 271)
Wisdom, Discernment, and Truth - Bex Stern-Rosenblatt
The story of the beginning of Solomon’s kingship is the haftarah for
this parashah. Joseph and Solomon are linked. Both Joseph and
Solomon are rulers of our people, paragons of how to lead. Yet in many
ways, Solomon is nothing like Joseph. Solomon is King of the United
Monarchy, of Israel and Judah, of our homeland. Joseph is secondin-command
of Egypt, the place of our suffering. Solomon’s story
takes him from chosen and beloved by God through turning into a
near tyrant whose sons will rip apart the Kingdom. Joseph’s story is
the inverse. He begins by alienating his brothers and causing family
strife and becomes a humble servant of God who lovingly reunites his
family.
However, both Joseph and Solomon are noted for their wisdom. After
interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph tells Pharaoh to find a wise and
discerning person and appoint him over Egypt. Pharaoh replies that
there is no one so wise and discerning as Joseph and appoints him.
Likewise, after God appears to Solomon in a dream, God grants him a
wise and discerning heart. Indeed, it is their wisdom and discernment
that qualifies Joseph and Solomon to be leaders. .
Later, in Deuteronomy, Moses expounds on types of leadership and
what qualifies a person for what sort of leadership. Unsurprisingly, he
too is concerned with understanding and discernment. In his retelling
of the time he appointed people under him to help him to judge cases,
Moses explains that God told him to appoint wise and discerning men.
But what is this wisdom we look for in leaders? What does it mean for
a leader to be discerning? First, they must stand for truth and be able
to uncover it. In our haftarah, Solomon presides over the terrible case
of the two desperate mothers, one claiming the other had stolen her
baby after accidentally killing her own. It is a horrible story. Solomon
executes justice with wisdom. He enacts a believable threat, stating
that he will cut the living child in two, giving half to each mother.

The real mother, horrified, demands that the other woman take her
child, just so long as he is allowed to live. Solomon devises a test between
two seemingly identical women which reveals a hidden truth. .
Similarly, Joseph hears two nearly identical dreams twice over. First, he
hears the parallel dreams of the baker and the cup holder. He is able
to discern, through careful attention to minor detail, which of the two
will live and which will die. Second, he hears the two similar dreams of
Pharaoh. Joseph is able to recognize that these are two dreams carrying
the same message, a divine message that allows for action. He is able to
uncover the truth obscured by the medium of the dream.
Both Joseph and Solomon are able to see differences, to make
separations. They are good leaders, good judges, because they look
for objective truth and are able to find it. This ability is lauded again
in Deuteronomy. When we read about which of us survived the
wanderings in the desert to make it to Canaan, we learn that it is those
of us who are wise and discerning. Moses explains that our wisdom
and discernment is to keep God’s laws and to do them. It is to live in
a system of truth and to structure our lives in ways that uphold that
system, whether we are sovereign in our own land like Solomon or
living assimilated lives in the diaspora like Joseph.
Lecture Series Continues
December 19 th – 7:30 p.m.
Dr. Stuart Mest:
“Displaced Persons Camps
following WW II”
Dr. Mest will analyze the situation of survivors of the
Holocaust who found themselves adrift in the wake of their
unspeakable ordeals.
WITH
Beth Tikvah of Naples
1459 Pine Ridge Road
Naples, FL 34109
239 434-1818
Visit us online at
bethtikvahnaples.org
or scan the QR code
to go there directly