PE Progressive Jewish Congregation

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

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 ❤️

24/07/2026

✡️ This weeks Parshat: Va’etchanan is read from Deuteronomy 3:23 - 7:11 on 25th July, and means “and I implore you“ or “I beseeched”

From Grief to Grace

Hundreds of years earlier, Jacob, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham fled Canaan
( the Promised Land ) to Haran, to escape the wrath of his brother Esau where he lived in exile for 20 years

Jacob returned to Canaan and lived there for another 30 years, and during this time, his son Joseph was sold into slavery. Eventually Jacob moved to Egypt when he was 130 years old and was reunited with his son Joseph. This journey turned into 400 years of exile and slavery for the Israelites, until Moses led the Israelites for 40 years across the wilderness till they reached the Plains of Moab

✡️ In this portion, we read how Moses pleaded with Ha’shem to enter the Promised Land. Moses came before Ha’shem as a beggar and pleaded with Ha’shem to allow him just a few steps into the Promised Land

✡️ In the Midrash, we read that Moses prayed 515 different, unique and separate pleas, which were based on, his past efforts, the holiness of the Promised Land and even begged to be able to enter the land as an animal or as a regular Israelite rather than as a leader

✡️ Ha’shem replied to Moses: “ it is enough for you, speak no more to me of this matter “
Moses was destroyed with grief, however in this portion, he recovers and at this point he he turns his grief into grace and love for the Israelites

✡️ Moses spoke to the Israelites telling them : “Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen”

It was here on the Plains of Moab that Moses gave his final speeches which include the Shema and the Ten Commandments

✡️ After this Moses made his solitary climb up to Mount Pisgah where he was able to get a glimpse of the Promised Land from across the Jordan River

✡️ It was here that Moses passed away with peace in his heart and was buried by Ha’shem in an unmarked valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth - Peor, and till today no man knows the burial place of Moses

✡️ When Moses publicly addressed the Israelites, he encouraged Joshua “ Be strong and courageous, for you shall go forth with this people into the land. The Lord is the One who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you and nor forsake you. Do not fear and do not be dismayed “

✡️ We learn from this portion:
By practicing grace, and our refusal to let personal disappointments grievances and heartbreak turn into bitterness, we need to direct our energies into more conscious and meaningful ways, so that pain is not our final legacy or chapter of our live

Baruch Ha’shem
Shabbat Shalom ❤️

17/07/2026

✡️ Parshat Devarim is read on 18 July from the book of Deuteronomy, verses 1:1 - 3:22. This is the fifth and final book of the Torah

Devarim means “Words” and in this Parshat, Moses gives his farewell speeches and final words of instructions to the Israelites before his passing

✡️ In every Parshat, there are always hidden meanings, these are found in the Talmud and in the Book of the Prophets (Nevi’im) which reveals to us what is hidden in the Torah texts

✡️ Between the verses of Devarim, we read about a history of mythology, of the prehistoric giants

Moses spoke to the Israelites about these giants who lived in fortified cities, and told them these giants were not invincible and reminded the Israelites, that with the divine intervention of Ha’shem, these giants would be defeated

✡️ Once the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, Joshua led military campaigns against these giants and centuries later, we read in the Book of Prophets, the story of King David and Goliath

✡️ This Parshat also deals with how laws need to be implemented by the judges Moses appointed and where he detailed the ethics, judges needed to follow:

“Hear the causes between brethren”
“Hear the small as well as the great”
“You shall not be afraid of the face of any man”

✡️ Today, these laws should provide us with: absolute equality and intellectual humility in our courts and without fear or favour

Shabbat Shalom ❤️

10/07/2026

This week on the 11 July we read ✡️ Parshat Matot - Masei, this is the final reading from the Book of Numbers: 30:2 - 36:13

✡️ Matot means “Tribes“ and focuses on the Laws and Oaths which the Israelites were to keep and promise to remain committed to these vows made to Ha’shem

By verbally committing to these Laws and Vows, the Israelites committed themselves to justice, their community and national responsibility

✡️ Masei means “Journey”. In this last portion, the Israelites moved from being wanderers in the wilderness to settlers. They recounted their 42 stops over 40 years, since escaping from Egypt

In this portion, Ha’shem gives Moses precise instructions as to the borders and boundary lines stretching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, and commands the total removal of all idols, and laws designed to keep the land within the families of the settlers

✡️ Matot - Masei teaches us to honour our vows and promises, which build trust and integrity in our relationships

We need to look back at our lives and our struggles, which have been the stops in our lives and how it has defined us today

Each of these 42 stops in the wilderness represent an oasis, a place where the Israelites could stop and rest

When we read Torah, we are given time to learn and to reflect upon the stops we have made in our lives

In this Parshat, we can reflect on promises kept and those unfulfilled and remember this is a journey, and any failures and successes along our path, prepare us for our destinations ahead

Shabbat Shalom ❤️

03/07/2026

✡️ On the 4 July, we read Parshat Pinchas which is found in the Book of Numbers, read from 25:10 - 30:1; which is the 41st weekly Torah portion

There are a number of key events which occur during this time whilst the Israelites were encamped on the plains of Moab, then known as Sh*ttin, which was located on the eastern border of the Jordan River

Laws of Inheritance

The Israelites had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and were now on the plains of Moab when the laws of inheritance where permanently changed

✡️ Ha’shem commanded Moses to take a census, which excluded woman and only counted males above 20 years old and who were fit for military service

Zelophehad who had died in the wilderness, had five daughters and no sons and when the land rights were assigned exclusively to the men; his daughters petitioned Moses as they felt it was unjust under the existing rules and their family line would lose its portion of land

✡️ As Moses, himself was not able to render a judgement, he brought this matter to Ha’shem, and it was decreed that the daughter’s concern where legitimate, and they would be allocated their share in the Promised Land

“Like sheep without a shepherd”
This is read in Numbers: 27:17

Moses requested a leader who would care for the community ‘like a shepherd’ and Ha’shem told Moses that Joshua was “a man of spirit” and he had shown empathy, humility and had served Ha’shem, by accompanying Moses to Mount Sinai and his dedication to the Tabernacle

✡️ A thought for today: the daughters of Zelophehad did not riot and nor did they insult the inheritance system, they gave a logical case based upon justice and fairness

They also acted in faith with forward thinking of the future, whilst living in tents, to determine not only their lives but those that followed them

✡️ Joshua did not simply become a leader overnight, it took years of serving, dedication and learning to become a leader who could lead the Israelites finally into the Promised Land

Plan for your future, have the strength and patience to achieve all the good the world has to offer and give back to others. There are always others who have less and struggle with battles that we may never encounter

Shabbat Shalom ❤️

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