spirit

torah portion

Seeking Support

WHEREVER YOUR
TRAVELS TAKE YOU.

Experience travel the way it should be.

888-426-8999 | PentastarAviation.com |

Private Jet Charter | Aircraft Management | Advisory Services
Aircraft Maintenance | Avionics Services | Interior Services | Executive Terminal

©2018 Pentastar Aviation.

Keyes Real Estate

Throughout South Florida, Including Boca, Boynton,
Delray, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties

Let Old Friends be your Michigan-Florida Connection

Nina Spinner-Sands

Rita Morse

NinaSpinner-Sands
@keyes.com

RitaMorse@keyes.com

(305) 609-7559

(954) 290-8293

Buy

Invest

Sell

Your Florida Home

in a Growing Florida Economy

Your Family's Property

COME TO FLORIDA IN THE NEW YEAR

Now selling
Valencia Bay

Houses, Condos, and Rentals in Active Adult,
Country Club and Beachside Communites

Advantage Plus

4'FEFSBM)XZt#PDB3BUPO '-

Elly & Ed Lepselter
(561) 302-9374

®

24

December 27 • 2018

jn

W

ith the secular new year
undoes him.
about to begin, many of
What can we learn from this series
us think of resolutions or
of events? Some weeks ago, way back
spend some time reflecting on the
in Chaye Sara, we find a compelling
year that has just ended: suc-
counter-model. Abraham
cesses, failures, key learnings.
sends his servant to seek a
In this week’s portion,
wife for his son Isaac. When
we stumble upon a story
the servant meets Rebecca,
of Moses going on a mini
he isn’t positive that she’s the
journey of his own that can
right woman for the job. The
be instructive as we try to
servant speaks up and shares
Rabbi Megan
improve ourselves for the
his predicament with Rebecca’s
Brudney
year to come.
family, concluding with the
Saved from Pharaoh’s
request that they either tell
Parshat
decree of death for Israelite
him if the match is right or if
Shemot:
baby boys and subsequent-
it is wrong. If the search must
Exodus
ly raised in Pharaoh’s own
continue, the servant says,
1:1-6:1;
home, Moses goes to observe
v’efneh al-yamin o al-smol
his Hebrew kinfolk in the
(Genesis 24:49): using the very
Isaiah
field and sees an Egyptian
27:6-28:13; same verb as Moses, “I will
beating one of his country-
turn either right or left.”
29:22-23.
men. Something is ignited in
The paradigm is totally
Moses. Vayifen koh vachoh (Exodus
flipped. Moses is looking for some-
2:12); he turns this way and that.
one and finds no one. For him,
Moses has the presence of mind to
turning this way and that is a matter
turn one way, and then the other, to
of going unseen and holding his
scope out who might be watching
dangerous desires inside, where they
him.
cannot be detected — let alone pre-
This is, of course, a move most of
vented — until too late.
us have no doubt employed, whether
For Abraham’s servant, in contrast,
long ago or all too recently. Just like
turning right or left is an optimis-
when we did it, Moses clearly knows
tic search for new paths and even,
that what he hopes to do is decidedly perhaps, wise counsel. He is looking
against the rules. (Otherwise, why
for someone and finds someone: He
look?) But, finding no one to fear, he embraces transparency and invites
quickly kills and buries the Egyptian. Rebecca’s family to weigh in on
The problem emerges, however,
whether he has achieved his mission
that a leader with an ugly secret tor-
and how he might proceed. The ser-
menting him is not such a good lead- vant is anxious to hear other voices
er at all. The next day when Moses
as he contemplates the next step on
helpfully attempts to arbitrate a fight
his journey.
between two Israelites, one of them
This Shabbat, may we resolve to
throws his crime in his face, brashly
turn toward those who believe in us
asking if Moses intends to kill him
precisely when our instincts tell us to
just like he killed the Egyptian. No
turn away. ■
matter what Moses’ other wonderful
Rabbi Megan Brudney is a rabbi at Temple
qualities might be, that Israelite’s
Beth El in Bloomfield Township.
reference to Moses’ secret totally