Rabbi's Message

Our Torah portion this week is called Bo, which means “come.”  God tells Moshe to once again come before Pharoah to demand that the Israelites be set free.  This time, which is right before the 8th plague, Pharoah seems to waver for a moment.  He tells Moshe that the men can go worship God, but the women and children have to stay behind.  Moshe will have none of this, as he says, Bina’areinu u’v’Zikneinu Neilekh – “We will all go, our young and our old, our sons and our daughters, our flocks and our herds.”  It is an all or nothing deal.  Either every member of B’nai Yisrael leaves Egypt or the plagues will continue.  We know what choice Pharoah made.  This verse has special meaning for our TBS Family, as it was this verse that Rabbi Lewis chose to describe the move from Haddon Heights to Cherry Hill, and Bo was the first portion we read in our current building.  Today, 35 years later, it continues to define our connection to each other, as well as to Israel and the Jewish people.  It is this connection that fills us with a sense of responsibility to send a mission from TBS to Israel February 13-18. There are so many ways that our community has stepped up to support Israel and our brothers and sisters there during this challenging time.  I am so proud of our community.  While there is much we can do from here, there is also much work to be done there.  That’s why together we will go to Israel to volunteer, to give hizuk (strength), and to bear witness to the atrocities of October 7.  If you are interested in joining me on this mission please be in touch.  Thanks to the TBS Adult Israel Trip Fund in memory of Stuart and Maxine Winston we have been able to subsidize the cost of the trip.  You can learn more about the trip and register at https://www.tbsonline.org/form/missionisrael.  Our participants in our mission to Israel will represent all of us, and we will do our best to bring you along through social media posts and also opportunities for donations, which we will be in touch about.  In this way, we will once again fulfill that verse that we will read from the Torah this Shabbat, and that articulated the meaning of our move to Cherry Hill.  We will go forward together, as a community and as a people.  I can think of no more important way of demonstrating that commitment than traveling to Israel now, at this moment of great need.