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This Shabbat

Candle Lighting & Havdalah times for Shabbat Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei
Friday, March 12, 2010 - Candle Lighting at 5:40 PM
Saturday, March 13, 2010 - Havdalah at 6:44 PM
Times for Beverly Hills, CA (Havdalah times are 45 minutes after sundown)

Shabbat Services:

Hakham Yedidia Shofet Hall
Rabbi David Shofet
Services in Hebrew and Farsi

Friday
5:00 PM Mincha, Kabbalat Shabbat, Devar Torah & Arvit

Saturday
7:30 AM Birkat Hashahar
8:30 AM Barukh She Amar
9:50 AM Torah Reading
10:40 AM Haftara
11:00 AM Devar Torah
11:15 AM Simcha & Upcoming Events
11:20 AM Message From The Board of Directors
11:50 AM Musaf Orot

4:00 PM Torah Discussion with Mr. Joseph Eghbali (Farsi)
4:30 PM Mincha followed by Seuda Shelishit, Arvit & Havdalah

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Simcha Hall
Rabbi Hillel Benchimol
Services in Hebrew and English

Friday
5:00 PM Mincha, Kabbalat Shabbat, Devar Torah & Arvit

Saturday
7:30 AM Kabbalah Class with Rabbi Benchimol & Joseph Melamed
9:00 AM Baruch Sheamar
10:00 AM Torah Reading
11:15 AM Devar Torah by Rabbi Hillel Benchimol
12:00 PM Kiddush

3:30 PM Maor Vashemesh Class with Rabbi Benchimol
4:30 PM Mincha, Seudah Shelishit, Arvit, Havdalah

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Teen Minyan/Childrens Program
10:00 AM Teen Minyan (Confernece Room)
10:00 AM - NOON Children's Program/Kiddush (Downstairs Lounge)

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Synagogue Guidelines

For Safety and Security all children not attending services with their parents must be in our supervised Children's Shabbat Program. Temple security will not allow children to congregate in the hallway. Children will be asked to join the Shabbat Program or join their parents for services.

The Synagogue is a holy place and Shabbat is a holy time. In respect of their sanctity, in honor of our Jewish traditions and for the benefit of our congregation, please:

1. Dress modestly.
2. Refrain from unnecessary talking during prayer services.
3. Turn off cell phones, beepers and other electronic equipment.
4. PLEASE do not bring noghl (Persian candy) into the sanctuary. Only Kosher candy brought to the office by Friday morning is allowed. No food or drinks are allowed in Shofet Hall.
5. Only 3 Shiras for each Simcha.
6. Do not exit or enter the sanctuary during sermons and announcements.
7. Bring & leave children -- through pre-Bar/Bat Mitzvah age -- to our Downstairs Lounge Children’s Program. Baby-sitters are also provided for your convenience in the downstairs lounge.
8. Call the Synagogue office (310.273.2400) during the week to request an Alia (Berakha Torah) in the main sanctuary.
9. Contact the office during the week, should you wish to sponsor a Kiddush.

Your cooperation is appreciated in creating a spiritual and meaningful Shabbat. Please contact the office at (310) 273-2400 with your suggestions and comments. We will be most responsive.

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Shabbat Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei
The Chamber of Parvah in the Temple courtyard was named after the gentile magician who built it (Talmud; Yoma 34b-35a).

The physical Temple in the physical world must be built with the deepest of yearning. It must be an expression of the inner life, or else it has no meaning. The Temple on earth corresponds to the Temple on High, and the human soul is the channel between them. Just as the existence of the inner Temple can be found only with the purest intention, the Temple on earth forfeits existence if it is built with any ego-intention.

But whose heart is so pure? We are all human beings, we all have hidden motives; to buy earthly fame..to buy afterlife... to buy God... But deep in our hearts is a place whole and pure, through which flows a river of yearning. When you reach this deep place and live from that center, you have bypassed all impure intentions. You can then build a Temple in which God can "dwell," as He dwells in your deepest intentions.

King Solomon thought he had the power to elicit this deep inner Temple ~ to remove the "shells" of impure intentions that invalidate the physical Temple. He requested of King Hiram of Tyre to help him to build the Temple. King Hiram obliged because deep in his heart was buried some pure intention. But layers of thick, vain ego-pride distorted that buried intention, and thus, from the start, King Solomon's Temple was blemished by Hiram's intention. Four centuries later it was destroyed to expurgate it of that impure intention.

When rebuilding the Temple, the rabbis ordained to decline help any gentiles offered (Ezra 4:3;) they sought to keep out any "gentile" intention alien to the Temple's true spirit. But there was a gentile ~ a practitioner of black magic! ~ who wanted to help in the building. Unlike most others, he was truly sincere without any ego intention. But how could he help when the rabbis forbade it? He resorted to using black magic. He built a chamber with his special craft, which a non-Jew is permitted to use. The rabbis acquiesced, despite its black source, because they knew how sincere was his heart. They even gave him honor he did not seek ~ they named the chamber after him. They also built on its roof a ritual bath for the high priest to use on Yom Kippur!

...And the time will yet come for Jew and non-Jew to build together a Temple for God... each to shed his shell of "gentile" intention and to each express his deep yearning for God...

(Kinot of 9th of Av)
The inner Temple

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Hillel Benchimol