Shomrim 5784 5

we would like to welcome everybody hopefully many many more sham appreciation [Applause] events we would like to begin with ourti something from our Ty it's our guide and lesson book before we start our event I'll just say something that ties sh to the weekly T portion one of the themes of this week's and last week's T portion is consistency last week the P told us about the daily sacrifices that were brought each day in the temple or in the Tabernacle each morning and each afternoon it's called the carbon T the daily sacrifice this week's Mar talks about another type of tomit an H an eternal fire an eternal and consistent fire that burned on the Altar and as the ver said it should never go out it should stay on always in the introduction to the an 16th century compolation of various commentary on the he brings an interesting M our sages of blessed memory had a debate what's new couple of Jews having a debate what they were debating what is the most fundamental verse in the T one of the sages had sh is the most fundamental fundamental persons in fols about the Oneness of God monism very spiritual second one said no loving your fellow as yourself that is the most fundamental words when people have love for one another it's going to Le for a more productive Society the third one said no when you focus and you dwell in the verse that talks about that each human being was created in the image of God that will be more respect between human beings and will be able to live in love and Brotherhood and camaraderie one with the other and then Rabbi shim Ben Hai he gets up and he says something quite astonishing he says the most fundamental verse in all of the Bible is from last week's portion it talks about the daily sacrifices that every morning they would bring a a sacrifice in the morning and one in the afternoon that is the most fundamental as the verse in the entire Torah and the question is how could that be we're talking about the Oneness of God and godliness we're talking about loving your fellow the image of that every single human being is created in the image of God we're talking about very very integral Concepts and here he's saying that the most fundamental uh verse is the daily sacrifice and what's even more puzzling is that after they all deliberated and argued back and forth this must have taken many weeks and many months they came to the unanimous conclusion that he is right the most fundamental verse in the Bible is the daily sacrifice consistency the moral of prog 16th century San Mystic explains that when you have consistency when someone's consistent in his Divine service and he betters himself he constantly Works he or she to evolve to progress and to move on in their lives the way they relate to God to their fellow human being and to be a better friend and to be a better neighbor and when someone puts in consistent work every morning and every afternoon and they they go at it again and again eventually they will find Oneness of God eventually they will find love and respect for their friends and neighbors and other people from all over the world eventually they will learn to appreciate the image of God that exists within every single human being and that is the message of consistency I would like to say that sham at large and BR Sham in particular is embodies that consistency 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year rain or shine hot or cold we will always be there and we will be that fire on the altar to bring some warmth and light to a situation which is otherwise chaotic and difficult at the end of tractate K it's one of the tractates of the toal there's a commentary of the toos that they they bring an interesting teaching from a m there are two types of fire as they say there's a Heavenly Fire and there's an Earthly fire there a Godly fire like the fire of the burning bush that Moses when he came to the Bur burning bush he saw the Bush was being was on fire but it wasn't consumed and then there's an Earthly fire a fire that we know a fire that burns devours and consumes and if God forbid we don't harness fire correctly it can have devastating consequences I'd like to say that Chim is a slice of the Heavenly Fire it burns but it doesn't consume it burns but it doesn't devour it burns with light with warmth with compassion Comfort to different diffult situations it's a constant fire that will continue to be a beacon of life in Crown and we thank everybody in this room and some way shape or form are a part of this and make it [Applause] happen