Rabbi Howard Morrison

This week in the aftermath of Shavuot is very personal for me. On June 7, my father passed away twenty-three years ago on the secular calendar. The Hebrew Yahrzeit is 23 Sivan, which will coincide with June 22nd.

This coming Shabbat, June 11,  Parshat Naso is the Torah portion by which my younger son Yonah celebrated his Bar Mitzvah eleven years ago.

In many ways, my son reminds me of my father, with both being mechanically inclined, very Zionistic, and possessing a mental capacity for envisioning complicated designs and layouts.

Jewishly, my father had been trained on a Hachshara farm in New Jersey to make Aliyah soon after Israel became a State. While those plans never materialized, the wellbeing of Israel was a constant topic of conversation in my childhood home.

My son actualized a personal moral commitment to serve as a lone soldier in Israel for three years after finishing high school. His Jewish identity centers around the wellbeing of Israel. 

On Shavuot, I thought of dad when I recited Yizkor, and I thought of both my children when I contemplated Shavuot being known as the Festival of the first fruits.

In Parshat Naso, we will read the longest portion of the entire Torah. In it, we find the origin of the Priestly Blessing, words which my father recited to me as a boy, and words which I now recite every Friday evening to my son.

"L'Dor Va'Dor," from generation to generation, may we pass on the heritage of our parents to our children.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Howard Morrison