d’var torah
Theodore and Dora Bader and is sur-
vived by her husband Bernard “Billy”
Specter, two daughters and sons-
in-law, Jodi Specter and Joseph S.

Keats of New Hope, PA, and Jami
Pearlman and Steven Pearlman of
Ivyland, PA, as well as two grandsons,
Tyler Pearlman, and Troy Pearlman.

A private family funeral service will
be held on Sunday, May 14, 2023, at
Montefiore Cemetery in Jenkintown,
PA. In lieu of flowers, the family kindly
requests that memorial donations be
made to American Bulldog Rescue
www.americanbulldogrescue.org GOLDSTEINS’ ROSENBERG’S
RAPHAEL-SACKS www.goldsteinsfuneral.com
TUGENDREICH BELLA (nee Brandspiegel), on May
17, 2023.

A Holocaust Survivor.

Beloved wife of the late Boruch
Shulem Tugendreich.

Devoted mother of Goldie Weiner (Kerry),
Frances Stamm (Bruce), and Max
Tugendreich (Kendra), Dear sister
of Sara Weingram (the late Eli), Ida
Belchatowski (the late Max), Bernard
Brandspiegel (the late Rivka), the
late Gerson Brandspigel (the late
Brunya), the late Sol Brandpiegel, and
the late Rachel Brandspiegel. Dear
sister-in-law of Ruth Brandspiegel.

Loving Grandmother of Scott Weiner,
Jamie Balas (Gilad), David Stamm,
and Jennifer Stamm.

Dear great
grandmother of Liam Balas and Mia
Balas. Also survived by many loving
nieces, nephews, great nieces and
great nephews.

Contributions in
her memory may be made to Jewish
Family & Children’s Service, 2100
Arch Street – 5th Floor, Philadelphia,
PA 19103 www.jfcsphilly.org or United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW,
Washington, DC 20024. www.ush-
mm.org GOLDSTEINS’ ROSENBERG’S
RAPHAEL-SACKS www.goldsteinsfuneral.com
Consider How Revelation
Happens Rabbi Maurice Harris
T Shavuot
he liturgy for the holiday of Shavuot
showcases three powerful biblical
texts: the story of the giving of the Ten
Commandments at Mount Sinai (Exodus
19:1-20:23), a spectacular vision of God by
a tormented prophet in exile (Ezekiel 1:1-28
and 3:12) and a tale of love and loyalty
between women that crosses religious and
national boundaries and quietly prepares
the way for the future Davidic dynasty in
Jerusalem (the Book of Ruth).

All of these texts tell stories of transfor-
mation. But the first two are quite different
than the third. The first two involve divine
power and presence overwhelming frail
humans with terrifying sensory overload.

At Sinai, the mountain trembles, horns
blare, God speaks in thunder and smoke
surges up from the peak. In Babylon,
Ezekiel has a disorienting, spectacular
vision of God’s chariot, including impossi-
bly strange four-faced creatures, chariot
wheels rimmed with eyes and a heavenly
throne with a figure in human form upon it.

After beholding these things, Ezekiel hurls
himself to the ground on his face.

But the third of these texts is quite
different. Ruth’s story lacks the auditory
eruptions, ground-quaking vibrations or
mind-bending visuals of the other two
texts. The great revelation in the Book of
Ruth erupts within a single human heart.

And not only that — this heart happens to
belong to an outsider, a non-Israelite who,
in fact, belongs to a nation, Moab, that was
an ancient enemy of the Israelites.

Revelation in Ruth bursts forth when her
tenacious loving attachment to her Jewish
mother-in-law Naomi proves stronger than
all other forces, even the forces of death,
poverty and misfortune. That unstoppable
love then grows into a personal journey by
Ruth into kinship with the Jewish people.

Intimate, tender, clever and sensuous, the
Book of Ruth offers us an entirely differ-
ent notion of revelation than its Shavuot
companion texts.

Consider also the geographic locations
in which each of these stories takes place.

The revelation at Mt. Sinai happens not in
the land of Israel, but in the Sinai wilder-
ness, an in-between place that was neither
Egypt nor the Promised Land.

The prophet Ezekiel tells us he lives
among the Jewish exiles from Jerusalem in
ancient Babylon, following the Babylonian
destruction of the First Temple (586
B.C.E.). The Book of Ruth takes place in
two locations and includes an important
geographical boundary crossing in its
narrative. It begins in the land of Moab,
just to the east of the land of Israel, and
concludes in the territory of Judah, which
was part of ancient Israel.

What might we make of these different
story locations? I’ll close with one possible
interpretation that takes into account the
relationship each text has to Jerusalem.

The revelation at Sinai happens in
no-man’s-land on the journey toward a
May Their Memory Be For a Blessing
The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent extends condolences to
the families of those who have passed.

To receive our weekly obituary eletter visit
www.jewishexponent.com/enewsletter future Jerusalem, but its audience is made
up of recently liberated slaves who can
scarcely imagine the Promised Land they
have been told is their ultimate destination.

In stark contrast, Ezekiel’s visions happen
after Jerusalem and its Temple have been
destroyed. The surviving Jewish exiles
who are his audience can only remember
Jerusalem as it once was.

It is Ruth’s story, however, that brings us
geographically closest to the Jerusalem
of biblical Israel. By the end of the book,
Ruth has begun a new chapter of her life
as a Jew-by-choice in Bethlehem, just a
few kilometers away from the future capital
of the Israelites’ kingdom. And though the
Book of Ruth never specifically mentions
Jerusalem, the last words of the book point
us in its direction.

The Book of Ruth ends with a genealogy
telling us that Ruth will be the great-grand-
mother of King David, and David’s name
is the final word of the book. The book
anticipates a Jerusalem that will be realized
soon, to be ruled by an unexpected king
descended from an unlikely Moabite
ancestor whose stubborn love and tenac-
ity bent mythic history into a strange and
marvelous shape.

The sacred texts of Shavuot ask us to
consider the different ways that revelation
happens. It can thunder down upon us. It
can seize us violently with visions. Or it can
sprout in the soul of a person who insists
on following her heart’s love and longing. ■
Rabbi Maurice Harris works as associate
director for thriving communities and
Israel affairs specialist at Reconstructing
Judaism in Wyncote. He is the author
of three books. The Board of Rabbis of
Greater Philadelphia is proud to provide
diverse perspectives on Torah commen-
tary for the Jewish Exponent. The
opinions expressed in this column are
the author’s own and do not necessarily
reflect the view of the Board of Rabbis.

jewishexponent.com 215-832-0700
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 27