Kabbalat Shabbat Kavannah | Rabbi Becca Weintraub | February 13, 2026

Shabbat shalom to everyone. Hopefully

you got a chance to meet somebody new or

at least to visit with someone you

haven't had the chance to see over the

week. We're very happy that you're here

at BJ. And for this Shabbat, we're going

to be reading uh Parat Mishbatim, which

is the continuation. We received the

Torah last week and we're going to

continue now with a bunch of laws.

Anything you can imagine. And actually

the large majority of our laws, our

halaka will stem from this week's

parasa.

At the very end of both last week and

also this week, we see that when we take

on as bene Israel, as the people of

Israel, when we take on the

responsibility of the Torah, we

sayishma,

we will do and then we will hear. And

there's much to say around this idea of

what is it that we first jump in by

saying we'll do something and then we'll

understand it, then we'll listen, then

we'll try to unpack what it all means.

But to our kidic tradition,

it gets at the heart of what I think is

just so beautiful about law and

particularly I will say halaka and

Jewish law. Although I don't think it's

exclusive, but that's the relationship

of the law being about body, physical

doing, and action and also mind, heart,

and soul. That law is made up of all of

these different pieces. And the

teachers, theidic teachers say that when

the people of Israel were prepared to

take the Torah, they weren't blindly

accepting the Torah. When they said,

they weren't just saying, "We will just

do whatever you say and we're not going

to understand it." You could you could

imagine that being the case when you

say, "We'll do and then we'll

understand."

But that they placed their doing before

their understanding.

and that this is a symbol that God's

desire and God desires that we should do

as well as we should hear or we should

comprehend what God's will is so that we

serve God not only with our hands and

our feet but also they say with our

minds and with our hearts or nishama our

souls and our hearts but our doing

should serve as the basis of our

understanding rather than the other way

around. So that by doing it allows us to

understand. And we know this. We know

this from life experience that sometimes

we learn something over and over. But

until we experience it, until it happens

to us, the two come together. And that's

actually the beauty of what it is to

understand and to be a part of a system.

And particularly when it comes to rules

or laws. I think a great example is

playing a board game for the first time.

You can read through all of the booklet.

And it's not until you actually start to

play that you understand what's

happening and how it unfolds and what's

supposed to which piece goes where as

and so on. I see a lot of nodding so

it's good for Shabbat. The kids just

went up to play board games.

But I think that this is also the

approach to law in which

we crave right now in a system of saying

it's not just about doing but it's also

a law system that sees an entire being.

It sees body, mind and soul. And in this

week's parasa amongst many many laws

that we have, we also come across the

law or really the piece of Torah itself

which teaches us and which the rabbis

take over many many generations

as an understanding of why it is so

important for us as a people to have the

right to choose for women and those who

are birthing people, those who are in

their bodies to choose and not only to

choose the right to their reproductive

rights, but also to be able to have

access to those rights. That this is a

part of law. Law is not only just about

doing, but it's about seeing the people

who are behind it. It's understanding

the body. It's understanding the soul,

the heart. Why do we have these laws?

What is this all about? and synagogues

and communities across America are

celebrating and really raising our

voices in saying that this is reproshat,

reproductive Shabbat. You can find

information in the back. There's a table

there that will give you a lot of

information. But it is actually a part

of our Torah itself. It is not that

religion. I think many times we think

that religion and halaka the law tells

us that we have to think a certain way

that we have to value certain values

that are traditional and it's not the

case when it comes to our Jewish

tradition our Jewish tradition is

complicated we know and that's also one

of the beauties of law that it's not

always so clear-cut particularly what's

written in the Torah these mishpatim

these laws that we see written there the

way the rabbis take them and expound on

them They also say we are creating a

system and we are creating a community

where people come first and relationship

come first and how do we build that and

how do we see that and the way that this

unfolds for us in this particular case

is that there are many conversations

around how and when life starts for us

in the in the Torah even it's not clear

and also the dignity of each and every

living being and the idea that salom

Elohim we are each made in the image of

God and that each of us has the right to

choose and that each of us should have

access to that right which is over many

many years a conversation in the law

that unfolds and brings us to this point

of saying the Torah is a living and

breathing body

we are going to do and we are also going

to learn and understand how that impacts

the world. How that brings our values

which are at the heart of who we are as

a people into reality and into what it

means to be in relationship with each

other. And it's just to say that this is

not something that is new. So this is

celebrated each parat mishpatim there's

reproshat

but since 2011 just to give an idea of

as a country and I think many of us know

we are grappling and fighting and

holding on to so much of what we believe

needs to be happening and we want to see

in the way that we treat each and every

person with that dignity and that

respect. Since 2011, we've had over a

450 laws that are restricting access to

reproductive health care, which have

been made with even more since we know

the fall of Row versus Wade, which was

in 2022.

And that we have to in terms of the way

that we think about this idea that it's

not only about legal safe rights to

abortion and to individuals who are able

to choose and the right to have access

to that choice as well. but that it's

Judaism believes in both of these. That

we believe in the dignity of all, the

health of all, and that laws that once

again stretch us in our action as well

as our emotionally and spiritual beings.

That these are laws that are made to say

who is at the heart of it.

What is it that we're actually trying to

do and what is it that we're trying to

learn?

It's a right

to choose and the choice also needs to

come with the action. The two are

handinand that law without compassion

isn't Torah. It's not law.

And action without reflection, it isn't

complete. That one goes with the other.

We hear it. We're going to hear it in

the Torah. We're going to hear it over

again. And this is a call. It's a call

for each one of us today in a world that

is really hard in a country where law

feels like it's slipping away, where we

don't even recognize what it is that we

are trying to build sometimes. And it's

telling us to act that we need to

protect the dignity and the health and

the autonomy to listen really deeply

listen NASA and Nishma to lived

experience to the suffering to the

complexity to the people who are going

through this to understand what it is

that we are trying to do collectively

and to build a society where law

reflects the sacred worth of each and

every person who is a part of this

society and this community on this

reproshat. My hope is that we can each

stretch that it stretches us that as we

hear these laws and as we particularly

think about where we are as a country

that it stretches us in our deeds and in

our understanding and that we can honor

that salam Elohim in every body in every

single body. And may our commitment to

Torah guide us toward that justice, to

the compassion, to the courage, and to

the action which we need to create the

world that we are trying to build

together. Shabbat shalom.