Why Civilizations Fail by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

What is the real challenge of maintaining a free society? In parshat Eikev, Moses springs his great surprise. Here are his words:

Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God… Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery… You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”… If you ever forget the Lord your God… I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. (Deut. 8:11-19)

What Moses was saying to the new generation was this: You thought that the forty years of wandering in the wilderness were the real challenge, and that once you conquer and settle the land, your problems will be over. The truth is that it is then that the real challenge will begin. It will be precisely when all your physical needs are met – when you have land and sovereignty and rich harvests and safe homes ­– that your spiritual trial will commence. The real challenge is not poverty but affluence, not insecurity but security, not slavery but freedom. Moses, for the first time in history, was hinting at a law of history. Many centuries later it was articulated by the great 14th century Islamic thinker, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), by the Italian political philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), and most recently by the Harvard historian Niall Ferguson. Moses was giving an account of the decline and fall of civilizations. Ibn Khaldun argued similarly, that when a civilization becomes great, its elites get used to luxury and comfort, and the people as a whole lose what he called their asabiyah, their social solidarity. The people then become prey to a conquering enemy, less civilized than they are but more cohesive and driven. Vico described a similar cycle:

“People first sense what is necessary, then consider what is useful,

Welcome to the DAT Minyan! Shabbat Eikev

August 12, 2017 - 20 Av, 5777 Joseph Friedman, Rabbi | David Fishman, President

Candle Lighting

Havdalah

7:43pm 8:44pm

Shabbat Schedule

Please help make our prayer service more meaningful by refraining from talking during

the service.

FRIDAY

6:20 pm: Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat/Maariv,

(Shema should be recited after 8:45 pm)

SHABBAT

Parasha: Page 980 / Haftarah: Page 1197

7:30 am: Hashkama Minyan

Tefillah Warm-up with Ellyn Hutt is cancelled this week but will resume August 19th

9:00 am: Shacharit

Kiddush this week is sponsored by Ari and Miriam Hoffman in honor of the recent Bat

Mitzvah of their daughter, Batya

6:15 pm: HS Boys Gemara w/ Nathan Rabinovitch at the Rabinovitch home

6:30 pm: SHAWL, our Shabbat women’s learning program invites both women and men to hear this week’s presenter, Rabbi Michael Sunshine, on the topic “My Judaism: Engaging the Essence of the Torah, and the Jewish People”

7:30 pm: Mincha, followed by Seudah Shlisheet

Seudah Shlisheet this week is sponsored by the shul

8:44 pm: Maariv / Havdalah

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Weekday Schedule

SHACHARIT

Sunday: 8:00 am

Monday — Friday: 6:35 am

MINCHA/MAARIV

Sunday — Thursday: 6:15 pm

Friday — 6:10 pm

DAT Minyan is a dynamic and friendly Modern Orthodox synagogue for all ages and dedicated to meaningful personal spiritual development, community growth, youth involvement, Torah education, and Religious Zionism.

DAT Minyan - 6825 E. Alameda Ave. Denver, CO 80224 - 720-941-0479 - www.datminyan.org

Learning Opportunities @ the DAT Minyan

• Kitzur Shulchan Aruch: Daily, after Shacharit

• Mishnayot: Daily, between Mincha and Maariv

• Nefesh HaChaim: Sat & Sun, after Maariv

• Women’s Tuesday Parsha Class: on recess until August 29th

(Continued on page 2)

next attend to comfort, later delight in pleasures, soon grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad squandering their estates.”

Bertrand Russell put it powerfully in the introduction to his History of Western Philosophy. Russell thought that the two great peaks of civilization were reached in ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy. But he was honest enough to see that the very features that made them great contained the seeds of their own demise: What had happened in the great age of Greece happened again in Renaissance Italy: traditional moral restraints disappeared, because they were seen to be associated with superstition; the liberation from fetters made individuals energetic and creative, producing a rare fluorescence of genius; but the anarchy and treachery which inevitably resulted from the decay of morals made Italians collectively impotent, and they fell, like the Greeks, under the domination of nations less civilized than themselves but not so destitute of social cohesion. Niall Ferguson, in his book Civilization: the West and the Rest (2011) argued that the West rose to dominance because of what he calls its six “killer applications”: competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the Protestant work ethic. Today however it is losing belief in itself and is in danger of being overtaken by others. All of this was said for the first time by Moses, and it forms a central argument of the book of Devarim. If you assume – he tells the next generation – that you yourselves won the land and the freedom you enjoy, you will grow complacent and self-satisfied. That is the beginning of the end of any civilization. In an earlier chapter Moses uses the graphic word venoshantem, “you will grow old” (Deut. 4:25), meaning that you will no longer have the moral and mental energy to make the sacrifices necessary for the defence of freedom. Inequalities will grow. The rich will become self-indulgent. The poor will feel excluded. There will be social divisions, resentments and injustices. Society will no longer cohere. People will not feel bound to one another by a bond of collective responsibility. Individualism will prevail. Trust will decline. Social capital will wane. This has happened, sooner or later, to all civilizations, however great. To the Israelites – a small people surrounded by large empires – it would be disastrous. As Moses makes clear towards the end of the book, in the long account of the curses that would overcome the people if they lost their spiritual bearings, Israel would find itself defeated and devastated. Only against this background can we understand the momentous project the book of Devarim is proposing: the creation of a society capable of defeating the normal laws of the growth-and-decline of civilizations. This is an astonishing idea. How is it to be done? By each person bearing and sharing responsibility for the society as a whole. By each knowing the history of his or her people. By each individual studying and understanding the laws that govern all. By teaching their children so that they too become literate and articulate in their identity. Rule 1: Never forget where you came from. Next, you sustain freedom by establishing courts, the rule of law and the implementation of justice. By caring for the poor. By ensuring that everyone has the basic requirements of dignity. By including the lonely in the people’s celebrations. By remembering the covenant daily, weekly, annually in ritual, and renewing it at a national assembly every seven years. By making sure there are always prophets to remind the people of their destiny and expose the corruptions of power. Rule 2: Never drift from your foundational principles and ideals. Above all it is achieved by recognising a power greater than ourselves. This is Moses’ most insistent point. Societies start growing old when they lose faith in the transcendent. They then lose faith in an objective moral order and end by losing faith in themselves. Rule 3: A society is as strong as its faith. Only faith in God can lead us to honour the needs of others as well as ourselves. Only faith in God can motivate us to act for the benefit of a future we will not live to see. Only faith in God can stop us from wrongdoing when we believe that no other human will ever find out. Only faith in God can give us the humility that alone has the power to defeat the arrogance of success and the self-belief that leads, as Paul Kennedy argued in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987), to military overstretch and national defeat. Towards the end of his book Civilisation, Niall Ferguson quotes a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, part of a team tasked with the challenge of discovering why it was that Europe, having lagged behind China until the 17th century, overtook it, rising to prominence and dominance. At first, he said, we thought it was your guns. You had better weapons than we did. Then we delved deeper and thought it was your political system. Then we searched deeper still, and concluded that it was your economic system. But for the past 20 years we have realised that it was in fact your religion. It was the (Judeo-Christian) foundation of social and cultural life in Europe that made possible the emergence first of capitalism, then of democratic politics. Only faith can save a society from decline and fall. That was one of Moses’ greatest insights, and it has never ceased to be true. Shabbat Shalom — Jonathan Sacks

FEATURE ARTICLE (continued from page 1)

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DAT MINYAN MEMBER MILESTONES

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The DAT Minyan wishes to acknowledge the following milestones* of our members in the coming week:

*These details were obtained from the DAT Minyan database, which contains information provided by the members when they joined. We apologize for any omissions or mistakes. For corrections or additions, please log on to your account and update the information, or contact

the synagogue office at 720-941-0479.

Refuah Shelayma Please include the following names in your prayers. May each be granted a Refuah Shelayma. Names are kept on the list until the next Rosh Chodesh. Help us keep the list accurate by verifying the necessary details each month on the Cholim Document

at https://goo.gl/aeyJG2.

Ariella Leah bas Yael Meira

Avraham Ben Mirel

Baruch Getzel ha Cohen ben Esther

Borukh ben Eydya

Carmel ben Tirtza

Chaim Tuvia ben Dina

Chana Yetta bat Bryna

Chanah Genendel bat Nechama Tscharna

Chaya Chanah Elisheva Rivka bat Sarah

Chaya Miriam bat Shoshana

Chaya Orah bat Sarah

Chaya Sarah bat Tzirel

Devorah Leah bat Chanah

Doniel ben Chana

Dovid ben Ita Sheva

Dovid ben Leah

Eliyahu Chaim ha Cohen ben Sara Rifka

Ephraim ben Henna

Eunice bat Sarah

Faigel bat Shaindel

Feigie bat Sarah

Hadassh Bat Fruma Rahel

Ilana Dintza bat Ita Mirrel

Ita Sheiva bas Udyah

Kalia bat Miriam

Laizer ben Yaffa

Leah bat Sarah

Leah Devora Kivitiya bat Chaya

Leya bat Sara

Lyudmila bat Roza

Malka bat Sarah

Menachem Yitzchak ben Yisraela

Michael ben Leah

Miriam Tova Chaya bat Chanah

Mordechai ben Chaya Chana

Moshe Feivel ben Rose

Naftali Yisroel ben Yisraela

Nataniel ben Eslisheva

Nechama bat Chaya

Rina bat Lea

Roshka bat Bryna

Sara Chana bat Shaina

Sarah Shoshanna bat Sarah

Shaina Meryl Bat Rivka

Shashi bat Batya Baila

Shifra Hadassah bat Chaya Leah

Shira Chana bat Sara

Shirley Hasia bat Devorah

Shoshana bat Meriam

Shoshanna bat Liora

Shoshanna Bat Smadar

Shoshanna Miriam bat Chanah

Shulamit Leah bat Chava

Tirtza bat Sarah

Tomas ben Galit

Tova bat Nechama

Tziporah Rut bat Cissie

Yaakov Roni ben Margolit

Yehudit bat Leah

Yeshayahu ben Pola

Yona Malka bat Pola

Yosef ben Malka

Zev ben Yehudis

Ziporah Sarah Mirrel bat Miriam

This Day In Jewish History - Aug 12 / 20 Av 1558 — The first printed edition of the Zohar, a collection of commentaries on the Torah that are based on Kabbalah

(teachings about mysticism and Jewish spirituality), largely authored by Rav Shimon Bar Yochai (also known as Rashbi), is published. Publishing of the Zohar led to a widespread interest in the study of Kabbalah by people of many faiths.

1883 — Anti-Jewish riots erupt in Zola-Egerszeg, Hungary.

1945 — After delivery of components for the atomic bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima during World War II, the battle cruiser USS Indianapolis is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Only 316 of some 1200 sailors survive.

2001 — In one of the worst of a series of suicide bombings by Arab terrorists, a guitar case filled with explosives is detonated at the Sbarro’s Pizzeria, located in one of the busiest areas of downtown Jerusalem. 16 people are killed in the attack and more than 130 are wounded. Among those murdered is an American woman, Mrs. Shoshana Yehudit (Hayman) Greenbaum, who was pregnant with her first child. In her memory, her parents established the Ner Shoshana Fund to support special education for the Etta Israel Center in Los Angeles.

Rob Allen, Elke Barter, Talya Feldman, Sahpir Freedman, Rabbi Joseph Friedman, Batya Hoffman, Dovid Lev, Ella Pomeranz

Josh Fine and Julie Geller — 18 years Larry and Erica Gray — 33 years Joseph and Marla Shafran — 45 years Doug Thorner and Rachel Boim-Thorner — 6 years Steve and Lori Weiser — 15 years Glenn and Corina Zazulia — 20 years Dora Lustig — Mon., 8/14/17 (22 Av) Miriam Stein — Wed., 8/16/17 (24 Av)

DAT MINYAN NEWS, EVENTS AND LEARNING

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COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

Come join R’ Yoel Unger and explore the Haftorahs, known as the Shiva D’Nechemta, “The Seven of Comfort”, that take us from Shabbat Nachamu through Rosh Hashanah, from mourning to rebuilding. This four-part bi-weekly shiur will take place at Merkaz, 295 S. Locust, from 8 – 9 pm, on Thursdays, August 3rd, 17th, 31st, and September 14th. Shiurim are open to men and women.

The Jewish Experience invites the community to a block party on Sunday, August 13th, 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm, on E. Dakota Ave. between Monaco Pkwy and Locust St. Free admission, bounce house, family-friendly activities, music and more.

Save-the-Date of Sunday, August 13th, 7:00 pm at BMH-BJ for an exclusive evening with Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, who will share his personal riveting drama of torment, survival and renewal from life as a child survivor of Buchenwald to becoming Chief Rabbi of Israel. To purchase tickets online, please visit https://denverjewishcentercom.clhosting.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/3739286/jewish/Exclusive-Evening-with-Rabbi-Lau.htm.

Jewish National Fund Mountain States invites the community to a program on Tuesday, August 15th, with Lt. Colonel (Res.) Tiran Attia, Director of Special in Uniform, a unique program which integrates young men and women with disabilities into the Israel Defense Forces. The program takes place at Temple Sinai, 3509 S. Glencoe St., at 7:00 pm. This is a free program but an RSVP is required by August 9th at jnf.org/denvertiran17 or by calling 303-573-7095 ext.968.

The 2017 Harry H. Beren Summer Distinguished Speaker Series, “Soaring Above Life’s Turbulence,” continues on Wednesday, August 30th, at 7:00 pm, with a talk by Aliza Bulow, “ Crossing the Narrow Bridge: The Jewish Path to Greatness.” More information and RSVP at TheJE.com/SALT.

The community is cordially invited to the 14th Annual Keshet of the Rockies Dinner, to be held September 13th, 6:00 pm, at BMH-BJ, honoring Elise Zakroff, and Students of the Year Aviva Kupfer and Arik Hazak (DAT), Rachel Kornbluth (DJDS), and Baruch Simblist (Hillel Academy). This year’s Keynote Speaker will be athlete Tricia Downing, the first female paraplegic to complete an Ironman triathlon. For reservations, call or email Lola Zussman, 303-961-4186, lolashe@aol.com.

Mega Kids Challah Bake, Sunday September 17, 2017! Kids ages 3-12 (must be accompanied by an adult) at George Washington High School, 10:00 am — 12 noon. For more information or to RSVP, please call 303-329-0213 or visit www.coloradokidschallah.com. A community event sponsored by Bais Menachem.

Mazal Tov to Noam and Yael Horowitz and family on the birth of their son this week. Shalom Zachar will be Friday night (8/11), 9:00 pm at their home, 316 S. Magnolia St., and Brit Milah is scheduled for Monday morning, 8/14, approximately 7:20 am, following Shacharit davening at DAT. The community is invited to attend both events.

Mazal Tov to Elan and Hadassa Penn and family on the birth of their son this week. Shalom Zachar will be Friday night (8/11), 9:30 pm at their home, 368 S. Pontiac Wy., and and Brit Milah is scheduled for Tuesday morning, 8/15, approximately 7:30 am, following Shacharit davening at EDOS. The community is invited to attend both events.

Work is underway designing our davening space at BMH-BJ for the High Holidays. We would greatly appreciate some help with decorating the space to enhance the ambiance. If you can assist us, please contact the shul office at 720-941-0479.

The community is invited to the unveiling of Steve Hutt’s father's headstone, on Sunday Aug. 20, 10:30 am, at Golden Hill Cemetery, 12000 W. Colfax in Lakewood.

The 6th Annual DAT Minyan 14’er Hike takes place Sunday morning, September 10th, at Quandary Peak, lead by Ari Hoffman. Meet at Quandary Peak trailhead for Shacharit. Children ages 10 and above (and dogs) welcome at your own risk. Registration at apolotsky@yahoo.com.

Our Social Committee, under the leadership of our new Chairs, James and Ramona Harris, has put together a full calendar of events for the New Year. Just to highlight a couple of them, please SAVE-THE-DATES of Sunday afternoon, September 10th for an End-of-Summer Event, and Sunday, January 21st for our Annual Event. More information coming soon!

Thank-you to all of those who contribute to our Shabbat services by signing up to help with our weekly leining. We remain in need of continued help with this and all able-lainers are encouraged to please volunteer! In addition, with a goal of expanding our roster of Haftarah readers, we have now opened up the weekly Haftarah portions for sign-up as well. The sign-up website is www.datminyan.org/laining. Please contact Steve Hutt for questions and additional information.

Looking for a way to make your donation to the shul really go the distance? We can use your Frequent Flyer miles to fly in our Scholars in Residence, saving the shul a great deal of money! Please contact the synagogue office to make a mileage donation.

Your help in maintaining the order of our DAT Minyan davening space is most appreciated. With seating sometimes challenging, please utilize the tables in the hallway for your tallit bags and other items that may require storage during davening. Please make every effort to retrieve these items after davening and motzei Shabbat. The tables are removed after Shabbat and we cannot be responsible for items that are left with us. Similarly, we thank you for helping us by returning chumashim and siddurim to the bookshelves from which you found them at the conclusion of davening.

Mazal Tov to Scott and Sally Alpert on the birth of a granddaughter. Parents are Michael and Molly Alpert.

101

PRE-HIGH HOLIDAY 5-WEEK COURSE

J U D A I S M

A C r a s h C o u r s e o n t h e B a s i c s o f J u d a i s m

101 EXAMINE THE “HOW’S & WHY’S” OF BEING JEWISH

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

IN PREPARATION

FOR THE HIGH HOLIDAYS

All classes presented at the DAT Minyan, 6825 E. Alameda Ave., Denver CO 80224 at

7:30 pm. Register at:

www.datminan.org/form/judaism101