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Sacrifices Seen Through Love and Law
Mar 31, 2012 By David Levy | Commentary | Text Study | Pesah
Every year, the weeks during which the Torah portions of Leviticus are read, many Jews complain about the challenge of finding interest or meaning in such esoteric material. I, myself, also struggle to engage deeply with these texts when I forget that even our ancient Sages felt the need to bolster the relevance of these laws, which largely became defunct after the Second Temple was destroyed.
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How Now, Brown Cow?
Mar 17, 2012 By Leonard A. Sharzer | Commentary | Pekudei | Shabbat Parah | Vayak-hel
I would like to review several components of the Red Heifer ritual that I find most challenging and ask two questions: (1) Is there any way to understand this arcane ritual that has resonance in modern times?; and (2) Why do we read this passage shortly before Pesah?
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Consumption with Humility
Mar 17, 2012 By Charlie Schwartz | Commentary | Text Study | Pekudei | Vayak-hel
“You are what you eat,” as the old adage goes鈥攂ut according to this midrash, you are also what you build, or more precisely, you are how you build.
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Living with the Divine Spirit
Mar 10, 2012 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Ki Tissa
How to blame the Israelites for the Golden Calf episode, when it seems that all they want to do is create something holy?
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The Voice From the Burning Bush
Mar 10, 2012 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Ki Tissa
Moses heard God’s voice as his own; each of us hears God’s voice as our own, hearing what we need to hear from the thunderous words of revelation that are each of ours and yet so difficult to discern.
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A Threefold Method of Biblical Interpretation
Mar 3, 2012 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Shabbat Zakhor | Tetzavveh
Why are these two seemingly unrelated matters鈥攖he law against harboring dishonest weights, on the one hand, and the exhortation to “remember” Amalek’s treachery, on the other鈥攋uxtaposed?
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Remembering to Forget
Mar 3, 2012 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Shabbat Zakhor
How does one recall something that we are ultimately supposed to forget? That is one of the great paradoxes found in the Torah reading for Shabbat Zakhor and later reflected in a rabbinic tradition that stems from the midrash above.
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Bringing God into Our Classrooms and Communities
Feb 25, 2012 By Jonathan Lipnick | Commentary | Terumah
Although this week’s parashah focuses mostly on architectural plans, there is significant, inspiring Torah about community building and even classroom dynamics.
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Of Willing Heart
Feb 25, 2012 By David Levy | Commentary | Text Study | Terumah
God seems not to be seeking out the work alone, but more the voluntary offering. I find this to be incredibly encouraging.
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Standing with Moses on the Mountaintop
Feb 18, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Mishpatim | Shabbat Shekalim
Readers of Mishpatim cannot fail to be struck by the contrast between the main body of the parashah and its conclusion. The former consists for the most part of rather dry case law, covering such things as goring oxen, robbery by day and by night, and release from indentured servitude. The end of the parashah could not be more different in subject and tone.
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Debtors to God
Feb 18, 2012 By Charlie Schwartz | Commentary | Text Study | Mishpatim
This week’s midrash provides a striking metaphor for the nature of our existence in the world. Like the destitute person who has given his only garment as collateral on a loan, we are often destitute in our moral stature. We make mistakes, error, and sin. According to the midrash, every evening God takes our souls as we sleep as collateral for the spiritual debts we owe. And every morning, in spite of our failings, our souls are returned to us.
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The Whimsy, Confusion, and Hope of Purim
Feb 11, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Purim
Purim is probably the most confusing of all Jewish holidays.
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Torah and the Supreme Court
Feb 11, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Yitro
These are all the essential ingredients for the recipe of how we interpret the Torah at 91快播鈥攍anguage, history, tradition, precedent, purpose, and consequence. It is these very same principles that define our vision for study, law, and practice.
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The Resiliency and Faith of Youth
Feb 11, 2012 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Yitro
Why do bad things happen to good people?
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“One Good Thing about Music…”
Feb 4, 2012 By Charlie Schwartz | Commentary | Beshallah
One good thing about music: when it hits you, you feel no pain.” So opens Bob Marley’s reggae anthem “.” This lyric cuts to the heart of music’s awesome power to transform one’s state of being. Music can touch something deep inside of us, can make us feel. Melodies express complex, even contradictory, emotions and ideas; they can soothe pain with joy, while adding feelings of loss or nostalgia. This emotive power of music stands at the center of this week’s Torah portion, Beshallah.
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Moving Forward
Feb 4, 2012 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Beshallah
What a wonderful feature of being human, that we are so different that even our shared experiences produce in us such a wide range of possible emotions. Despair, regret, aggression, complaint鈥攖he midrash imagines that different people, standing at the shore of the Sea of Reeds with Pharoah’s army closing in from behind, felt each in different measure.
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Redemption Through Law
Jan 28, 2012 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Bo
In the midst of the tumult of the Exodus鈥攚hile the plagues are still falling like locusts upon Egypt; after the deep darkness that plunged the land back into primal chaos; as the Israelite slaves desperately and, it must be admitted, somewhat gleefully despoil their former masters just after the ominous warning has been issued of the impending death of Egypt’s firstborn鈥攖he Torah pauses in its breathless narrative as if for a commercial break, a word from our Sponsor.
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A Study in Redemption
Jan 28, 2012 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Va'era
If you followed last week’s Torah portion closely, you are probably sensing that this week’s portion, in the words of Yogi Berra, is “d茅j脿 vu all over again.” Last week, in Parashat Shemot, we read an account of Moses’s lineage, of God’s announcing that He will take the people out of Egypt, of a staff turning into a snake and water into blood, of Moshe’s speech-impairment, and of God’s appointing Aaron as surrogate spokesperson for Moshe. Every one of these topics appears in this week’s parashah too.
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The Final Plague
Jan 28, 2012 By David Levy | Commentary | Text Study | Bo
Each year, when we read the Exodus story and again when we encounter it at the Passover seder, we are confronted with a serious moral question. We must ask ourselves how we feel about the nature of the collective punishment of the Egyptians.
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The Doubtful Path to God
Jan 21, 2012 By Charlie Schwartz | Commentary | Text Study | Va'era
Parashat Va-era opens with a dejected and depressed Moses, crestfallen after an unfruitful encounter with Pharaoh. From the text it seems that Moses had expected the redemption of the Children of Israel to be a quick in-and-out operation, leading to his dismay when the full extent of his mission became clear. This first verse of the parashah, which our midrash builds upon, forms a kind of pep talk from God to Moses, with the Divine trying to reinvigorate and restore faith to God’s servant.
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