The Secret of the 10 Plagues
Jan 1, 2011 By Stephen P. Garfinkel | Commentary | Va'era
Parashat Va-era, this week’s Torah portion, is full of drama, including most of the 10 plagues needed to bring the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. Moses has just been commissioned as God’s mouthpiece (in last week’s reading), designated to be the person to deliver the divine message of redemption to the people of Israel and to Pharaoh. Before the action, however, the parashah opens with God’s private, even intimate, declaration to Moses.
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Filling Ourselves with Gratitude
Jan 15, 2011 By Lisa Gelber | Commentary | Beshallah
I’ve spent the past year watching in awe as my daughter has gobbled up her bottles of formula. From the time she arrived home from the hospital until today, she has drunk that bottle with vigor. Now she is older and can hold the bottle herself; when she’s finished, she tosses it to the side with a flourish, a ceremonial conclusion to her meal. The process has been and continues to be amazing, awe-inspiring, and, admittedly, somewhat entertaining.
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The Routine and the Profound
Jan 29, 2011 By Barry Holtz | Commentary | Mishpatim
If Parashat Yitro, last week’s Torah reading, ends with the literal clap of God’s thunder, Parashat Mishpatim begins, perhaps not with a whimper, but certainly with at least a touch of anticlimax. From the heights of Yitro’s mystery, from the Decalogue and the Revelation, we are brought quite precipitously to the nitty-gritty of daily life, the laws of slave and slaveholder, the details of petty feuds, of accidental death and injury, of the goring ox, the fires in the vineyard, and the thief in the night.
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Our Relationship to God
May 10, 2010 By Lisa Gelber | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
As I chanted this verse from the end of Parashat B’har, over and over again, in preparation for reading Torah, it suddenly occurred to me how clear the Torah is about our relationship to God as slaves. Not so many weeks ago, we focused on our enslavement in Egypt. Think back to the Passover seder, where we sang Avadim Hayinu (We Were Slaves). Not to God; rather, l’Pharaoh b’meetzrayeem (to Pharaoh in Egypt). We know the story, and can name the oppressor. So if we were slaves to Pharaoh, and then God took us out of bondage鈥攐ut of the narrow places, the straits of Egypt鈥攚hat are we to do with this idea of our enslavement and servitude to God?
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A Nation with Priests
Apr 30, 2010 By Alan Cooper | Commentary | Emor
Many Conservative synagogues no longer distinguish between members who claim descent from the priestly castes (kohen, levi) and ordinary Jews (yisra’el). The priestly blessing is recited by whoever happens to be leading the prayer service; the first two aliyot to the Torah are handed out democratically and dubbed rishon/sheni (“first/second”) instead of kohen/levi. Nevertheless, it is important to keep the old distinctions in mind as we read biblical priestly law in general and Parashat Emor in particular. Distinctions between priests and their fellow Israelites, like those between Israel and the nations, are fundamental to the biblical concept of holiness.
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Healthy (and Maybe Even Holy) Ambivalence
Apr 24, 2010 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
Building identity is complicated and sometimes painful work. This is true both on an individual level and when it comes to nations. What makes thinking about identity even more complicated is the fact that identity is really never completely “formed.” Sure, a national identity should have core commitments. But I would suggest that we shift our understanding of identity from something that is fixed to a subjective process by which one group comes to recognize itself as being different from other groups. Understood in these terms, identity is dynamic鈥攁lways emerging and continually being transformed over time.
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Aaron’s Silence
Apr 9, 2010 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Shemini
In Parashat Sh’mini we read of a great tragedy that befalls the people of Israel on the very day that it celebrates the dedication of the Mishkan, the sanctuary in the desert. Two of Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, bring an unauthorized offering and, consequently, they are slain by a fire that issues forth from heaven. We are told that when Aaron was informed of his sons’ death he said nothing: “And Aaron was silent.”
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Our Individual Responsibility to the Community
Mar 20, 2010 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayikra
Four months ago, an Orthodox rabbi here in Israel made headlines by urging his yeshiva students to resist any orders to evacuate settlements in the West Bank. In his book entitled Revivim, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed writes, “a simple halakhah is that it is forbidden for any person, whether a soldier or an officer, to participate in the strictly forbidden act of expelling Jews from their homes and handing over any portion of the Land of Israel to enemies . . . Those who violate this violate several commandments of Torah” (Ha’aretz, November 18, 2009). Rabbi Melamed’s directives rightfully caused a stir in all segments of Israeli society.
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