Finding Inspiration in Bullocks and Bloodstains
Mar 12, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Vayikra
Reading Leviticus, it is clear that the reality of the people who generated the text is radically different from our own. It is a book that reads as ancient, obsolete, and irrelevant. In fact, one recent popular edition of the Bible left it out altogether. So what are we, regular readers of the Torah text and seekers of higher meaning gleaned from it, to do with the next three months of Levitical parashiyot?
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Choosing the Right Outfit
Mar 19, 2011 By Michelle Lynn-Sachs | Commentary | Tzav
The parashah contains a variety of detailed instructions to the Israelite priests regarding how they are to perform the sacrificial rites. Included in these instructions are detailed descriptions of what they are to wear as they go about their duties. Significant mention of clothing occurs twice in the parashah: once at the beginning, as part of the instructions for what to do with the ashes resulting from a sacrifice, and once at the end, in a description of the public ceremony to invest Aaron and his sons as priests.
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Parashat Shemini’s Lessons of Leadership
Mar 26, 2011 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shemini
Parashat Shemini provides a stark example of celebration suddenly transformed into mourning. Having completed the building of the Tabernacle and set the foundation for divinely ordained sacrifices, the Israelites are ready to offer the first sacrifice celebrating the inauguration of Israel’s priesthood. The celebration, however, is tragically interrupted by the deaths of Aaron’s eldest sons, Nadav and Avihu. What makes their ending even more shocking is that their downfall comes while they are performing their priestly deeds. How are we to understand this fateful episode, and what does this tragic mishap teach us about leadership?
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Between Tum’ah and Tohorah
Apr 2, 2011 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Shabbat Hahodesh | Tazria
It seems more than kismet that Passover falls when it does, following on the heels of the parashiyot of Leviticus in which we discuss the most base of subjects. In fact, rabbis and commentators through the ages have found the laws of tum’ah and tohorah (ritual impurity and purity) covered in these weeks before Passover so unsettling that, presumably in reaction, they have enthusiastically embraced the following statement from the Talmud: “Questions are asked and lectures are given on the laws of Passover beginning thirty days before” (BT Pesachim 6a). Surely, this is an avoidance tactic on the part of rabbis, but maybe it is also for the sake of the community鈥攖o save them from many discussions that would make them lose their appetites for the kiddush that follows services.
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Metzora: Disease or Dis-ease?
Apr 9, 2011 By Leonard A. Sharzer | Commentary | Metzora
When I tell people that Parashat Metzora and Parashat Tazri路a, which we read last week, are among my favorite parashiyot, they often respond, “Well of course, you were a physician and they are filled with medical information.” But if Tazri路a and Metzora are to be read as medical texts, there would be very little point in reading them at all. For one thing, the dominant subject of the texts is something called tzara’at and we really have no idea what that is. Though often translated as leprosy, modern scholarship is quite consistent that whatever the condition is, it is not what modern medicine knows as leprosy. More importantly, besides not knowing what the described condition really is or precisely what some of the specific terms mean, I would like to suggest that these chapters were never intended to be read as medical texts.
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Singing about Sacrifice
Apr 16, 2011 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Pinehas
When I attended junior congregation as a child, one of my favorite Shabbat morning songs began with the words uv’yom haShabbat. We kids used to belt it out. I remember the same thing happening when I spent summers as a camper at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. But why sing today about slaughtering and offering up lambs on the altar in the Temple? An answer can be found in this week’s Parashat Pinhas, where these words, or rather these verses, originate.
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The Torah and Its Clearly Ambiguous Message
Oct 17, 2009 By Robert Harris | Commentary | Bereishit | Simhat Torah
There is a verse that I love to invoke whenever I teach about “the poetics of biblical narrative,” and it doesn’t come from this week’s portion (but who’s keeping score, anyway?). Instead, it is found in the first extended legal section, Parashat Mishpatim (Exod. 21鈥�24). Loosely translated, this is the text: “In all charges of misunderstanding . . . whereof one party alleges, ‘This is it!’鈥攖he case of both parties shall come before God” (Exod. 22:8); the Hebrew phrase underlying the words “this is it!” is: 讻讬 讛讜讗 讝讛 (ki hu zeh). The verse seems to be addressing a case in which no one side has a total claim on the truth; in such a case, then, one is bidden to consider both possibilities.
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The Origins of a Nation
Apr 23, 2011 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Pesah
As we set our tables and prepare for our seders, we cannot help but hear the echoes of our journey from persecution to freedom amplified in the headlines. Our holiday of Hodesh Ha’aviv鈥攖he “Month of the Spring”鈥攃omes at a time when the ripple effects of what has been dubbed the Arab Spring are just beginning to be felt.
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