Walking Together with God
May 16, 2014 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Behukkotai
I saw a strange thing on my walk to minyan the other morning.
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Intent of a Question
Jan 8, 2011 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Bo | Pesah
Everyone knows that four children are mentioned in the Passover Haggadah and that one of them is the evil child. Probably fewer of us are aware that the question attributed to this child is a biblical verse found in this week’s Torah portion, “What do you mean by this rite (avodah)?” (Exod. 12:26).
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Boundary of the Wilderness
Jul 10, 2010 By Alan Mintz (<em>z”l</em>) | Commentary | Masei | Mattot
The Torah is replete with lists of every kind: the generations before and after Noah, the enumeration of the tribes and their chieftains in the desert, the catalogs of forbidden foods, the inventories of priestly garments.
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Call Them by Their Names
May 2, 2014 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Emor
When I鈥檓 at a hotel over Shabbat, I have a set Friday afternoon ritual.
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In the Wake of Tragedy
Apr 28, 2007 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
In the immediate wake of tragedy, our response is appropriately silence. Aaron movingly illustrated this in the parashah from two weeks ago after he lost his sons, Nadav and Avihu. Following their shocking deaths, the Torah records Aaron’s response to Moses’ attempt at consolation simply as, “and Aaron was silent” (Leviticus 10:3). We cannot begin to imagine the sense of loss and disbelief that radiated from the depths of his soul when he learned his sons were destroyed by the God who ordained their service.
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The Source of Hope
Jul 21, 2012 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Masei | Mattot | Tishah Be'av
In a dramatic reversal of the ordinary mourning process, 鈥巜hich begins in its starkest intensity and lifts over time as the mourners are comforted, 鈥巘hese are weeks of increasing mourning that move, inevitably, to the destruction of 鈥嶨od’s house and the banishment of the People into exile. The prophetic readings drive 鈥巋ome that we have brought this horrible tragedy on ourselves.
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Remembering the Munich Eleven
Aug 4, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Tishah Be'av
What we encounter in the text of the Talmud is the tension between communal mourning and communal celebration. We live our lives in that tension鈥攂etween joy and sadness, life and death, destruction and rebuilding. All too often our moments of joy are interrupted abruptly by tragedy, and dancing turns to dirge. Just as quickly, we are taken by the hand and out of the depths of our sadness, pulled both emotionally and physically into communal celebration.
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Good Ecology Makes Good Theology
Aug 11, 2012 By Stephen P. Garfinkel | Commentary | Eikev
Last week’s reading and this week’s鈥攚hich together form most of Moses’s second major valedictory speech to the people鈥攑rovide two aspects of one integral message.
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