God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
Feb 12, 2013 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Purim
How is it possible to tell a story of redemption without even once mentioning the name of God?
Read More
The Challenge of Nadab and Abihu
Apr 21, 2012 By Deborah Miller | Commentary | Shemini
The idea of distinctions persists throughout the Torah and in Jewish life. The word lehavdil (to separate/distinguish) occurs in the first act of Creation鈥斺�淕od separated/distinguished between light and darkness.鈥� The theme continues into this week鈥檚 parashah, Shemini.
Read More
The Torah’s Prescription for Healing
Apr 9, 2013 By Alan Cooper | Commentary | Metzora | Tazria
At a glance, the opening chapters of Parashat Metzora seem like a biblical antecedent of WebMD. Leviticus 13 describes the disfiguring symptoms of 爪专注转/tzara`at, starting with 鈥渁 swelling, a rash, or a discoloration鈥� that 鈥渄evelops into a scaly affection鈥� (Lev. 13:1).
Read More
Getting Out of Your Own Way
Apr 16, 2013 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
鈥淵ou shall not . . . place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God. I am the Lord.鈥� Taken literally, this is a verse about respecting the disabled. Taken figuratively鈥攁s the Rabbis give us ample precedent and license to do鈥攊t is about all of us.
Read More
Yom Yerushalayim鈥擨nhabiting the Land
May 1, 2013 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai | Yom Yerushalayim
Our double Torah portion opens with God鈥檚 command to Moses to tell the Israelites, 鈥淲hen you come to the land that I am giving you, and you inhabit the land.鈥� No sooner did I read this verse as I prepared to write these words of Torah, than my own counting of the days flashed back 46 years to my first time ever in Israel, when I was a teenager on Camp Ramah Israel Seminar.
Read More
How Do You Measure a Year?
May 8, 2013 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Bemidbar | Shavuot
We are doing an awful lot of counting this week: we count the final days of the Omer, and, as our parashah begins, take the census of the Israelite community. What does all of this counting have to do with the ways in which we measure what really matters?
Read More
Going to the Head of the Prayer Line
May 14, 2013 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Naso
Sharp elbows at shul extend beyond the kiddush table line and back into the sanctuary. Prayer鈥攐r giving honor to God鈥攃an be a competitive business. There are lots of reasons why this is so, and some of them even have to do with loving God. But showing off how we love God can get us into trouble.
Read More
New Generation, Old Leaders
May 24, 2013 By Ute Steyer | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
To paraphrase Moses鈥檚 meltdown in Numbers 11:11鈥�15, 鈥淟ord! I鈥檓 so done with them! I can鈥檛 take it anymore. These people are nothing but a bunch of whinging losers.鈥� Yet the People are doing what they have been doing since day one of the Exodus: complaining. About the lack of water, the lack of food, and now the lack of meat. So why is Moses losing his temper so completely this time?
Read More