The Problem with Priests
Jun 6, 2025 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Naso
Modern Judaism has a problem with the priesthood. The notion of hereditary holiness鈥攖hat one segment of the Jewish people is set apart from others, given ceremonial privileges, and invited to bless the people鈥攃onflicts with our egalitarian ethos.
Read More
Counting as a Spiritual Practice: Bemidbar and the Road to Shavuot
May 30, 2025 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Bemidbar | Shavuot
Every year, without fail, we read Parashat Bemidbar just before the festival of Shavuot. This liturgical pairing is more than a scheduling convenience; it offers a profound insight into the spiritual architecture of Jewish time. Bemidbar begins with a count: “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans, by ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head” (Num. 1:2; 讘职旨诪执住职驻址旨专 砖值讈诪讜止转 诇职讙只诇职讙职旨诇止转指诐). This act of counting seems administrative on the surface, but like so much in the Torah, its spiritual depth lies beneath.
Read More
Grappling with Slavery in Parashat Behar
May 23, 2025 By Marjorie Lehman | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
Parashat Behar is filled with powerful messages about building a just and compassionate society, emphasizing commandments to care for the land, support the poor, and treat hired workers with fairness and dignity. However, I find that Parashat Behar stirs up more discomfort than ethical inspiration. I am always struck by the difficult distinction it makes between Israelites and non-Israelites with regard to slavery. With the themes of Passover and the Israelites鈥� freedom from Egyptian bondage in my mind, I find it hard to reconcile that Leviticus 25 permits the enslavement of non-Israelites while protecting Israelites from such a fate.
Read More
Who Belongs?
May 16, 2025 By Rachel Rosenthal | Commentary | Emor
Who is the Other? This question, which is asked more and more often in our world, is not often easy to answer. Can one choose to be part of a community? Are people who were once outsiders ever fully welcomed as insiders? In Judaism, these questions are especially important. While Judaism has categories to define and even praise non-Jews, opting into the Jewish community is not simple. However, the Talmud tells us that once someone converts to Judaism, we are supposed to treat them as any other Jew. Unfortunately, this is a mission in which many communities fail. This failure can have significant consequences, as we see in this week鈥檚 parashah, Emor.
Read More
Love Beyond Grudges: Living the Mitzvah of Love Your Neighbor
May 9, 2025 By Jonah Guthartz | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
Parashat Kedoshim begins by laying out dozens of mitzvot, including the prohibition against idolatry and the mitzvot of charity, Shabbat, honesty in business, honoring one鈥檚 parents, and the sanctity of life. Perhaps the best- known mitzvah is 诇止纸讗志转执拽止旨证诐 讜职诇止纸讗志转执讟止旨专謾 讗侄转志讘职旨谞值郑讬 注址诪侄旨謹讱指 讜职讗指纸讛址讘职转指旨芝 诇职专值注植讱指謻 讻指旨诪謶讜止讱指 讗植谞执謻讬 讬职-讛止讜指纸讛變 (Lev. 19:19) 鈥淵ou shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against members of your people. Love your fellow [Israelite] as yourself: I am the Lord鈥� Rabbi Akiva famously names this as a fundamental value of the Torah (Sifra, Kedoshim 4:12).
Read More
The Torah鈥檚 Prescription for Healing
May 2, 2025 By Alan Cooper | Commentary | Metzora | Tazria
Given the discomfort, discomfiture, and uncertainty that even mild skin eruptions can cause us nowadays, it should come as no surprise that they were a source of anxiety in ancient times. In this week鈥檚 parashah, that anxiety finds expression amidst an array of concerns about the human body and its functions. The purity laws inLeviticus 11through 15, which digress from the narrative flow of the book,[i]are concerned with diet (chapter 11), reproduction (chapter 12), and bodily integrity (chapters 13 to 15, including property as an extension of the person).
Read More
Six Takes on a Leader鈥檚 Attributes
Apr 25, 2025 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Shemini
Identifying the textual problem: commentators have noticed that the phrase 鈥渄raw near unto the altar鈥� seems superfluous. If Aaron is being commanded to 鈥減erform the service of the sin offering,鈥� is it not obvious that he will need to approach the altar? This textual issue will serve as the basis for our consideration of the attributes of a leader based on our examination of the comments of the traditional Jewish commentaries.
Read More
The Bones We Carry
Apr 18, 2025 By Abigail Uhrman | Commentary | Pesah
Consider the scene: after over 200 years of slavery, the Israelites, at long last, are preparing to depart. They are frantically gathering their belongings鈥攇old, silver, all their earthly possessions鈥攁nd scrambling to prepare food for their journey. In this urgent rush, Moses, rather than attending to the needs of the people and their immediate concerns, embarks on a singular mission: to retrieve the bones of Joseph, fulfilling a centuries-old promise. It begs the question: Why, in the midst of these epic events, does the Torah highlight this seemingly minor detail? What is the significance of Moses’s dedication to this task, his resolute commitment to honoring a promise made generations ago?
Read More