The Sanctity of the Land
Apr 30, 1994 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Emor | Pesah | Shavuot | Sukkot
At the new Jewish Museum one can feast on the panorama of Jewish history in a single spectacular, permanent exhibition, subtly conceived and brilliantly executed. It opens with a replica of an ancient agrarian calendar found in 1908 at Gezer, northwest of Jerusalem in the Shefela region. Written in good biblical Hebrew, the calendar seems to date from the 10th century B.C.E., coinciding with the reign of Solomon, when Gezer became part of the expanding monarchy of Israel. The calendar may not be anything more than a mnemonic ditty for children, and yet it is a cultural artifact of rich significance.
Read More
Explaining the Inexplicable?
Apr 20, 2002 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
In speaking of the legal corpus which dominates this week’s double parashah, the Torah makes use of two terms, mishpatim and hukkim, translated as “rules” and “laws.” Technically, as Baruch A. Levine makes clear in his commentary, they reflect two sources of legal practice. The word mishpatim deriving from the root sh-f-t, “to judge,” embodies rules articulated in a judicial setting. Hukkim from the root h-k-k “to engrave” or “inscribe” suggests laws promulgated by decree. In our parashah the terms seem to be synonymous, because God is the only lawgiver: “My rules (mishpatim) alone shall you observe, and faithfully follow My laws (hukkim): I the Lord am your God” (18:4).
Read More
Mitzvah vs. Mitzvah
May 5, 2001 By Joshua Heller | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
Sometimes in the Biblical text, the first half and second half of a verse seem to be talking past each other. The first half addresses one commandment or concept, and the second half seems to go off on a tangent. This strange type of juxtaposition appears a number of times in K’doshim , the second half of our double portion for the week.
Read More
Love for All
May 9, 1998 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
This Shabbat we will read two Torah portions, Aharei Mot and K’doshim . The topics covered in these parashiyot range from the ritual requirement of sending a scapegoat out to the desert on Yom Kippur, to a list of forbidden sexual relationships, to fundamental social legislation, reminiscent somewhat of the Ten Commandments.
Read More
Sanctification through Mitzvah
Apr 23, 1994 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Kedoshim
What is the nature of holiness? I’m not sure that our noisy, frenetic, secular lives ever prompt us to raise the question. And yet it lies at the very heart of the Torah’s message to Israel. Just before Sinai God singles out Israel as God’s “treasured possession… a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5鈥�6).” Again this week God instructs Moses: “Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God, am holy (Lev. 19:1鈥�2).”
Read More
Imagining Community, Then and Now
Mar 4, 2016 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Vayak-hel
Anyone who has mounted a fund-raising campaign, or sought volunteers for an institution or organization, will immediately recognize the account of the Tabernacle鈥檚 construction in this week鈥檚 Torah portion as utopian in the extreme. 鈥淎ll the artisans . . . said to Moses, 鈥楾he people are bringing more than is needed for the task entailed in the work that the Lord has commanded to be done.鈥� Moses thereupon had this proclamation made throughout the camp: 鈥楲et no man or woman make further efforts toward gifts for the sanctuary!鈥� Their efforts had been more than enough for all the tasks to be done鈥� (Exod. 36:5鈥�7).
Read More
“Into the Woods” and into Elul
Aug 24, 2002 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Ki Tavo
“Once upon a time in a far-off kingdom, lived a young maiden, a sad young lad, and a childless bakery” thus opens the story that develops into Stephen Sondheim’s current revival on Broadway, Into the Woods. Cleverly weaving our classic fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, Sondheim composes a fable with classic, yet new significance. He begins with the foundation of the moral lessons of the children’s fairy tales like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk, and builds upon them by watching as their characters interact with one another.
Read More
The Trouble with the Rebellious Child
Aug 17, 2002 By Joshua Heller | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
There are those who think that the world and human nature, are ordered and deterministic, that people can be profiled and categorized, their behavior predicted by psychological or statistical models. Having a child has made me newly appreciative of the role that disorder and unpredictability play in the world. On the day鈥搕o鈥揹ay level, all plans and schedules have taken on a new level of tentativity, and getting through an airport security checkpoint suddenly requires a whole new level of coordination.
Read More