On Monday evening July 31, and all day Tuesday August 1, the Jewish world observes this year’s onset of the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av, called simply by that name in Hebrew: ט’ באב – Tisha B’Av, the great Fast Day of mourning for what was destroyed and will never be again. What shallContinue reading “Tisha B’Av: Beyond the Sadness – I Must Own This Evil if I Would Behold the Good”
Monthly Archives: July 2017
Shabbat Pinhas: Too Easy to Blame a Person
This parashat hashavua is troubling; in the last verses of last week’s parashah, a young man named Pinkhas (or Phineas in English) who serves as a kohen, a priest (grandson of Aaron the High Priest, no less) has murdered two people who were perceived to be publicly flouting the authority of Moshe. The parashah clearly describesContinue reading “Shabbat Pinhas: Too Easy to Blame a Person”
Shabbat Balak: the Holy and the Idolatrous
Mah tovu ohalekha Ya’akov, mishk’notekha Yisrael, “how beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel” – these words, which appear in the siddur at the very beginning of morning Tefilah, are part of our parashat hashavua, called Balak. The words are those of a mercenary prophet, Bil’am, hired to curse the people Israel byContinue reading “Shabbat Balak: the Holy and the Idolatrous”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 