Necessary Chaos In the wilderness your possessions cannot surround you. Your preconceptions cannot protect you. Your logic cannot promise you the future. Your guilt can no longer place you safely in the past. You are left alone each day with an immediacy that astonishes, chastens, and exults. You see the world as if for theContinue reading “Shabbat BaMidbar: Into the Wilderness”
Monthly Archives: May 2025
Shabbat BeHar-BeHukotai: This is Exhausting
so much suffering everywhere you look וְלֹ֤א תוֹנוּ֙ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־עֲמִית֔וֹ וְיָרֵ֖אתָ מֵֽאֱלֹהֶ֑-ךָ כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י ה’ אֱלֹהֵ-כֶֽם Do not wrong one another, but fear Eternity. (Lev. 25.17) Do not read עמיתו but אמיתו , not “your neighbor” but “your truth”. Do not wrong your truth. – D’vash HaSadeh Friends, this is hard. Every week brings freshContinue reading “Shabbat BeHar-BeHukotai: This is Exhausting”
Shabbat Emor: “Say” what?
today is Lag ba’Omer, the 33rd day of the counting of the ‘Omer: הוד שבהוד hod sheh-b’hod, gratitude in gratitude Today is the minor Jewish holy day known simply as lag ba’omer, a name which is nothing but the way to vocalize today’s Jewish date: the 33rd day of the counting of the ‘Omer; לContinue reading “Shabbat Emor: “Say” what?”
Shabbat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim: “after death, holiness.”
Regardless of what I might want to write about on this Shabbat, like any Torah commentator I am guided, bidden and challenged by the parashat hashavua, the assigned parashah of the week. This week it is a double parashah: Akharei Mot and Kedoshim, “after death” and “holiness.” This is a not-unusual pairing, but it seemsContinue reading “Shabbat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim: “after death, holiness.””
Shabbat Tazria-Metzora: Seems To Me
Don’t Believe Everything You Think Our ancestors dealt with forces beyond their control just as we do; in this week’s parashah, which joins together the parshiyot called Tazria and Metzora, what we read according to the third year of the Triennial Cycle for Torah begins with some kind of moldy growth detected upon the wallsContinue reading “Shabbat Tazria-Metzora: Seems To Me”
Shabbat Shemini: They Must Deserve It
There but for the grace of HaShem וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶֽל־אַהֲרֹ֗ן הוּא֩ אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֨ר ה’ ׀ לֵאמֹר֙ בִּקְרֹבַ֣י אֶקָּדֵ֔שׁ וְעַל־פְּנֵ֥י כׇל־הָעָ֖ם אֶכָּבֵ֑ד וַיִּדֹּ֖ם אַהֲרֹֽן׃ Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what ‘ה meant by saying: through those near to Me I show Myself holy, and will be respected before all the people.” Aaron was silent. (Lev. 10.3) OnContinue reading “Shabbat Shemini: They Must Deserve It”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 