Category Archives: Uncategorized

Shabbat Lekh L’kha: Wandering Is Not Punishment

This week it happens – the shattering of hope in a way that is not reparable. What our ancestors thought would be a short journey from the foot of Mt Sinai to the land they were promised became endless. Because, the story goes, at the moment when courage was required, they could not trust. And so, weContinue reading “Shabbat Lekh L’kha: Wandering Is Not Punishment”

Shabbat Emor: Teach Us To Count Our Days

Why is the language of lovemaking so hard to learn?  Why is the body so often dumb flesh? Why does the mind so often choose to fly away at the moment  the word waited for all one’s life is about to be spoken? (Alice Walker, the Temple of My Familiar) Beginning on the second eveningContinue reading “Shabbat Emor: Teach Us To Count Our Days”

Shabbat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim: After Death, Holiness?

Not yet. This week we marked the 75th year since the declaration of independence of the modern State of Israel (we say it that way because this is the third time that Jews have been in a position of self-rule in our at least three thousand year history).  When the state was founded, the AshkenaziContinue reading “Shabbat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim: After Death, Holiness?”

Shabbat Tazria-Metzora 5783: In The Presence of Blood

הַדָּ֖ם ה֣וּא הַנָּ֑פֶשׁ  The blood is the life (Deut. 12.23) Among other bodily fluids, the double parashah which is this week’s Torah reading, Tazria-Metzora, focuses upon blood. The blood of a woman giving birth is one of the most holy substances that exists. In our clumsy translations of the ancient Hebrew, we refer to thatContinue reading “Shabbat Tazria-Metzora 5783: In The Presence of Blood”

Shabbat Hol HaMo’ed Pesakh 5783: Song of Songs

Ostracon with Song of Songs text in Coptic, 400 CE, Thebes Egypt. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art אָמַר רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא…שֶׁאֵין כָּל הָעוֹלָם כֻּלּוֹ כְדַאי כַּיּוֹם שֶׁנִּתַּן בּוֹ שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, שֶׁכָּל הַכְּתוּבִים קֹדֶשׁ, וְשִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים. [Rabbi Akiba said:] The whole world is not as worthy as the day on which the SongContinue reading “Shabbat Hol HaMo’ed Pesakh 5783: Song of Songs”

Shabbat HaGadol: The Bread of Jewish Resilience

This Shabbat is called Shabbat haGadol, “the Great Shabbat” and it is always the Shabbat that directly precedes Pesakh. Today, erev Shabbat, is 9 Nisan, and as 15 Nisan begins next Wednesday at sundown, Jews everywhere will observe the beginning of the oldest Jewish holy day. Our tradition urges us to see every day asContinue reading “Shabbat HaGadol: The Bread of Jewish Resilience”

Shabbat Parah: It’s The Same Gold

רבי יוסי בן חנינה אומר ועשית כפרת זהב טהור, יבא זהב כפורת ויכפר על זהב עגל R. Yossi ben Hanina says: “Then you shall make a kappōret of pure gold …” (Exod. 25:17)—Let the gold of the kappōret atone [yekhaper] for the gold of the calf. This Shabbat is Shabbat Parah, Shabbat of the [red] Heifer, so called becauseContinue reading “Shabbat Parah: It’s The Same Gold”

Shabbat Tetzaveh: Forget All That

אָמַר רָבָא: מִיחַיַּיב אִינִישׁ לְבַסּוֹמֵי בְּפוּרַיָּא עַד דְּלָא יָדַע בֵּין אָרוּר הָמָן לְבָרוּךְ מָרְדֳּכַי.  Rava said: A person is obligated to become intoxicated with wine on Purim until he is so intoxicated that he does not know how to distinguish between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordecai. I heard this week that Jews areContinue reading “Shabbat Tetzaveh: Forget All That”

Shabbat Terumah: Balancing Heart and Hands

דַּבֵּר֙ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְיִקְחוּ־לִ֖י תְּרוּמָ֑ה מֵאֵ֤ת כׇּל־אִישׁ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִדְּבֶ֣נּוּ לִבּ֔וֹ תִּקְח֖וּ אֶת־תְּרוּמָתִֽי׃  Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved. (Ex.25.2) Life is so often about balancing contradictory opposites, or at least clashing inputs. Our parashah begins with such a moment.Continue reading “Shabbat Terumah: Balancing Heart and Hands”