This Shabbat we study the second parashah of Devarim, Deuteronomy, called Va’Etkhanan, “I implored.” The name refers to the pleading of Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our Teacher, to be allowed to enter the Land of Promise which has been his life’s dream and every day work. According to the Midrash (ancient Rabbinical literature which show usContinue reading “Shabbat Nakhamu: Sometimes the Answer is No”
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Tisha B’Av: Beyond the Sadness – I Must Own This Evil if I Would Behold the Good
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”
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”
Shabbat Hukkat: The World in a Word
This week’s parashah is called Hukkat, a word that can be translated as “statute,” “ordinance,”, or, simply, “law.” We often find it as half of the hendiadys hukkim umishpatim, which you might have seen translated as “laws and ordinances” or some such. Of course, one of the basic rules for Torah study is that there isContinue reading “Shabbat Hukkat: The World in a Word”
Shabbat Sh’lakh L’kha: Don’t Be Afraid, Together We Can Do This
We are learning, as a human family and as Jews, the price of fear, and of second-hand information. It’s a long road, stretching all the way back to our parashat hashavua. In Sh’lakh L’kha, we have crossed the wilderness, we are camped on the edge of the Land of Promise. Perhaps it’s only human that we do not goContinue reading “Shabbat Sh’lakh L’kha: Don’t Be Afraid, Together We Can Do This”
Shabbat BeHa’alot’kha: Light the Way Forward
Our parashah begins with these words: דַּבֵּר, אֶל-אַהֲרֹן, וְאָמַרְתָּ, אֵלָיו: בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ, אֶת-הַנֵּרֹת, אֶל-מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה, יָאִירוּ שִׁבְעַת הַנֵּרוֹת. “Speak to Aaron, tell him: in your lifting up of the lamps, it is toward the front of the menorah [lamp stand] that the seven lights should illuminate.” (Num.8.2) This is difficult to understand without visualizingContinue reading “Shabbat BeHa’alot’kha: Light the Way Forward”
Standing Up Is Dangerous, Yet We Must Stand Up
Just before Shabbat entered the world last Friday evening, a tragedy occurred in Portland. Two men who tried to intervene in the harassment of two teenage Muslim women were murdered. By Shabbat afternoon, over a thousand people had come together to mourn, to comfort each other and to encourage each other and ourselves to continueContinue reading “Standing Up Is Dangerous, Yet We Must Stand Up”
Shabbat BaMidbar: Fire, Water and Wilderness
The name of our parashah this week is the same as the name of the Book we are now beginning, once again, to study: BaMidbar, “in the wilderness,” the Book called Numbers in English. So far in our journey from Egypt toward that which is Promised, our Torah has recounted for us the escape itself, theContinue reading “Shabbat BaMidbar: Fire, Water and Wilderness”
Shabbat BeHar/BeHukkotai: Taking Refuge in the PaRDeS of Learning
Yesterday I was on a conference call with a national social justice organization, during which we were told that “usually, we expect to operate with a six-month window. Lately we have revised that to six days.” Such is the sense of frantic, non-stop chaos in the political sphere of our nation’s existence. Thank G*d thatContinue reading “Shabbat BeHar/BeHukkotai: Taking Refuge in the PaRDeS of Learning”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 