This week’s parashah is Miketz, which literally translates as “at the end”. In the Torah’s context, it refers to the end of two years’ time during which Joseph languishes, forgotten, in an Egyptian dungeon. The word ketz, “end”, is short and sharp. It echoes another key word of the parashah, vayikatz, which refers to the way in which Pharaoh startles awake after aContinue reading “Shabbat Miketz: Life Comes At You Fast”
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Shabbat VaYeshev: Do You Believe In Your Life?
Do you believe in your life? Enough to lose it? The media reports that people are frightened. More and more, the ordinary activities of daily life seem to be places in which a mass shooting might occur. “When I drop off my child at school,” “when I go to the mall,” “when I am at work,”Continue reading “Shabbat VaYeshev: Do You Believe In Your Life?”
Shabbat VaYishlakh: Angels Among Us
Do we believe in angels? It surprises me how often I am asked that question – that, or another one that asks about the “we” of Jews, and the “supposed to” of our beliefs. When you think about it, the whole idea that you are “supposed” to “believe” is already a curiosity. More, it isContinue reading “Shabbat VaYishlakh: Angels Among Us”
Shabbat VaYetze: Trans Torah on Trans Day of Remembrance
On Shabbat VaYetze we read of Jacob’s leaving his family under threat of death from his brother. His escape is hurried and frightened, and his path traces an ironic reversal of Abraham’s, as Jacob has to leave his family home, the homeland promised to his grandfather’s and father’s descendants, and his people just to survive.Continue reading “Shabbat VaYetze: Trans Torah on Trans Day of Remembrance”
Shabbat Toldot: Keep Digging
This week’s parashat hashavua commentary is published by T’ruah, The Rabbinic Call For Human Rights. You can find it here: Torah from T’ruah.
Shabbat Hayye Sarah: A Mitzvah Abraham Overlooked
The strain of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, in last week’s parashah, is too much for Sarah, according to the Midrash. This week’s parashah, named for her, begins with the announcement of her death. Immediately after the initial mourning which is Abraham’s purely human response, he has to pull it together. Why? Because after all theseContinue reading “Shabbat Hayye Sarah: A Mitzvah Abraham Overlooked”
On the 20th Yahrzeit of Yitzhak Rabin
SONG OF PEACE On the death of Rabin Death itself is no surprise, of course, least of all my own – oh, but I hear you crying out as you take the wound with me, you too, bled by the years, a hundred, a thousand years of war – this madness that would breachContinue reading “On the 20th Yahrzeit of Yitzhak Rabin”
Shabbat Noakh 5776: Raging Seas
These are difficult days. The bad news from Israel, and from so many other places of hurting and hatred, seems to come in waves, deep ones. On such a day as this one feels as if one might drown. The imagery of Jonah’s cry is gripping: The waters compassed me about, even unto the soul; theContinue reading “Shabbat Noakh 5776: Raging Seas”
Shabbat Bereshit: We’ll Keep the Light On
The earth was formless and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep (Bereshit 1:2) First comes darkness, then light. (Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 77b) At the beginning, there is darkness. This is not only true of the account of Creation as we find it in the Book we call Bereshit, known in English as “Genesis”.Continue reading “Shabbat Bereshit: We’ll Keep the Light On”
Shabbat Shuvah 5776
How long does it take for a Jew to write the first sin of 5776 in the Book of Life? Sometimes, only as long as it takes to get from davening to tashlikh. We are meant to take the whole ten Days of Awe to work our way toward a sense of forgiveness toward others and atonement forContinue reading “Shabbat Shuvah 5776”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 