This is the last Shabbat before we leave. Grab what you think you can take with you, we have no idea, really, what we’ll be facing, only that we’re leaving. בכל דור ודור חייב אד לראות את עצמו כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים . In every generation, each person is obligated to see himself as ifContinue reading “Shabbat haGadol: Preparing for Today”
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Shalom Shir Tikvah Learning Community, We have begun reading from the third book of the Torah in our ritual cycle; the book VaYikra, translated as “Leviticus”. The word refers to all things priestly, literally, of the Levites. It gives precise instructions for how the ancient sacrificial cult was to be enacted, and probably was originallyContinue reading
Getting Ready for Pesakh: What Is Matzah Really About?
It’s all about the matzah. The official name – and the most ancient name – of our early spring festival is Hag haMatzot, the Festival of Matzah. Eating matzah is a mitzvah, an obligation for every Jew. But what if you’re gluten free? this question has of course already been answered by the matzah industry:Continue reading “Getting Ready for Pesakh: What Is Matzah Really About?”
Shabbat Ki Tisa: Thinking Outside Your Self
This is the Shabbat of parashat Ki Tisa, the most famous part of which is the debacle of the Golden Calf. On one foot (the Jewish idiom for “in a nutshell”): We have just lived through the glorious commitment ceremony between us and G-d, and received the promise of the Torah (at least the AseretContinue reading “Shabbat Ki Tisa: Thinking Outside Your Self”
Shabbat Zakhor: What Commands You to Remember?
This Shabbat is not only named Tetzaveh, “you shall command” for the Torah reading assigned to it, but also Zakhor, for the imperative “remember!” which denotes the special Torah reading added to the regular weekly parashah. This is the second of four special Shabbatot that mark the days we count down (or, more appropriately, up) to Pesakh,Continue reading “Shabbat Zakhor: What Commands You to Remember?”
Shabbat Terumah: Making a Place for God
We have left Egypt, and at the foot of Mt. Sinai we have witnessed a great and ineffable moment of connection with That Which Cannot Be Named, and which nevertheless worked to link all of us together with certainty in that mystery. We were going forward together, as a people. But not yet. In thisContinue reading “Shabbat Terumah: Making a Place for God”
Shabbat Yitro: What Do You Hear When You Hear the Voice of G-d?
What do you hear when you are in the presence of that which matters most? This week we read of G-d’s gift of the Aseret haDibrot, the “Ten Utterances”, to the People of Israel. The Torah text describes thunder and lightning, fire and smoke, on top of Mt. Sinai. But the midrash, teachings of the ancientContinue reading “Shabbat Yitro: What Do You Hear When You Hear the Voice of G-d?”
Shabbat BeShalakh: What Does It Take To Let Go?
In this weeks’s parashah, called BeShalakh, we read of our people’s experience leaving Egypt. It includes hard labor, a frightening and uncertain exit through water, and great relief upon emergence into a new world. It is the birth-myth of the People Israel. (I use “myth” in the sense of a grand and ancient story thatContinue reading “Shabbat BeShalakh: What Does It Take To Let Go?”
Shabbat Bo: You Are Here In Ferguson
In this week’s parashah, we read of how we went out of Egypt. That’s the command: “in every generation, to see ourselves as those who go out of Egypt.” (Talmud, Pesakhim 116b) Not to imagine as if, but to experience the going out ourselves, in an immediate way. How is that possible? I can’t feel myselfContinue reading “Shabbat Bo: You Are Here In Ferguson”
Shabbat Va’Era: How Does G-d Appear To You?
The parashat hashavua, the Torah reading of the week, begins in an entirely perplexing way: ב וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה; וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו, אֲנִי יְהוָה. G-d spoke to Moses, saying to him: ‘I am YHVH; ג וָאֵרָא, אֶל-אַבְרָהָם אֶל-יִצְחָק וְאֶל-יַעֲקֹב–בְּאֵל שַׁדָּי; וּשְׁמִי יְהוָה, לֹא נוֹדַעְתִּי לָהֶם. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as El Shaddai butContinue reading “Shabbat Va’Era: How Does G-d Appear To You?”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 