We are two parshas into the book BaMidbar, “in the wilderness,” called in English “Numbers” for the simple (and reasonable) reason that the first part of the book is focused upon counting. How many Israelites of fighting age who can help defend the camp in the wilderness? How many of the various families of theContinue reading “Shabbat Naso: How To Count”
Tag Archives: community
Shabbat Zakhor: What are we supposed to remember? to forget?
What are we supposed to remember to forget? Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt— how, undeterred by fear of G!d, they surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. Therefore…you shall blot out the memory ofContinue reading “Shabbat Zakhor: What are we supposed to remember? to forget?”
Shabbat Yitro: Who’s There?
וַיּוֹצֵ֨א מֹשֶׁ֧ה אֶת־הָעָ֛ם לִקְרַ֥את הָֽאֱלֹהִ֖ים מִן־הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֑ה וַיִּֽתְיַצְּב֖וּ בְּתַחְתִּ֥ית הָהָֽר׃ Moshe brought the people out toward God, from the camp, and they stationed themselves beneath the mountain. (Exodus 19.17) Shabbat Yitro records our ancestors’ story of the ultimate moment of revelation between the Jewish people and HaShem. This moment is so overwhelmingly interesting to theologians that mostContinue reading “Shabbat Yitro: Who’s There?”
Yom Kippur 5784: Ethics of the Apocalypse
Introduction: something’s burning The time is urgent. As our ancestors put it in that ancient compendium of ethical sound bites called Pirke Avot, רַבִּי טַרְפוֹן אוֹמֵר, הַיּוֹם קָצָר וְהַמְּלָאכָה מְרֻבָּה, וְהַפּוֹעֲלִים עֲצֵלִים, וְהַשָּׂכָר הַרְבֵּה, וּבַעַל הַבַּיִת דּוֹחֵק Rabbi Tarfon said: The day is short and the work is much, and the workers are lazy, andContinue reading “Yom Kippur 5784: Ethics of the Apocalypse”
Rosh HaShanah 5783: Identity and Kehillah
I. Individuality: just another word for nothing left to lose I’ve never done the Hineni prayer which is only for those who lead the prayers during the Days of Awe; it always seemed arrogant to hold myself apart from our community in that way. We all stand before Truth and Eternity equally. Yet it’s alsoContinue reading “Rosh HaShanah 5783: Identity and Kehillah”
Shabbat Shavuot: community – a healing of spiritual exile
The mystical doctrine of the sefirot clearly shows that we are all connected. We just don’t always sense it. We spend our life learning through experience and observation that, contrary to the popular American slogan, we are not really “rugged individuals”, solitarily in control of our own fate. First we learn that others will tellContinue reading “Shabbat Shavuot: community – a healing of spiritual exile”
Shabbat BeHa’alot’kha: We Need More Light
The days are as long as they get right now, yet we need light desperately: the light of hope, the light of healing, the light of happiness, all obscured in the horror of realizing that our own Federal government is operating concentration camps full of children and adults who are innocent of any crime. Continue reading “Shabbat BeHa’alot’kha: We Need More Light”
Shabbat Matot-Masey: We’re In This Together
Shalom Shir Tikvah Learning Community, On this Shabbat we read a double parashah, both Matot and Masey, and at the end of it we finish the Book BaMidbar, the account of much wandering in geography and in relationships. And in this specific Torah narrative, part of the second year of the Triennial Cycle of reading,Continue reading “Shabbat Matot-Masey: We’re In This Together”
Shabbat Naso: Look Me In The Eye
The word that identifies this week’s Torah text is naso, part of the idiom naso et rosh, is correctly translated “take a census,” or, more simply, “count heads.” The actual Hebrew wording is more beautiful; it literally says “lift up the head.” In other words, for our ancestors, to count someone was to look that person in the eye, and toContinue reading “Shabbat Naso: Look Me In The Eye”
Shabbat Bereshit: Till It and Tend It
This Shabbat we return to our regularly-scheduled Torah, as it were, after the excitement on Simkhat Torah of reading the very end and the very beginning of the scroll. Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our teacher, dies, and is bewailed, and then the people move on – and we find ourselves, following them, suddenly in a GardenContinue reading “Shabbat Bereshit: Till It and Tend It”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 