Our parashat hashavua, called Re’eh, urges us, “look!”. The Torah relates that Moshe our leader is exhorting our ancestors to take a moment to stop and really see in a deeper sense. That is, he is telling us to realize something essential about our ability to understand the implications of what we see – and howContinue reading “Shabbat Re’eh: Seeing, Iran and Others”
Tag Archives: parashat hashavua
Shabbat Nakhamu: Consolation?
This Shabbat, called Nakhamu after the first word of the Haftarah, meant to be a Shabbat of consolation. The first Shabbat after Tisha B’Av, that time of terrible destruction once long ago and now a time to face the equally terrifying consequences of our actions in our own days, is meant to reassure us that, afterContinue reading “Shabbat Nakhamu: Consolation?”
Shabbat Shelakh-L’kha: Why So Negative?
The parashat hashavua for this week is Shelakh-L’kha. It chronicles a significant debacle in the lives of our ancestors, the Generation of the Wilderness: it is during the events described in this parashah that they doom themselves to remaining the wanderers they’ve become. One year and some months after the Exodus from Egypt, with our new understanding of the divine and a newContinue reading “Shabbat Shelakh-L’kha: Why So Negative?”
Shabbat B’Haalot’kha: What the Light Reveals
The parashat hashavua (Torah parashah for the week) begins with G-d’s command to the High Priest, Moshe’s brother Aharon: “When you raise [b’haalot’kha] light in the lamps, they shall be lit so as to illuminate the face of the menorah” (Numbers 8:2). If you remember that this was a menorah not of candles but of oil lamps, shaped asContinue reading “Shabbat B’Haalot’kha: What the Light Reveals”
Shabbat BaMidbar, erev Shavuot: What Is This Torah That We Receive?
The very first lines of Pirke Avot, a famous collection of Rabbinic 1st-century ethical “sayings of the ancestors”, goes like this: Moshe received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua; Joshua to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly. –Continue reading “Shabbat BaMidbar, erev Shavuot: What Is This Torah That We Receive?”
shabbat Emor: the price of disrespect
Parashat Emor includes, coincidentally, the mitzvah (command) of Sefirat haOmer, the counting of the omer (a sheaf of barley). The original idea is probably agricultural: during the ongoing barley harvest, bringing a sheaf from each day’s harvest for a formal count may have been some kind of ritual effort to keep the harvest abundant. It is true that we sometimes delight in countingContinue reading “shabbat Emor: the price of disrespect”
Shabbat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim: The Goal of Torah Study
This week’s parashah is once again a double: Akharei Mot, “after death” and Kedoshim, “set apart”, which is what “holy” means in Jewish religious culture. Because every couple of years these two parashot occur as a double (meaning that we read at least a third of them both), it was only natural that our inquisitive andContinue reading “Shabbat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim: The Goal of Torah Study”
Shabbat Tazria-Metzora: Time Out
This week’s double parashah reflects a fundamental understanding of ancient Israelite religion – and we are not sure that we know what it is. Between parashat Tazria and parashat Metzora, we are presented for four solid chapters of VaYikra (Leviticus) with rules of what anthropologist Mary Douglas called “purity and danger” in her book of theContinue reading “Shabbat Tazria-Metzora: Time Out”
Shabbat haGadol: Preparing for Today
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”
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
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 