This week we finish reading the Book VaYikra, Leviticus, with another double parashat hashavua. The name of the first of the two, BeHar, offers already a nice little learning. The word behar, actually three words in English, means “at the mountain” and refers to Mount Sinai. The first verse goes on to specify: וַיְדַבֵּר ה’ אֶל-מֹשֶׁה,Continue reading “Shabbat BeHar-BeHukotai: Love Your Mother”
Tag Archives: parashat hashavua
Shabbat Emor: Against the Cruelty
In this second year of the Triennial Cycle of Torah reading, our congregation, like many others throughout the Jewish world, begins to read not at the beginning of parashat Emor but with chapter 22, verse 17. This is about one-third of the way in, since the Triennial Cycle makes its way through one third of eachContinue reading “Shabbat Emor: Against the Cruelty”
Shabbat Akharey Mot-Kedoshim: In All This Death, Where Is Holiness? Right Here at the Door
How often does Torah arouse human beings, how often does she raise her voice in every direction to awaken them! Yet they all sleep, with slumber in their sockets, neither observing nor caring….Woe to them, woe to their souls! For Torah admonishes them, saying, “Whoever is a fool let him turn aside here, the oneContinue reading “Shabbat Akharey Mot-Kedoshim: In All This Death, Where Is Holiness? Right Here at the Door”
Shabbat Shemini: Not Why. How.
Our parashat hashavua this week brings us back to our regularly scheduled Torah text after two weeks devoted to special Pesakh Torah. We are back to the Book VaYikra, or Leviticus, and expect nothing more or less than the initiation of the mishkan (the sacred space the Israelites created in the wilderness) with the firstContinue reading “Shabbat Shemini: Not Why. How.”
Shabbat VaYakhel-Pekudey/Shabbat Parah: Holy Tents and Sacred Cows
This week I am privileged to share an erev Shabbat thought with you from Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. Soon a group of Shir Tikvah congregational family and friends will arrive and I look forward to greeting them soon at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. I’ve come a few days early to seeContinue reading “Shabbat VaYakhel-Pekudey/Shabbat Parah: Holy Tents and Sacred Cows”
Shabbat Ki Tisa, and Shushan Purim: Sowing Hate is a Form of Murder
Well, we’ve heard the Megillat Ester, and Shabbat Ki Tisa is upon us, and we haven’t learned much yet, apparently. I find myself much dismayed. Incidents come to my attention. Haman is still among us, and inside of us. You, who believe you need not check your hypocrisy, because that there’s no way that theContinue reading “Shabbat Ki Tisa, and Shushan Purim: Sowing Hate is a Form of Murder”
Shabbat Terumah: The Gift of Your Life
What are you supposed to be doing with your one, wild, precious life? After all, it will all end, and too soon. The parashat hashavua this week is Terumah, “gift”, a word that speaks of a free-will offering that comes from the heart, chosen by the giver out of the joy of the chance toContinue reading “Shabbat Terumah: The Gift of Your Life”
Shabbat VaYigash: One Person, One Step
O, once again, what a week it has been in the United States of America. I feel so very fortunate to be part of a tradition much older and wiser than the 240-odd years of this nation’s development since its birth. Jews have lived under many forms of government and seen many, many examples ofContinue reading “Shabbat VaYigash: One Person, One Step”
Shabbat Miketz: Benefit of the Doubt
One of the Jewish ethics presented to us most powerfully by our parashat hashavua, and our week as a community, is this: khaf z’khut, “benefit of the doubt.” It is an important Talmudic teaching, and understood as a vital mitzvah of relationships, that we must always give someone the benefit of the doubt – even going outContinue reading “Shabbat Miketz: Benefit of the Doubt”
Shabbat VaYetze: Give Me Children Or I Will Die
This week’s parashah finds Jacob leaving home, going to a new community and creating family there. The resonance is obvious here for so many of us, for whom it is natural to expect to create our families and our future in a place different from the one in which we grew up. For Jacob, aContinue reading “Shabbat VaYetze: Give Me Children Or I Will Die”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 