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”
Tag Archives: parashat hashavua
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”
Shabbat Toldot: Trust, Despite Everything
In parashat Toldot we read of the birth of the twins Esau and Jacob, born to Rebekah and Isaac after years of trying to get pregnant, and much frustration and difficulty. The family that is created when the children are safely born seems to thrive: their parents succeed in helping their boys to find forContinue reading “Shabbat Toldot: Trust, Despite Everything”
Shabbat Hayye Sarah: Mourning the Dead
Once again, gun violence leaves us breathless, and leaves some of us dead. We have reached a point in our nation where, when we see an American flag at half-mast, it is no longer clear to us why. There is so much death around us, so many incidences of murder by gun. And once againContinue reading “Shabbat Hayye Sarah: Mourning the Dead”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 