This week’s parashah is called Hukkat, a word that can be translated as “statute,” “ordinance,”, or, simply, “law.” We often find it as half of the hendiadys hukkim umishpatim, which you might have seen translated as “laws and ordinances” or some such. Of course, one of the basic rules for Torah study is that there isContinue reading “Shabbat Hukkat: The World in a Word”
Tag Archives: parashat hashavua
Shabbat Sh’lakh L’kha: Don’t Be Afraid, Together We Can Do This
We are learning, as a human family and as Jews, the price of fear, and of second-hand information. It’s a long road, stretching all the way back to our parashat hashavua. In Sh’lakh L’kha, we have crossed the wilderness, we are camped on the edge of the Land of Promise. Perhaps it’s only human that we do not goContinue reading “Shabbat Sh’lakh L’kha: Don’t Be Afraid, Together We Can Do This”
Shabbat BeHa’alot’kha: Light the Way Forward
Our parashah begins with these words: דַּבֵּר, אֶל-אַהֲרֹן, וְאָמַרְתָּ, אֵלָיו: בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ, אֶת-הַנֵּרֹת, אֶל-מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה, יָאִירוּ שִׁבְעַת הַנֵּרוֹת. “Speak to Aaron, tell him: in your lifting up of the lamps, it is toward the front of the menorah [lamp stand] that the seven lights should illuminate.” (Num.8.2) This is difficult to understand without visualizingContinue reading “Shabbat BeHa’alot’kha: Light the Way Forward”
Shabbat BaMidbar: Fire, Water and Wilderness
The name of our parashah this week is the same as the name of the Book we are now beginning, once again, to study: BaMidbar, “in the wilderness,” the Book called Numbers in English. So far in our journey from Egypt toward that which is Promised, our Torah has recounted for us the escape itself, theContinue reading “Shabbat BaMidbar: Fire, Water and Wilderness”
Shabbat BeHar/BeHukkotai: Taking Refuge in the PaRDeS of Learning
Yesterday I was on a conference call with a national social justice organization, during which we were told that “usually, we expect to operate with a six-month window. Lately we have revised that to six days.” Such is the sense of frantic, non-stop chaos in the political sphere of our nation’s existence. Thank G*d thatContinue reading “Shabbat BeHar/BeHukkotai: Taking Refuge in the PaRDeS of Learning”
Shabbat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim: Choices Don’t Free You, They Distract You
On any given day, we are confronted with choices, and have to make a decision regarding how best to choose; that is, how best to live. In some ways we imagine that our lives are so much better than our ancestors, who, we presume, made their choices from a much narrower range of options, andContinue reading “Shabbat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim: Choices Don’t Free You, They Distract You”
Shabbat Zakhor: Fear of G*d
The learning of this week’s parashah all comes down to a confrontation between Shifra and Pu’ah, on one side, and Amalek, on the other. Shifra and Pu’ah were the Hebrew midwives whom Pharaoh commanded to carry out his plan to eradicate the Hebrews by killing all the boy babies as they were born. But the midwivesContinue reading “Shabbat Zakhor: Fear of G*d”
(next week) Shabbat VaYehi: What’s the Last Word?
Our parashat hashavua this week concludes not only the Book Bereshit but also the saga of Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, and that entire generation. One of the most fascinating passages in the parashah describes Jacob, on his deathbed, and his last words to his sons. Although we refer to the scene as Jacob’s deathbedContinue reading “(next week) Shabbat VaYehi: What’s the Last Word?”
Shabbat VaYeshev: Return, O Light, and We will Return to You
This is as dark as it’s going to get. From here on out, the light of the sun returns to us, slowly, day by day. Darkness settles on us human beings like an oppressive cloak. Like Jacob and his sons in our parashat hashavua, we might even lose our grip on what’s real, and what’sContinue reading “Shabbat VaYeshev: Return, O Light, and We will Return to You”
Shabbat Toldot: The Unraveling
This Shabbat we read parashat Toldot. Two boys are born to Rebekah and Isaac. Esau and Jacob are twins, born together – Jacob’s name reflects the fact that he is born holding on to his brother’s heel. Surely they will grow up to be close. But they grow up very differently. Esau loves the outdoors,Continue reading “Shabbat Toldot: The Unraveling”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 