Parashat Shoftim begins with the description of the necessary supervision of an ideal community. First one must have judges, then those who carry out judgments. And of course, judgements must be just – as just as human beings can manage to be. Nuances of law, circumstances of context, and our own internal biases must allContinue reading “Shabbat Shoftim: Yes, Be Judgmental – Justly”
Tag Archives: parashat hashavua
Shabbat Pinhas: Too Easy to Blame a Person
This parashat hashavua is troubling; in the last verses of last week’s parashah, a young man named Pinkhas (or Phineas in English) who serves as a kohen, a priest (grandson of Aaron the High Priest, no less) has murdered two people who were perceived to be publicly flouting the authority of Moshe. The parashah clearly describesContinue reading “Shabbat Pinhas: Too Easy to Blame a Person”
Shabbat Hukkat: The World in a Word
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”
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?”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 