There is much to unpack from this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Balak. It is a well- known story of a man sent to curse our people only to have the curse turned into a blessing, and it is a story seemingly out of place. It is a story to which neither Moses nor the Israelites Continue Reading »
In Talmud Berachot 34a, Rabbi Yochanan teaches that one may pray only in a room that has windows. His prooftext is from the book of Daniel, where we learn that while he was in exile in Babylonia Daniel prayed in a space that had a window facing Jerusalem. The message of this text is twofold. Continue Reading »
A certain anecdote comes to mind when I think about this week’s Torah portion, Sh’lach Lecha. I have shared it before, but it is so apropos that I can’t resist sharing it again. Two shoe salesmen from Britain went off to Africa in the early 1900’s to seek new markets for their wares. After a Continue Reading »
After a year of many deprivations, and much fear and anxiety, we come to a teaching in the Torah that prescribes a practice of self-denial. It is the path of the Nazirite, described in Parashat Naso, and it involves a spiritual exercise based in abstinence. Any Israelite could choose to embark on this practice by Continue Reading »
The Book of Leviticus opens with a curious scribal anomaly. The letter alef at the end of the first word, vayikra, is tiny. It probably began as a scribal error, but it was embraced as a “tradition” by our rabbis, who taught that Moses himself wrote it this way when he received the Torah at Sinai. He did Continue Reading »
This week’s double Torah portion, Vayak’heil-P’kudei, describes the completion of the Tabernacle, the very first sanctuary of the Jewish People. What I find most notable about the construction of this sacred space is how the resources were secured for the project. There was no mandatory participation, no tax levied to raise funds. Instead, the community Continue Reading »
Here’s a question for you: Do you think of yourself as a religious or pious person? Does that term ‘religious’ make you cringe just a tiny bit? Does it sometimes feel as if being a religious person means you have to be Orthodox, a very observant Muslim, Sikh or Hindu? Or for some, the term Continue Reading »
The Torah depicts the story of our people as a series of journeys. From Abraham, who is called to “go forth” to a land of promise, to the Exodus and 40 years of wandering, to exile and return – again and again, from one land to another, and shore to shore. We are a people Continue Reading »
I recently purchased the Robert Alter translation of the TaNaKh, the Jewish Bible*. This award-winning translator offers a fresh look at the Biblical text, seen so often in less dynamic and precise language. Reading Alter’s translation gave me a new motivation to reread the texts of the Psalms, the 150 tehilim. These are poems from Continue Reading »
At this time of summer, the days begin to approach the month of Elul, a month of reflection and looking inward, leading into the High Holy days. We are also in the midst of the seven weeks of comfort following Tisha B’Av, when the Haftarah each week is selected from the book of Isaiah, and Continue Reading »
