Stories We Tell: The Bird Catcher
Stories We Tell: Get Up and Go Early
Accepting Advice From Your Father-in-Law
This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Yitro, is remarkable. Only six Torah portions (out of a total of 54) are named for one of the individuals advancing the drama within its text. ... And this portion is named for Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro (Yitro) — a non-Israelite, Midianite priest. In the portion, Yitro offers sage advice and Moses accepts it.
Stories We Tell: What it Takes to Get in
Curses and Blessings
Focal Point
How fair are your tents, O Jacob,
Your dwellings, O Israel!
(Numbers 24:5)
D'var Torah
Passion and Fanaticism
This Shabbat's Torah portion, Parashat Pinchas, begins by referring to an event that occurred at the end of the prior one, when Pinchas, Aaron's grandson, killed Zimri, a scion of the Simeonite ancestral house, and Cozbi, daughter of a Midianite chieftain.
Thwarting Evil, Saving Lives
The narrative of Parashat Pinchas is disturbing: the grandson of the High Priest Aaron slew two people, and was rewarded. Was he a zealot or not? He took lives. Did he save lives?
The Politics of Just Protest
This is one of a few select parashiyot coveted by bat mitzvah girls, by adult b'not mitzvah , and by all who seek opportunities to learn more about the role of women in Torah.