Balancing Our Complaints and Maintaining Perspective
In this week’s Torah portion, B’shalach, the Exodus really begins. From the opening verses, the Torah clues us into the notion that this will be a bumpy journey for the Israelites and their leader, Moses.
Learning How to Respect the Covenant and Our Fellow Worshippers
The slogan for the Torah portion known as Yitro should be “we’ve arrived.” The theophany on Mount Sinai – God’s Revelation of the Ten Commandments – is arguably the climax of the Torah (Exodus 20). But the story doesn’t end here – it is the post-Sinai textual journey where we learn that we exist in a perpetual state of arrival, constantly figuring out how to hear Torah as we walk through our daily lives.
A Continuity of Law that Values the Needs of the Community
The word for “and” in Hebrew is not a separate word: it is a one-letter prefix, the letter vav. Sometimes it is translated as and, other times it is best translated as “but”; sometimes, vav is a participle that doesn’t need to be translated. In the opening sentence of Parashat Mishpatim, the translation used in the Reform Movement’s Chumash discounts the vav that is attached to first word, v'eileh, "these" or "and these."
Gifts to God and the Meaning of Sacred Symbols Today
T’rumah opens with a call for the Israelites to bring to God what the standard English translation calls “gifts”: "The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved" (Ex. 25:1-2). After enumerating the precious metals, stones, and materials that would constitute such gifts, we learn the purpose: "And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8).
The Act of Listening
Chapter 10 of Leviticus provides us with an extraordinary example of human growth. At the beginning of the parashah, Moses exercises his leadership by overseeing the ordination of Aaron and his sons and then supervising the sacrifices for which they are responsible.
We Are What We Eat
Focal Point
Any animal that has true hoofs, with clefts through the hoofs, and that chews the cud-such you may eat. . . . And the swine-although it has true hoofs, with the hoofs cleft through, it does not chew the cud: it is impure for you. (Leviticus 11:3, 11:7)
Why Should God Care About What We Eat?
What can God be thinking?
In this week's Torah portion, Moses is told--of all things--what the Israelites should and should not eat. Why should the Creator of the universe care?
What Happens in the Body Stays in the Body - A Guide for When it Doesn’t
The first chapter of this double portion, chapter 12 of Leviticus, is perplexing. It seems to stand by itself.