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When a Song Transmits a Priority
On Yom Rishon shel Pesach (first day of Passover), we read "And you shall explain to your child on that day, 'It is because of what Adonai did for me when I went free from Egypt.'" (Ex 13:8). How can we best explain to our children this enduring lesson of Passover?
What Comes After?
The portion begins with the two words: Acharei mot. With gerotranscendence in mind, we realize: the most important word is not mot (death), but the word acharei (after). We all encounter death. We all grieve. We mourn. The important question is: what do we do after the death of those around us? How do we live our lives? Our Torah teaches that there is something quite literally, acharei mot, after death.
Seeing the Other in Ourselves: Cultivating Empathy Beyond Difference
At some point in its history, the Reform Movement made the ideological choice to change the Torah reading for the afternoon service on Yom Kippur. Jewish tradition assigned the 18th chapter of Leviticus, which details laws around sexual prohibition, among other ways that the Israelites should distinguish themselves from surrounding cultures.
Finding Holiness
I have never made a molten God, practiced divination, or let my cattle mate with a different species. (Full disclosure: I've never owned cattle.) At the same time, I'm sure I've put on clothes made from a mixture of two kinds of material, a fashion faux pas and a biblical transgression found in this week's Torah portion, K'doshim.