Bamidbar Archives | Page 6 of 14 | Academy for Jewish Religion

31 05, 2018

Naso 5778

By Rabbi Len Levin|2018-05-31T12:27:22-04:00May 31, 2018|

A Puzzling Law, Seen in Context
A D’var Torah for Naso
by Rabbi Len Levin

“I will not punish their daughters for loose behavior,

Nor their daughters-in-law for infidelity,

For they themselves turn aside with whores

And sacrifice with prostitutes” (Hosea 4:14).

Sometimes the Torah speaks to us as a timeless document, whose proclamations (“love your neighbor as yourself”; “you shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” — Lev. 19:18, Deut. 10:19) are as relevant to us today as when they were first uttered.

At other times, its laws seem situated in a culture and society so remote from ours, that to tease the universal message from its particulars is a frustrating and complicated task. The law of the ordeal of the bitter waters for the wife of the jealous husband is one of those cases.

The history of Read More >

17 05, 2018

Bemidbar 5778

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2018-05-17T12:18:28-04:00May 17, 2018|

Seeing Those We Overlook
A D’var Torah for Bemidbar
by Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)

When we study our Torah portions, we often notice what’s missing, what’s not said. What happens during the three days between the time God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and the time Abraham and Isaac arrive at the mountain where the sacrifice is to take place? What happens to Jonah while he is in the belly of the fish?

This week’s Torah portion, Bemidbar, the first parashah of the book of Numbers, is all about counting people. That’s where the name of the book in English, Numbers, comes from. (In Hebrew, Bemidbar means “in the wilderness.”) All the men from every tribe except Levi are counted, and in a separate count, the men from Levi are counted. A glaring absence in this Torah portion, something that we notice is missing, is any mention of women. Women are not in our Torah portion Read More >

2 02, 2018

Parashat Yitro, 5778

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2018-02-02T12:29:49-05:00February 2, 2018|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Yitro
by Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD

As I write this, I am thinking of a particular moment in my life, when I was about to lead a large ceremony. A few years prior at the same ceremony, I’d been dehydrated and nearly passed out while giving a D’var Torah. So I was nervous. Things were running late, which made me even more nervous. As preparations concluded and the moment to begin arrived, I must have looked very anxious indeed. An elder—a wise rabbi who had led many rituals—came over to me and looked me up and down. “You’re going to be fine,” she said. And I was.

I am wondering if Yitro came to Moshe in the wilderness, just before Moshe’s big moment, for that very same reason: to tell him he was going Read More >

25 01, 2018

Parashat Beshalah, 5778

By Rabbi Heidi Hoover|2018-01-25T12:16:32-05:00January 25, 2018|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Beshalah
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover, ’11

This Shabbat is called Shabbat Shirah—the Shabbat of song. It is so named because it is in this week’s Torah portion, Beshallah, that the Israelites walk through the Reed Sea on dry ground, because the water is parted and piles up to their left and their right, making a path for their escape from Egypt with the Egyptian army on their heels. The water closes on the Egyptians, and the Israelites are finally free and safe! Overwhelmed with joy, they sing, the song at the sea, which includes the words we sing at every service: mi khamokha, ba-elim Adonai/ mi kamokhane’edarbakodesh? Nora t’hilot, osehfeleh! “Who is like you, Adonai, among the gods who are worshipped? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, Read More >

17 01, 2018

Parashat Bo, 5778

By Bruce Alpert|2018-01-17T12:15:12-05:00January 17, 2018|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Bo
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert

The exodus from Egypt is understood in different ways: as a miraculous deliverance, as an escape from slavery, as a journey to freedom. Reading again this week’s parashah, Bo, I came away with a different understanding: as a divorce.

I took this understanding from the opening verse of Chapter 11: “The Lord said to Moses, “One more plague shall I bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; after that he shall send you forth from here,” k’shalkho kalah gareish y’gareish etkhem mi-zeh. What struck me about that final phrase was the juxtaposition of the words kalah and gareish. The former can mean bride and the latter, the verb meaning “cast out,” is the root for “divorce.” I initially read that last phrase to mean “like his sending out a bride, he shall certainly cast you out from here.” Rashi, citing Onkelos, tells us that kalah actually Read More >

26 06, 2017

Parashat Hukkat

By Rabbi Len Levin|2017-06-26T14:14:17-04:00June 26, 2017|

On the Threshold of Eternity
A Dvar Torah for Hukkat
by Rabbi Len Levin

“He who touches the corpse of any human being shall be unclean for seven days…” (Num. 19:11)

For an entire lifetime, one builds up a network of interactions with others in society, a network comprising commerce, family, edifices of knowledge, productive endeavor, life in the public square, a living, breathing complex of order, structure, creative output. When one dies, one takes leave of that world of social interaction and goes on a private journey to we know not where, a mysterious realm where all the bonds of this world are dissolved.

The mourner stands on the threshold of these two realms. Being touched by the recently departed, the mourner feels different. S/he cannot go back to participating at once in the activities of this world as if nothing has happened. S/he must linger a while in the liminal space between this Read More >

23 06, 2017

Parashat Korah

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2017-06-23T07:48:28-04:00June 23, 2017|

by Rabbi Isaac Mann

Much ink has been spilled on trying to explain what motivated Korach and his followers to rebel against Moses and Aaron, which is the main story in this week’s Torah portion. Was it jealousy, envy, desire for honor or power, dissatisfaction with Moses’ leadership, or maybe all of the above?

Interestingly, as if the above are not enough, we also find other explanations of a more halakhic nature playing a role in the dispute between Korach and Moses. The Midrash (Midrash Tanhuma, beginning of the parashah), part of which is quoted by Rashi (ad loc.), suggests that Korach began his dispute with Moses by summoning the Sanhedrin (i.e. the religious leadership at the time) and asking them to rule on whether a tallit that is entirely dyed with tekheilet (a kind of bluish-purple dye) still needs tzitzit consisting of only one tekheilet fringe on each corner. When the issue was Read More >

13 06, 2017

Parashat Shelah

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2017-06-13T14:57:02-04:00June 13, 2017|

by Cantor Sandy Horowitz

What’s in a Name?

Parashat Shelah tells the story of twelve spies sent by Moses to scout out the land of Canaan that has been promised by God to the Israelite people. Upon their return, ten of the twelve report that the enemy is too great and the land unconquerable, thereby instilling doubt and fear among the Israelites. Only two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, remain faithful to God’s promise of a successful outcome.

The Torah portion begins by listing the names of the spies, representatives from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Joshua, future leader of the Israelite people, is an unassuming fifth from among the twelve: “From the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun” (Numbers 13:8).

Numbers 13:16 reads, “These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land; and Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua/Yehoshua.” Without Read More >

9 06, 2017

Parashat Beha’alotkha

By ahsilver|2017-06-09T09:55:52-04:00June 9, 2017|

by Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

This week’s parashah begins with a description of the installation and function of the menorah in the Tabernacle.

“Speak to Aaron and say to him: When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand. Aaron did so; he set up its lamps to give light in front of the lampstand, as the LORD had commanded Moses. Now this was how the lampstand was made, out of hammered work of gold. From its base to its flowers, it was hammered work; according to the pattern that the LORD had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.” (Numbers 8:2-4)

In the detailed instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle that are found in the Book of Exodus one can find the specifics of how the menorah was to be constructed, and what we have in Numbers seems to be the final description of how it Read More >

2 06, 2017

Parashat Naso

By ahsilver|2017-06-02T11:26:31-04:00June 2, 2017|

by Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

This week’s parashah contains one of the most detailed descriptions of a Biblical ritual in the entire Torah. Numbers 5:11-31 contains a description of the Sotah ritual. When a husband suspected his wife of being unfaithful she was subjected to an ordeal that would prove either her innocence or guilt. In addition to the description of the Sotah ritual found in the Torah, there is a very detailed tractate in the Mishnah (early 3rd century) that goes into even further detail.

The Sotah ritual has been subject to much scholarly research, some compared this ritual to other Ancient Near Eastern ordeals while other focused on unavoidable questions regarding gender and patriarchy. I would like to discuss the approach to the Sotah taken by Ishai Rosen-Zvi in his book The Mishnaic Sotah Ritual: Temple, Gender and Midrash.

Rosen-Zvi begins by asking the following questions:

Why does the Mishnah reformulate a ritual that has Read More >

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

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