Divrei Torah Archives | Page 41 of 78 | Academy for Jewish Religion

13 02, 2014

Tetsaveh

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2014-02-13T12:06:48-05:00February 13, 2014|

Parashat Tetsaveh
Rabbi Isaac Mann

Thoughts on Parashat Tetzaveh

This week’s Torah reading, Parashat Tetzaveh, consists primarily of two parts – (1) a description of the priestly garments to be worn during the service in the Tabernacle and (2) detailed instructions to Moses on initiating Aaron and his sons into priestly service, involving mostly various sacrifices to be offered during a seven-day period. However, at the beginning of this parashah there is a two-verse instruction regarding the preparation of pure olive oil for the menorah that stood in the Tabernacle and its lighting by Aaron and his descendants, and at the end of the parashah we have instructions for the building of the altar made of gold that was to be used only for incense (mizbeah ha-ketoret) and that stood inside the Tabernacle.

The opening and ending both seem out of place, especially the initial verses regarding the olive oil preparation and menorah lighting. Indeed, Abravanel (a famous 15^th century Spanish Read More >

13 02, 2014

Terumah

By ahsilver|2014-02-13T12:04:39-05:00February 13, 2014|

Parashat Terumah
Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

This week’s parashah begins with God saying to Moses that he should speak to the Children of Israel and to ask them to bring gifts, “Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him.” (Exodus 25:2) The formulation of God’s command to Moses in the original Hebrew is “va-yikhu li terumah.” In most of the instances in the Bible when there is a description of bringing terumah, the word “va-yikhu” is not used, rather, a different word such as “va-yarimu” is used.

This irregular use of the word “va-yikhu” stimulated the midrash to try and understand why this word was used. The answer was found in a connection between the word “va-yikhu” and the word “lekah” that has the identical root, a word that is sometimes understood to refer to Torah. The midrash below expands upon that connection and offers a profound explanation Read More >

13 02, 2014

Mishpatim

By ahsilver|2014-02-13T12:03:01-05:00February 13, 2014|

Parashat Mishpatim
Hazzan Marcia Lane

Not in Heaven

In the Talmud, Bava Metzia 58b-59b, there is a famous story of a discussion concerning the kashrut, the ritual purity, of an oven. The majority of rabbis rule in one direction, but Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus consistently rules in the other direction. He calls upon a carob tree, and on a stream, and even on the walls of the school, and they behave in supernatural ways in order to attest to the correctness of his ruling. Finally, Rabbi Eliezer calls for a heavenly voice to confirm his judgement, and when it does, albeit on behalf of the majority, Rabbi Yehoshua answers the voice by saying famously, “It is not in heaven!” That is, the adjudication of this dispute is not a matter for God to decide. People, fallible though we may be, have the final say in adjudicating on earthly matters.

It would seem reasonable to insist that concerning speed Read More >

13 02, 2014

Yitro

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2014-02-13T12:01:18-05:00February 13, 2014|

Parashat Yitro
Rabbi Jill Hammer

Revelations: Three Kavvanot for Parashat Yitro

1.

“Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, brought Moses’s sons and wife to him in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God…When Moses’s father-in-law saw everything he was doing for the people, he said: “What is this that you are doing to the people?” Exodus 18:6

I am the old one

listen to me

before you break yourself against the evenings

before you throw yourself against the mornings

don’t listen to the voice that says

carry the mountain on your back

you will find truth

not in the strong hand

but in the outstretched arms of others

you will find peace

not in parting the sea

but in crossing the soul’s river

you will find love

not in greatness but in weakness

I have come a long way

through the years of your life

through the hours of your regret

through the songs of your kinfolk

through the nights of your liberation

to tell you

lay down the bones of the world

they were never yours

2.

“They came to the wilderness Read More >

13 02, 2014

Beshalah

By Rabbi Len Levin|2014-02-13T11:59:21-05:00February 13, 2014|

Parashat Beshalah
Rabbi Len Levin

Miracles, Creation, Evolution

I am writing this on the eve of a vacation trip to the Galapagos. By the time you read this, I will have been there and be on my way back home.

I am in a feverish sense of anticipation. When Charles Darwin, as a young man, visited the Galapagos Islands in 1835, his observation of the variation of related species from one island to the next sparked his imagination to conceive of his theory of evolution of the species through natural selection. I hope to recapture some of his thrill of discovery, and pray that the encounter may lead me to some new insights of my own.

The rabbis of the Talmudic period were no strangers to the issues that science poses for religion. The Stoic philosophy that was popular among the educated classes of the Roman period postulated a regular natural order that Read More >

13 02, 2014

Bo

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2014-02-13T11:56:50-05:00February 13, 2014|

Parashat Bo
Rabbi Isaac Mann

This week’s Torah portion contains the description of the last three makkot (plagues) that struck Egypt before the Pharaoh finally relented and allowed the Jewish slaves to leave. With that the geulah (redemption) began.

I was always intrigued by the penultimate makkah – that of hoshekh (darkness). It does not seem to fit into the order or sequence established by the other plagues whereby they seem to get more and more severe as they progress from the first plague of blood to the last one – death of the firstborn. The early makkot, those of blood, frogs, and lice were more like nuisances, not really destructive of humans or property. The first two were even duplicated to some extent by the Egyptian magicians. But as the plagues continue they get more destructive culminating in barad (hail) and arbeh (locusts). The former was severe enough to kill animals, as well as humans, not brought indoors and to destroy crops and trees (Exodus 9:25). Read More >

13 02, 2014

Va-Eira

By ahsilver|2014-02-13T11:54:19-05:00February 13, 2014|

Parashat Va-Eira
Jerome Chanes

Parashat Va-Eira is one of the parashiyot that transition Sefer Bereishit to Sefer Shemot. The very last word in the Book of Genesis is “Mitzrayim,” Egypt, and the point is made, immediately, that the exile has begun. In order to understand Va-Eira, we need to return to Shemot, in which the nature of our exile is explored.

Sefer Shemot is a book whose narrative begins, “And these are the names . . .,” but there are no names! The unnamed couple who have an unnamed baby under the reign of the unnamed Pharaoh whose unnamed daughter pulls him out of the Nile and, at some point, names him. In fact, our hero has no name.

So in chapter two, which is where the narrative begins, we know all the characters-Yocheved and Miriam and Amram and Pharaoh’s daughter-but no one is named in the text. Very striking in our Humash, which is obsessed with names: the genealogies, the careful identification of ancestry. Names are important. But here, Read More >

13 02, 2014

Shemot

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2014-02-13T11:51:52-05:00February 13, 2014|

Parashat Shemot
Rabbi Jill Hammer

Names: Five Meditations for Parashat Shemot

1.

The daughter of Pharaoh went down to wash in the Nile, and her maidens walked along the shore of the river. She saw the basket in the reeds and sent her handmaid, who fetched it. She opened it and saw the child-a boy, crying– and she had pity on him and said: “This is one of the Hebrew children.”

Think of a moment when you, like Moses, were in need of compassion from someone else. Remember or imagine receiving compassion in that moment. Now, think of a moment when you, like Pharaoh’s daughter, experienced deep compassion and love for someone else. Return to that moment and bring the heart-movement of hesed, of lovingkindness, to the present.

Name God El Rahum ve-Hanun, Divine Compassion and Graciousness.

2.

An angel of YHWH appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush; he looked, and lo, the bush was Read More >

13 02, 2014

Vayhi

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2014-02-13T11:49:42-05:00February 13, 2014|

Parashat Vay’hi
Hazzan Marcia Lane

As a Jew, and in particular as a hazzan, I’ve always felt very comfortable with life in thegolah, in exile from the Land of Israel. As much as I love it when I’m there, I feel my Judaism strengthened by my life here in the United States. In the final parashah of the book of Genesis, Vay’hi, we close out the narrative of the families of our patriarchs and prepare for the next story, one that will take the tribes descended from those patriarchs from servitude in Egypt to the brink of the Land of Canaan, which will later become Israel. The essence of Parashat Vay’hi is life and death, specifically the lives and deaths of Jacob and his beloved son Joseph. Curiously, the ways in which they lived are not necessarily reflected in the events surrounding their deaths. Is there something to be learned from these two men about relationships to family, to the land Read More >

13 02, 2014

Va-Yigash

By ahsilver|2014-02-13T11:46:57-05:00February 13, 2014|

Parashat Va-Yigash

Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

In Parashat Va-Yigash we read the following description of the conversation between Joseph’s brothers and their father Jacob.

“But when they recounted all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.” (Genesis 45:27)

According to this verse, Jacob had been in a state of mourning during the years when he thought that Joseph was dead, but upon hearing the news that he was still alive, “the spirit of their father Jacob revived.”

The Rambam, Moses Maimonides, in the seventh chapter of his introduction to his commentary on Pirkei Avot, addressed the issue of prophecy. What is prophecy? How does someone become a prophet? What affects prophecy? Below are some selections from that chapter, with the Rambam eventually integrating the renewed spirit of Jacob from this week’s parashah into the 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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