Parashat Naso

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 >

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

Parashat Bemidbar

Parashat Bemidbar: Tribalism or Multitribalism?

Rabbi Jill Hammer

The first parashah in the Book of Numbers (or in Hebrew Bemidbar) makes a significant point of listing the census numbers of each tribe (adult males able to go to war) as well as the leaders of each tribe (hence the moniker Book of Numbers). The parashah goes on to list where each tribe camps in relationship to the Tabernacle: Judah, Issachar and Zebulun on the east, Reuben, Simeon, and Gad on the south, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin on the west, and Dan, Asher, and Naftali on the north, with Levi camped in the center. Then the parashah details the particular duties of each subclan of the tribe of Levi as well as their census numbers. It’s as if we’ve discovered an Iron Age accounting tablet. Aside from the tale of the elevation of the Levites, there isn’t a story or a law to be found Read More >

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2017-05-24T15:48:07-04:00May 24, 2017|

Parashat Behar-Behukotai

A Society of Free Landholders
by Rabbi Len Levin

“You shall proclaim release [liberty] throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to his holding and each of you shall return to his family.” (Leviticus 25:9)

Three years ago I discussed how the Jubilee law served as a beacon to both the American republic and the reborn Jewish homeland, informing their visions of liberty and economic opportunity for all citizens. (See Levin, Dvar Torah Behar 2014.)

To review: “In order to have a chance to remain free, people needed to have a material sufficiency to earn an independent livelihood. Hence, at periodic intervals — every fifty years — the primary source of wealth, the land itself, was to be redistributed to the ancestral families to which it had presumably been apportioned at the original Israelite conquest.”

The Israeli philosopher Eliezer Schweid, in his book, Philosophy Read More >

By Rabbi Len Levin|2017-05-17T13:26:55-04:00May 17, 2017|

Parashat Emor

by Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

This week’s parashah is a priestly delight. It’s filled with numerous teachings that were relevant to the lives of priests, kohanim, in the past, and for some kohanim, still today. Many people, not only kohanim, are challenged by some of the restrictions that were placed on the priests. Along with the numerous benefits that came along with the priesthood, there were also prohibitions, some related to whom they could marry, while others addressed certain physical characteristics that disqualified a priest from performing his priestly duties.

“The LORD spoke further to Moses: Speak to Aaron and say: No man of your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the food of his God. No one at all who has a defect shall be qualified: no man who is blind, or lame, or has a limb too short or too long; no man who has a Read More >

By ahsilver|2017-05-12T08:29:59-04:00May 12, 2017|

Parashat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim

by Cantor Sandy Horowitz

Parashat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim: A Look Back

Max: Aaron has asked us to divide into groups and share our reflections about what we heard from Moses today. So many laws! I lost track after fifty.

Hannah: “You, who are on the road, must have a code that you can live by….”*

Max: What?

Hannah: I heard that in a dream once.

Shira: How long will this take? Miriam’s doing folk-dancing tonight and I promised her I’d bring my timbrel…

Shmuel: What’s with all those Ani Adonai (“I am Adonai”)s? He kept repeating it.

Max: Perhaps it helps us remember a Higher Purpose whenever we consider these laws.

Shmuel: Or maybe he’s still mad about the golden calf…

Max: I was struck by hearing the laws regarding land: we’re commanded to leave the corners of our fields for the poor and hungry, fruit-trees grow unpicked for three years and then we sacrifice the first fruits before we can Read More >

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2017-05-03T14:13:49-04:00May 3, 2017|

Parashat Tazria-Metzora

The double parshiyot of this week’s Torah reading, Tazria-Metzora, are for many commentators a challenge. Many parshiyot in the Book of Leviticus are challenging, but much of this week’s Torah reading reads like a zombie apocalypse in which people are still concerned whether they are pure or impure.

One theme that keeps returning throughout the reading is that of isolation and loneliness. Law after law describes how people were to be isolated from the rest of the Israelite encampment and whose entry into the sanctuary was forbidden.

She shall remain in a state of blood purification for thirty-three days: she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until her period of purification is completed. (Lev. 12:4)

But if it is a white discoloration on the skin of his body which does not appear to be deeper than the skin and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest shall isolate Read More >

By ahsilver|2017-05-03T14:00:56-04:00May 3, 2017|

Parashat Shemini

by Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

This week’s parashah begins with Moses’s instructions to Aaron, his sons, and the elders of Israel:

On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel. He said to Aaron: “Take a calf of the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and bring them before the LORD…” (Leviticus 9:1-2)

Much of the parashah consists of instructions regarding the sacrifices and other regulations regarding dietary restrictions. Near the beginning of the parashah Moses relayed the following instructions to the Children of Israel. “Moses said: “This is what the LORD has commanded that you do, that the Presence of the LORD may appear to you.” (Leviticus 9:6)

The midrash Yalkut Shimoni (13-14th century) brings the following interpretation (par. 521):

Moses said to Israel: Remove that [evil] urge from your hearts in order that you all be of one feeling of awe and Read More >

By ahsilver|2017-04-20T21:10:10-04:00April 20, 2017|

Hol Hamoed Pesah

Miriam the Healer

Rabbi Jill Hammer

As we approach the seventh day of Pesach, when we read the narrative of crossing of the Sea, I am thinking of the prophetess Miriam, who dances and sings to celebrate the crossing and the victory of YHWH. At my own seder, I have long had a cup of Miriam, filled with fresh water to represent the well of water that followed Miriam through the wilderness, quenching the thirst of the wandering people (cf: Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 9a). This custom, invented by contemporary Jewish women, gives me great pleasure, as Miriam is a role model of mine. Yet I did not know how intimately Miriam is associated with protection and healing, and with the salt water of the sea.

Recently, as I have read about Sephardic Jewish women’s prayers and rituals, I have learned that the veneration of Miriam is especially deep in Sephardic Jewish traditions of Read More >

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2017-04-12T21:55:15-04:00April 12, 2017|

Passover

by Rabbi Isaac Mann

One of the key principles that the Haggadah follows in recounting the story of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is “matchil be’genut u’mesayim be’shevah” (literally, “one begins with the disgrace and ends with the glory”), i.e. one starts with the negative or low point of our history and concludes with the positive. What is the negative? On this Rav and Shmuel disagree, as recorded in the Talmud (Pesahim 116a) – “Rav said that one should begin by saying: At first our forefathers were idol worshippers, before concluding with words of glory. And Shmuel said: The disgrace with which one should begin his answer is: We were slaves.

It would appear that by following this order, whether according to Rav or Shmuel, we are focusing our attention on the glorious outcome of the Exodus story, namely our emancipation from Egypt and achievement of freedom. By starting out with what we were in the beginning, Read More >

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2017-04-07T06:20:02-04:00April 7, 2017|

Parashat Vayikra

by Rabbi Len Levin

Moses: A Leader with a Small Ego
A Dvar Torah for Vayikra

There are two peculiarities in the opening of Leviticus that elude the English reader.

The first is that the first clause is missing a subject. Vayikra el Moshe — “and he called to Moses.” Who called? The kabbalists suppose it is an unusual part of God – maybe “Ehyeh” (I will Be) instead of the accustomed “the Lord.” Modern scholars suggest that it shows continuity with the previous passage in Exodus Chapter 40, “Moses was unable to enter the Tent of Meeting because the Presence of the Lord filled the Tablernacle…so He (i.e. the Lord) called to Moses from the Tent of Meeting.”

The second peculiarity is that the word Vayikra (he called) is written with a small aleph as its last letter. There are a number of places in the written Torah where letters are written either smaller Read More >

By Rabbi Len Levin|2017-03-29T22:40:39-04:00March 29, 2017|

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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