Parashat Hukkat

The biblical categories tahor and tamei, usually translated “pure” and “impure,” mean something like insider/outsider. One who is tahor can enter the sanctuary, the dwelling-place of God’s presence and the heart of Israelite ritual. One who is tamei cannot. Tum’ah, impurity, can be contracted by a variety of circumstances including contact with dead bodies, menstruation, ejaculation, and childbirth. There are many theories about the nature of these categories-Mary Douglas, for example, who believes that things are impure or taboo because they cross boundaries in an uncanny way, or the ancient philosopher Philo who believed the system of tahor/ tamei symbolically imparted ethical concepts. My own current sense, influenced by Aviva Zornberg’s new book The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious, is that things or entities become tamei when biblical society wants or needs to repress them.

Death is tamei, because it frightens humans and challenges the life-giving powers of God. Childbirth, menstrual Read More >

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2010-06-17T14:11:38-04:00June 17, 2010|

Parashat Korah

By Rabbi H. Raphael Goldtsein

I did not have a clue as to what the Torah portion was about on the day of my Bar Mitzvah. I was shocked when Rabbi Joachim Prinz told me about a guy named Korah who rebelled against Moses. I had been a particularly troublesome and rebellious kid in Hebrew School. I will always be very indebted to Rabbi Prinz for what he said to me.

Rabbi Prinz told me that Korah was not evil. He rebelled for what he thought was right. He said that it was ok to rebel for what I believe in, to take risks, to stand up for my beliefs. But Korah failed in his rebellion. Korah embarrassed Moses and Aaron, bringing unrest among the people, achieving none of his goals. Korah rebelled without the savvy or understanding of how to negotiate with the Read More >

By ahsilver|2023-04-26T11:20:21-04:00June 9, 2010|

Parashat Shelah Lekha

By Cantor Alan J. Brava

God through Moses promises the Israelites a land flowing in “milk and honey”; a land which they will inhabit as a free nation after years of being enslaved in Egypt by Pharaoh. We have a slave nation wandering the desert with a leader who by the hand of God performs miracles at each and every obstacle the Israelites encounter. So what could go wrong?

The leaders of each tribe went into Canaan and returned with fruits of the land and two different reports. Except for Caleb and Joshua, the others reported a land that was occupied by military giants and unconquerable; their recommendation was to return to Egypt or at best continue their journey and not enter Canaan at this time. “The land which we have journeyed into in order to scout out is a land which devours Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-06-02T14:16:01-04:00June 2, 2010|

Parashat Beha’alotekha

Parashat Beha’alotekha
By Barbara Rosenthal Birnbaum

Until I learned the methods and strategies of feminist reading of the Bible, I would avoid rereading narratives such as the one about Miriam at the end of this week’s parashah -Beha’alotekha. This story (Numbers 12) is complex. It engenders many questions. It is fascinating. Â But it always made me feel queasy, anxious, and disheartened. Both Miriam and Aaron question the prophetic authority of Moses. But only Miriam gets punished (with a skin disease). Why? Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-05-26T16:07:50-04:00May 26, 2010|

Parashat Naso

By Rabbi/Cantor Bob Freedman

“Naso et rosh, lift up the heads of the Kohatites of the tribe of Levi.” When we are in a state of lowness, of “small mind,” we don’t see the full picture of the community in which we are imbedded. Boundaries, set in place by ourselves or by others, block our perception. Only when we achieve a “higher” consciousness, “large mind,” do we become aware of and participate in the relationships, the continual flow of energy, and the feed-back loops by which G!d continually creates and sustains the world of which we are a part.

Imagine the Levite who has great difficulty seeing meaning in the task to which he was appointed when he became 30 years old. Let’s give him a name: Ovadiah, 6^th beam carrier. The beams are heavy on Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-05-20T14:18:56-04:00May 20, 2010|

Parashat BeMidbar

By Karen Levine

Rabbi David Max Eichhorn, an American Army chaplain, stood on a makeshift podium in the middle of the vast roll call square. On a table behind Rabbi Eichhorn sat a simple wooden ark that held a rescued Torah scroll, donated to him as he traveled through France with the advancing American army. The prisoners who were strong enough gathered, on May 6, 1945, for the first public Jewish service in the concentration camp at Dachau.

This event caught my attention at a museum exhibit. It featured a short film of the slender, mustached Eichhorn chanting El Malei Rahamim before a group of solemn survivors. From Rabbi Eichhorn’s Army report, I learned that he had led a “short Torah service.” I looked up the portion, curious to know the first words of Torah read publically in the Read More >

By Rabbi Len Levin|2010-05-13T14:24:45-04:00May 13, 2010|

Parashat Behar-Behukotai

By Neal Spevack

In the beginning of this week’s double parsha, Behar-Behukotai, the Jubilee year, Shenat HaYovel, is described. The Hebrew word yovel (from which “Jubilee” derives) means “ram’s horn,” since a ram’s horn was sounded near the year’s inception (Leviticus 25:9).

Scripture states: “You shall count off seven weeks of years seven times seven years-so that the period of seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty-nine years.” (Leviticus 25:8) What economic message did the Torah want to relate?

It was a curious and unique market mechanism aimed at preventing the consolidation of land in any single group’s possession. In an agrarian society, the possession of land represented wealth and power not unlike today. The first priority was to maintain the land’s value. By counting every seven years and hence the shemitah, the Sabbatical year, the land was mandated to be left fallow and the Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-05-06T11:38:16-04:00May 6, 2010|

Parashat Emor

A Dialogue on “HaMekallel”/ The One Who Curses God

Leviticus 24:15 – “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying : Take the one the blasphemer outside the camp; and let all who were within hearing lay their hands upon his head, and let the whole community stone him.” (NJPS).

LIAT: I find it difficult to accept that God would be so vindictive and so concerned about what people on earth say about HaShem that God would order their death. I believe in a loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving God Who is above such seemingly petty, human-like behavior.

DORIT: I don’t think this is about God being vindictive or about Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-04-29T20:14:35-04:00April 29, 2010|

Parasaht Aharei Mot-Kedoshim

By Rabbi Michael G. Kohn

One who reads or studies the Torah, and even one who listens carefully to the public Torah reading, is aware that many phrases or clauses appear with regularity. Therefore, it draws one’s attention when a phrase or clause does not read exactly as one had anticipated. The second of our double portion this week, Parashat Kedoshim begins with one such phrase. Thus, while one might be used to hearing (or reading): “vayedabeir Adonai el Moshe leimor dabeir el benei Yisrael . . .” And God spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the Israelites'”, Kedoshim begins: “vayedabeir Adonai el Moshe leimor dabeir el kol adat benei Yisrael . . .” “And God spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the entire community [or congregation] of Israelites'” What do the added words signify?

Rashi, relying on the Sifra, says that the phrase “teaches that this parashah was said during an assembly [of Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-04-22T10:00:41-04:00April 22, 2010|

Parashat Tazria-Metzora

By Paul Hoffman

To quote the anonymous sage, “whoever succeeds in saying something relevant about Tazria-Metzora brings redemption to the world.”

The entire concept of tum’ah and toharah, of ‘impurity’ and ‘purity’ is strange and difficult to understand. Chapters 13 and 14 of Leviticus deal with an ailment known in ancient times as tzara’at which has been traditionally translated as ‘leprosy’ but in fact refers to some sort of highly contagious lesser skin ailment. It was apparently a well known disease which was considered dangerous to the general public. The horror with which it was regarded is suggested by the total isolation and ostracism imposed by the Torah on the victim: “the priest shall isolate the affected person for seven days, on the seventh day… if the affection has remained unchanged in color…the priest shall isolate him for another seven days.’ (Lev. 13, 4-5).

Beyond its identification and remedy, it is not Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-04-14T19:11:45-04:00April 14, 2010|

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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