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|

Parashat Shemini

By Steve Altarescu

I once attended a meditation workshop at a Jewish retreat led by Rabbi Miles Krassen. He introduced a long meditation through which one could experience God’s presence as being within us and surrounding us and ultimately the realization that there is nothing other than God. Through our communal Hebrew chanting, interspersed with periods of silent meditation many of us were brought to an “enlightened” state. What I found most compelling was that I was overcome with a desire to reach out to others and give of myself and not to just sit and enjoy the “high”.

In this week’s parashah, Sh’mini, we are told the baffling story of Aaron’s two sons, Nadav and Avihu, who are killed when they offer ‘alien’ fire to God. We are not given a reason for their deaths, although some see clues within the text by which they might argue justify their deaths. While I Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-04-08T19:43:22-04:00April 8, 2010|

Pesah

Shabbat Hol HaMo’ed Pesah
By Margaret Klein

We’ve cleaned, cooked, celebrated. We’ve had seders that lasted until midnight. Now it is time to celebrate again. Shabbat in the middle of Passover. A double celebration. We don’t want to sound like the Israelites wandering around in the desert but we’re tired, so tired. Why did we do all this? Is this really what God requires or are we serving some other master? It is intriguing that the root for slave Ayin-Bet-Dalet is the same root for work, for the Temple service, for worship and for servant. Did the Israelites merely substitute one slavery for another’serving God? I don’t think so.

Then this week’s Torah portion comes. Moses has just found the Israelites dancing around the Golden Calf. He smashes the tablets. He is angry and tired. He wonders what all of this is for. God demands that Moses return up the mountain again. Moses protests and Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-03-31T19:10:12-04:00March 31, 2010|

Parashat Tzav

By Jill Minkoff

This year, Parashat Tzav coincides with Shabbat HaGadol, the Sabbath preceding Pesah. The Torah verses describe offerings and rituals that help the Jewish people maintain a close relationship with God. For Shabbat HaGadol, we read Malakhi 3:4-24 in place of the Haftarah associated with Parashat Tzav. Malakhi’s verses also speak to this relationship and are as poignant today as during his lifetime.

Rev. Dr. A. Cohen, in commentary on The Twelve Prophets, describes the Jewish community of Malakhi’s era as negligent: the Temple service was in disrepute, Temple priests were careless with their duties, people were not tithing appropriately, there was general skepticism and indifference with regard to religion, morals were lax, and divorce and intermarriage were common (335). Gunther Plaut, in The Haftarah Commentary, likens this to contemporary times: we often doubt God’s presence and justice, there is instability within communities, and the rate of divorce and intermarriage has Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-03-23T21:34:50-04:00March 23, 2010|

Parashat Vayikra

Parashat Vayikra
By Susan Elkodsi

Parashat Vayikra begins, “And the Lord called to Moses from the Tent of meeting,” and told him to speak to the people about presenting offerings to God. Given its explicit and detailed instructions for these sacrifices, the book of Vayikra can be considered a handbook for how to be a kohen. Keeping the sacrifices straight; what to bring and why, how to prepare it, and other instructions could make one’s head spin.

A modern worshipper is likely to feel uncomfortable with the concept of animal sacrifice, and perhaps even more uncomfortable with the idea that a kind, merciful and gracious God would require such an act. At the point in history of the Exodus from Egypt, sacrifice was the form of worship for most, if not all, ancient Near East societies. While the concept of a spoken prayer directed at God is alluded to in the Torah, Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-03-18T21:16:03-04:00March 18, 2010|

Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei

By Julius Rabinowitz

This week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel, begins with a familiar litany that I will paraphrase: six days you may work, but on the seventh day you are forbidden to do work.

We’ve heard this many times already, and we’ll hear it many times again: it accompanied God’s giving of the manna; it resounded very loudly on Mount Sinai with booming thunder and other noises. And we’ve heard it twice again since. So, why does Torah repeat it once again in this week’s parashah? Are we so dense that we need this constant drilling? Or maybe its inclusion this week teaches us something else.

This week, Torah juxtaposes the Shabbat prohibition with the command to build the mishkan, the Tabernacle – the portable shrine erected by the Israelites in the wilderness after they left Egypt and that served as God’s “home” on earth. The Rabbis of the Talmud rely on this textual relationship Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-03-11T19:47:19-05:00March 11, 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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