Parashat Shâ€™lah Lâ€™kha

Perception vs. Reality
By Rabbi Sharon Ballan

One of my favorite television shows when I was
growing up was “All in the Family.” I distinctly remember sneaking out of bed
and watching secretly from the top of the stairway, because it was shown past
my bedtime. Later, my parents let me watch with them and it became a weekly
family ritual. One episode in particular stands out in my mind. Edith, Archie,
Mike, and Gloria are at a restaurant, discussing the events of the day. Their
refrigerator had broken, and a repairman and his helper (who happened to be
black) had come to repair it. Mike and Archie had radically different memories
of what happened. Archie insisted the young black man, large and menacing,
threatened him with a knife. Mike, on the other hand described the man as
gentle and polite, and maintained that there was no knife at all. Finally Edith
tells the real story: the repairman had Read More >

By ahsilver|2009-06-17T13:44:24-04:00June 17, 2009|

Parashat Bâ€™Halotekha

Be Careful What You Ask For
By Gary A. Kabler

In this week’s portion the people complain to Moses that the manna
that G-d has provided so abundantly for them to eat no longer satisfies them. Like
petulant children, the people whine, “If we only had meat to eat! We remember
the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons,
the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Now our gullets are shriveled. There is
nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!” (Num. 11:1-6)

Obviously the people have forgotten that to get the foods that they
were whining and complaining about they had to do back-breaking slave labor in Egypt, but
apparently that was seen as a triviality when compared to actually having the
food. Apparently it was far easier to recall the meager struggle of walking
freely towards a place that Moses has assured the people was, and would
eventually be, again their Read More >

By ahsilver|2009-06-09T13:56:57-04:00June 9, 2009|

Parashat Naso

By Molly Karp

Parashat
Naso begins with the continuation of the counting of the Gershonites and the
Merarites, the Levites who are responsible for transporting the hangings, poles,
planks and hardware of the Tent of Meeting. Just as the Tabernacle would not be
complete without all of its parts, so too, the Levitical family would not be
complete without all of its members.

Envisioning
the wilderness camp as a nest of concentric circles: the Torah places the space
for holiness, God’s presence, at the center, surrounded by the precincts of the
Mishkan, surrounded by the Levites, who are surrounded by the Israelites.

The parashah

continues with a number of apparently unrelated cases. We learn that anyone who
has become tamei, (unfit to approach the Holy space) is to be removed
from the camp, so as not to render the entire camp tamei
– unfit for God’s presence within it. We learn that any Read More >

By ahsilver|2009-06-02T20:08:54-04:00June 2, 2009|

Shavuot

Standing at Sinai
By Rabbi Michael G. Kohn

For me, the festival of Shavuot is a riddle shrouded in mystery, wrapped in an enigma. Although it is fixed in our modern calendars as the sixth day of Sivan, no such date appears anywhere in the Torah. In parashat Pinhas, where the additional sacrifices for each of the special days – Shabbat, the Yamin Nora’im (Days of Awe) and the Shalosh Regalim (Three Pilgrimage Festivals) – are specified (Num. 28-29), it is the only one of the holidays and festivals which does not begin with (or even mention) the date of its observance.

In parashat Emor, where each of the special days of the calendar is described (Lev. 23), there is no similar description for Shavuot as we have come to know it. On Pesa Read More >

By ahsilver|2009-05-27T09:11:14-04:00May 27, 2009|

Parashat Bemidbar

By Kaya Stern-Kaufman

Chapter
two of B ‘midbar describes the arrangement and organization of the Israelite
camp in the wilderness. The mishkan, God’s tabernacle, is to reside in the
center of the camp. It is surrounded by the tribe of Levites to guard and
protect it. In the east, with the rising sun, the tribes of Yehudah, Yissachar
and Zevulun are to encamp. To the south, in full sun and heat, will settle the
tribes of Reuven, Shimon and Gad. To the west in the setting sun, the tribes of
Efraim, Menasheh and Binyamin reside. And to the north, in a darker place, the
tribes of Dan, Asher and Naftali shall camp. The Torah speaks to us here in the
language of geography and orientation. Like a blossoming flower or the image of
the planets revolving around the sun, the Israelite camp expresses a truth in
spatial form. It is perhaps a model of community that offers lessons to us
today. Read More >

By ahsilver|2009-05-21T20:19:41-04:00May 21, 2009|

Parashat Bâ€™midbar

By Kaya Stern-Kaufman

Chapter
two of B ‘midbar describes the arrangement and organization of the Israelite
camp in the wilderness. The mishkan, God’s tabernacle, is to reside in the
center of the camp. It is surrounded by the tribe of Levites to guard and
protect it. In the east, with the rising sun, the tribes of Yehudah, Yissachar
and Zevulun are to encamp. To the south, in full sun and heat, will settle the
tribes of Reuven, Shimon and Gad. To the west in the setting sun, the tribes of
Efraim, Menasheh and Binyamin reside. And to the north, in a darker place, the
tribes of Dan, Asher and Naftali shall camp. The Torah speaks to us here in the
language of geography and orientation. Like a blossoming flower or the image of
the planets revolving around the sun, the Israelite camp expresses a truth in
spatial form. It is perhaps a model of community that offers lessons to us
today. Read More >

By ahsilver|2009-05-21T20:19:41-04:00May 21, 2009|

Parashat Behar-Behukotai

By Simon Rosenbach

This week we sort of read, as we sort of read every year, the first version of the Tokhehah, a list of threats that God has Moses deliver to the children of Israel. These threats are so dire (“you will eat the flesh of your children” – Lev. 26:29) that they are read as softly and fast as possible, so that t

After telling us that if we heed the commandments, we’ll have an undefeated season, the Torah warns us that if we violate the commandments, we won’t win a game, we won’t even take the field, we won’t even be able to find the city where the stadium is located, and we’ll probably get torn to shreds by wild beasts as we wander aimlessly.

Now, does anybody actually believe today that your crops won’t grow if you write on Shabbat? That you’ll eat your children if you drive to shul? Is Read More >

By ahsilver|2009-05-13T19:35:50-04:00May 13, 2009|

Parashat Bâ€™har-Bâ€™huqotai

By Simon Rosenbach

This week we sort of read, as we sort of read every year, the first version of the Tokhehah, a list of threats that God has Moses deliver to the children of Israel. These threats are so dire (“you will eat the flesh of your children” – Lev. 26:29) that they are read as softly and fast as possible, so that t

After telling us that if we heed the commandments, we’ll have an undefeated season, the Torah warns us that if we violate the commandments, we won’t win a game, we won’t even take the field, we won’t even be able to find the city where the stadium is located, and we’ll probably get torn to shreds by wild beasts as we wander aimlessly.

Now, does anybody actually believe today that your crops won’t grow if you write on Shabbat? That you’ll eat your children if you drive to shul? Is Read More >

By ahsilver|2009-05-13T19:35:50-04:00May 13, 2009|

Parashat Kedoshim

By Sanford Olshansky

In the summer of 1970, when I was 20 years old, I rear-ended another car on one of the freeways in Detroit, where I grew up. There were no injuries and the police officer who came to the scene said there was no need for an accident report. A few weeks later my father, who owned the car, was sued for much more than the amount of his insurance coverage by the driver of the car that I hit, who now claimed to have sustained serious injuries. I was required to give a deposition at the office of the other driver’s lawyer.

The driver of the other car was a middle-aged Jewish man and the partners of his law firm had obviously Jewish last names. I will never forget the huge marble fa’ade of the law office, with the partners’ names carved in letters filled with gold paint. I was Read More >

By ahsilver|2009-05-06T19:04:23-04:00May 6, 2009|

Parashat Emor

By Margaret Frisch Klein

“What, you didn’t call, you didn’t write.” We’ve all heard the stereotypical Jewish mother jokes. There is some truth in them. Mothers like to be called. I know. I am one. This year as we celebrate Mother’s Day, I wish that I still had a mother to call. You may not think that Mother’s Day is a Jewish holiday. However, the principles come directly from our Jewish tradition – right from this week’s Torah portion.

This week’s parashah tells us how the priests should behave, about the holiness of Shabbat and the holidays, and about just punishments. What is the connection between these topics? All of them are about creating kedushah, a life of holiness, and showing kavod, honor.

We are not like the ancient Israelites. We no longer have a priestly class or the Temple in which to sacrifice. Since the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem Read More >

By ahsilver|2009-05-06T19:03:33-04:00May 6, 2009|

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

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

Programs of Study

Learn more about…

Programs of Study

Learn more about…

Parashat Shâ€™lah Lâ€™kha

ABOUT

LIBRARY

JOIN US

PROGRAMS OF STUDY