VaYâ€™<u>h</u>i

VaYâ€™hi

By Michael Kohn

Vayehi is the final parashah of Sefer Bereshit and brings to a close not only the lives of Jacob and Joseph but the narrative of the Patriarchs as well. It is a major transition point in the Torah narrative, inasmuch as the second chapter of Sefer Shemot begins with the birth of Moses. And as Prime Minister Sharon lies seriously ill in Hadassah Hospital, regardless of the outcome of his current condition, it is obvious that a major transition point, like that described in this parashah, is occurring today in Israel.

In Vayehi, the Torah employs interesting juxtapositions of the third Patriarch’s two names’Jacob and Israel’perhaps as a way of illustrating the transition. For example, at the very outset, the Torah tells us: ‘Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; and the span of Jacob’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years. When the time for Israel Read More >

By ahsilver|2006-05-04T09:39:44-04:00May 4, 2006|

Aharei Mot-Kedoshim

Parashat Aharei Mot/Kedoshim:
The Lingering Pain of Loss
By Eleanor Pearlman

The beginning of the parashah (Torah portion) of Aharei Mot/Kedoshim begins with the words, Vay’hi aharei mot (After the death) – in reference to Nadav and Avihu, two of the sons of Aaron. These deaths occurred in Parashat Shemini, three parshiot before our current parashah. The reason for their punishment is uncertain, as many varying explanations by the commentators mean there is no one reason for such a difficult death/punishment that is universally understood or accepted.

10:1 ‘. . . And they (Nadav and Avihu) offered before the Lord alien fire which He had not commanded them.
10:2 And fire came forth from the Lord and consumed them.’

While, at this time, Moshe offered some words of explanation, Aaron remained silent, ‘vayidom Aharon.’ (10:3) There was nothing for Aaron to say, for there are no words to express such a horrendous and sudden loss. There Read More >

By ahsilver|2006-05-02T21:02:22-04:00May 2, 2006|

Chayyei Sarah

What Was Missing in This Family

Parshat HaShavua, 22nd Heshvan 5765
By Dorit Edut

When
someone in our family or circle of friends dies, we are often left
feeling that there is a huge gap in our lives that can never be filled.
It is a time of reflecting about the qualities of this person and what
they meant to us’and then, in turn, what qualities we may lack or not
have developed sufficiently in ourselves.

This week’s parshah, ironically titled ‘The Life of Sarah’Chayyei Sarah,’
begins with the death of our first matriarch and what happens in the
aftermath. We see Avraham in deep mourning and having to negotiate for
a burial place for Sarah with his Hittite neighbors; Yitzhak is not
present until the end of the chapter when we see him in the fields,
meditating and praying Minha, according to the Talmud (Brachot 26a&b), perhaps saying some form of Kaddish and definitely missing his mother’s Read More >

By ahsilver|2006-04-01T21:18:54-05:00April 1, 2006|

Bereshit

On Endings, Beginnings and Tikkun ha-Olam:
A-HA Experience at AJR

By Peg Kershenbaum

Vayar Elohim et-kol-asher asah v’hinei-tov m’od; vay’hi-erev vay’hi-voqer yom hashishi
And God saw all that He had made. And behold: it was very good!
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Gen. 1:31)

We begin anew the hora
of Torah, linking the end of the holy season with the start of the
term’s sacred studies. That it will be a year of challenges and yet of
great promise I hope to demonstrate in this, the first of our
community’s renewed series of divrei torah.

Each week as we recite Kiddush, we
join the ending of the verse above to the beginning of the next verse: vay’chulu hashamayim v’ha aretz vchol-tz’ va am.¹
Yet each day we affirm that ‘God renews daily the work of creation.’
Are the works of creation actually complete or not? Rashi was puzzled
by this, Read More >

By ahsilver|2006-04-01T20:56:29-05:00April 1, 2006|

Ki Tissa

From Proverbs to Exodus and Back Again
By Anne Heath

Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold,
So is a wise man’s reproof in a listening ear.

Proverbs 25:12

A mochiakh chakham‘a wise judger, a wise reprover, a wise man’s reproof’is to the listening ear at a moral level as a nezem zahav
(earring of gold) is to the ear at a decorative level. This week’s
exploration of the famous biblical episode of the golden calf from
Exodus, Chapter 32, centers on earrings that serve externally as
objects of adornment and internally and organically as instruments of
hearing, especially hearing the Word of the Lord. Earlier in Exodus we
gather information crucial to our exploration. In Exodus 11:2 we read
God’s instruction to Moses to:

Tell the people to borrow, each man from his neighbor and each woman from hers, objects of silver and gold.

In Hebrew, Read More >

By ahsilver|2006-03-23T08:57:47-05:00March 23, 2006|

Tetzaveh

Urim and Tummim
By Charles Lightner

Parashat Tetzaveh opens with the requirement of the ner tamid (continuously illuminating lamp), and it closes with the commandment of the ketoret tamid

(continuously burning incense). Between those two commandments the text
contains eight additional references to things that are to be done
‘continuously’ or ‘eternally.’ While it could be argued that one or two
of these commandments are symbolically observed in our day, clearly
none is observed as originally prescribed. Yet the text is filled with
references to unending practices! Perhaps these matters can be always a
part Jewish life in some way that lacks the concrete reality of the
original.

The most opaque of the matters dealt within the portion is that of the object/s called the Urim and Tummim
(Ex. 28:30). There is no universally accepted explanation of the
physical reality, the oracular function, or the mechanics of this
element of the priestly garb.

It is clear that the function was oracular. It is clear that Read More >

By ahsilver|2006-03-23T08:55:12-05:00March 23, 2006|

Terumah

By Peggy de Prophetis

This D’var Torah is dedicated to Rabbi Stephen Grundfast, an AJR alumnus,

who taught me Torah trope and set me on this path.

‘You shall make a lampstand of pure gold; the lampstand shall be
made of hammered work; its base and its shaft, its cups, calyxes, and
petals shall be one piece. Six branches shall issue from one side of
the lampstand and three branches from the other side of the lampstand.
On one branch there shall be three cups shaped like almond-blossoms,
each with calyx and petals, and on the next branch there shall be three
cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with calyx and petals, so for
all six branches issuing from the lampstand.’ (Ex. 25:31’33)

Parashat Terumah is a blueprint for the construction of the
Tabernacle and its fittings, provided by the Lord in His words to
Moses. The description of each item begins with ‘You shall make . . Read More >

By ahsilver|2006-03-23T08:52:04-05:00March 23, 2006|

Mishpatim

Law and Order by the Numbers
By Peggy de Prophetis

This parashah begins with God’s words to Moses, ‘These are
the rules that you shall set before them.’ It continues with a long and
detailed list of the mitzvot that the Israelites are commanded
to follow. These include statements concerning slavery, murder,
kidnapping, cursing, damages, the poor, judges, witnesses, observance
of Shabbat, the sabbatical year, and the festivals. It ends with Moses
gathering the people at Mount Sinai and the Israelites saying, ‘All the
things that the Lord has commanded, we will do.’ (Ex. 24:3)

In the Talmud (Mak. 23b), a fourth century rabbi, Rabbi Simlai, numbered the mitzvot at 613’248 positive mitzvot (mitzvot aseh) and 365 negative mitzvot (mitzvot lo ta aseh).
The number 248 represents what people in Talmudic times believed to be
the number of parts in the body, and 365 represents the number of days
in a solar year. However, it wasn’t until later times that the mitzvot to be Read More >

By ahsilver|2006-03-23T08:23:50-05:00March 23, 2006|

Yitro

A Treasured People
By Daniel Price

In this week’s Torah portion, neatly nestled between Yitro’s sage
advice to Moses to delegate, and the Ten Commandments, is a
controversial verse that has been central for Jews over the centuries.
It has been both a source of hope and strength for a marginalized
people through the ages, and it has been used against us. As a liberal
Jew I have found it to be a source of concern. I certainly understand
it within a historical context, but I refute it from a theological
context. I have to. I am not an apologist, but I am a product of the
teachings of liberal Judaism of the past half century.

I am speaking of Exodus 19:5, where G-d speaks to Moses, saying:
‘Now then if you (the Children of Israel) will indeed obey Me and keep
My covenant you shall be my ‘treasured’ possession among all the
peoples.’ The word written in the Torah is ‘segulah.’ This word, Read More >

By ahsilver|2006-03-23T08:19:52-05:00March 23, 2006|

Beshalah

The Shabbat of The Song
By Cantor Marcia Lane

Have you ever noticed that, when you fell in love, you fell in love with all

of your beloved? You fell in love with the shape of the face, with the
sound of the voice, even with the way your loved one walked. Believe
me, it’s that way with Torah, too. I fell in love with all of it: the
sound of Torah chanting, the content of the words and the concepts, how
they were juxtaposed phrase against phrase, and the very physicality of
the Torah scroll. I love the way you can look at each scroll and admire
the handwriting of the sofer who wrote it. And I completely love The Song.

On February 18th we will read Parashat Beshalah, which includes the Song at the Sea. For that reason this Shabbat is named Shabbat Shirah‘the
Shabbat of Song. This is only the second time that the word for song
has been used in Read More >

By ahsilver|2006-03-23T08:16:29-05:00March 23, 2006|

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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