Shabbat Parah

Shabbat Parah — Holy cow!!

This Shabbat is one of the four specially designated Shabbatot leading up to Passover. They are all exemplified by a special Torah reading that gets added to the reading for the particular Shabbat, and they all have special haftarot — readings from the prophetic books. This week is the strangest of all, Shabbat Parah, the Shabbat of the red heifer. Or, as one of my teachers called it, “Holy Cow Shabbat!” We will read the standard Torah reading for the week, in this case the reading in the book of Leviticus called Shemini, and then we will read from the book of Numbers, the section that outlines the ritual of choosing, slaughtering, and burning a pure red heifer, one that has never worn a yoke on its neck.

The convoluted ritual of the sacrifice of this cow is part of the process of purification leading up to Passover, to Read More >

By Sanford Olshansky

Many traditional Jews believe that the entire Torah was revealed by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Accordingly, they have no problem with the existence of mitzvot (commandments) that appear to have no practical purpose. In fact, they delight in performing such commandments. For example, Yeshayahu Leibowitz has written, in an article in Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, that

Every reason given for the mitzvot that bases itself on human needs . . . voids the mitzvot of all religious meaning. For if the mitzvot . . . are meant to benefit society, or . . . to maintain the Jewish people, then he who performs them serves not God but himself, his society or his people.¹

Many liberal Jews prefer to believe that there is a practical benefit in some of the Torah’s mitzvot, especially if this practical benefit is something that the Read More >