Parashat B’midbar
Friday, May 14, 2021/3 Sivan, 5781 Parashat B’midbar Numbers 1:1−4:20 Dear Friends, For seven weeks, many of us have gathered every morning for prayer, community, and reflection. We began during Passover when we celebrated our liberation from Egyptian bondage. Sunday morning will be our last day counting the omer – the days between our Exodus […]
Bamidbar 5781
Leading a Nation of Individuals The book of Bamidbar begins with a census of the Israelites. That is why this book is known in English as Numbers. This raises a number of questions. What is the significance of this act of counting? And why here at the beginning of the book? Besides which, there have already […]
Parashat B’har-B’chukotai
Friday, May 7, 2021/25 Iyar, 5781 Parashat B’har-B’chukotai Leviticus 25:1-27:34 There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope. – Spinoza This week we conclude the book of Leviticus with a double Torah portion called B’har-B’chukotai. It begins with a discussion of shmita, a practice of letting the land lay fallow […]
Behar-Bechukotai 5781
“We the People” In the final parsha of the book of Leviticus, in the midst of one of the most searing curses ever to have been uttered to a nation by way of warning, the Sages found a fleck of pure gold. Moses is describing a nation in flight from its enemies: Just the sound […]
Parashat Emor
Friday, April 30, 2021/18 Iyar, 5781 Parashat Emor Leviticus 21:1−24:23 Dear Friends, Today is meant to be a day of celebration. After marking the days between Passover and Shavuot for four and a half weeks, we arrive at Lag B’omer. This lesser-known holiday is filled with picnics, bonfires, learning, music, and dancing. Many people get […]
Emor 5781
On Not Being Afraid of Greatness Embedded in this week’s parsha are two of the most fundamental commands of Judaism – commands that touch on the very nature of Jewish identity: Do not desecrate My holy name. I must be sanctified among the Israelites. I am the Lord, who made you holy and who brought […]
Parashat Acharei Mot – K’doshim
Friday, April 23, 2021/11 Iyar, 5781 Parashat Acharei Mot – K’doshim Leviticus 16:1-20:27 Dear Friends, This week’s Torah portion, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, holds some of the most important, some may even say central lessons of the Torah. This description is very appropriate, as this is the exact center of the Torah scroll. Well, at least that’s […]
Acharei Mot – Kedoshim 5781
Sprints and Marathons It was a unique, unrepeatable moment of leadership at its highest height. For forty days Moses had been communing with God, receiving from Him the Law written on tablets of stone. Then God informed him that the people had just made a Golden Calf. He would have to destroy them. It was […]
Parashat Tazria-M’tzora
Friday, April 16, 2021/4 Iyar, 5781 Parashat Tazria-M’tzora Leviticus 12:1-15:33 Dear Friends, Early in the pandemic, we reached this week’s Torah portion, Tazria-M’tzora, which discusses the proper ways to respond when people were afflicted with a contagious skin disease called Tzaraat. The Torah explains that when someone displayed symptoms, they would report them to the […]
Tazria – Metzora 5781
How to Praise The Sages were eloquent on the subject of lashon hara, evil speech, the sin they took to be the cause of tsara’at. But there is a meta-halachic principle. “From the negative you can infer the positive.”[1] So, for example, from the seriousness of the prohibition against Chillul Hashem, desecrating God’s name, one can infer the importance […]