Written on the Heart

Written on the Heart

Feb 27, 2015 By Eitan Fishbane | Commentary | Shabbat Zakhor | Tetzavveh

The mitzvot are a path of spiritual practice, a cultivation of religious awareness that may open us to the mystery and urgency of the divine voice. Not only legal obligation, mitzvah is a moment of encounter with the ever-renewing Divine Presence as it reverberates through the generations of the Jewish people.

Read More
Tetzavveh

Tetzavveh

Jan 1, 1980

10 [Now] you, O mortal, describe the Temple to the House of Israel, and let them measure its design. 

Read More
Tetzavveh

Tetzavveh

Jan 1, 1980

20 You shall further instruct the Israelites to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly.

Read More
A Dress Code for Judaism

A Dress Code for Judaism

Feb 4, 2014 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Tetzavveh

I received a valuable insight into this week’s Torah portion over lunch one day about 20 years ago at the Stanford University Humanities Center. Across the table sat a female professor from China, newly arrived on her first visit to America. I was the first Jew she had ever met, and at some point the conversation shifted from the books we were writing to how Judaism differed from other faith traditions and communities in America. That’s when she startled me with an observation I shall never forget. “You can’t be significantly different from anyone else in this country. You are dressed exactly the same as they are.”

Read More