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Where Does Holiness Come From?
Jun 5, 2013 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Korah
Parashat Korah can be challenging for a modern Jew. There is a good guy in this parashah—it’s Moses—and there is a bad guy—Korah. Modern readers, however, often find themselves sympathizing with the bad guy.
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Thoughtfulness and Lovingkindness in the Face of Violence
Jun 5, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Korah
This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Korah, is notorious for the infamous uprising against Moses.
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Harshness—Us and Them
May 29, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
In the preliminary service (Siddur Sim Shalom: A Prayerbook for Shabbat, 66), there is a short paragraph remarkably written in the first person singular—using “I” rather than “we.” In the Talmud (BT Berakhot 16b), there are a number of personal prayers of the Sages, the prayers that they would say at the end of the ‘Amidah. This text is attributed to Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi and is inserted at this point in the service because it is similar in theme to the previous paragraph. There is a telling, and sometimes uncomfortable, phrase that begins very innocently, “tatzileini hayom . . . me’azei panim” (save me this day from those with “hard faces” [from the arrogant]). This is a reasonable hope and a fine, if unremarkable, prayer; it would be good to pass a day (or even longer) without encountering others who are arrogant. But that is not the end of the sentence. The prayer of R’ Yehudah continues, “ume’azut panim” (and from my own “hard face” [my own arrogance]).
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Who Is Getting Stoned?
May 29, 2013 By Robert Harris | Commentary | Shelah Lekha
Among other subjects, the parashah narrates the story of the spies, one from each tribe, whom Moses sends to scout out the Land. Specifically, let us join the narrative at the point that Joshua and Caleb (the two good or “heroic” spies) attempt to encourage the community—largely ineffectively—after the People express their fears that any effort to conquer the Promised Land will not be successful.
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The Depth of Sight
May 29, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shelah Lekha
The Torah reading of Shelah Lekha is literally and figuratively an “eye opening” parashah.
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Love—Great and Eternal
May 24, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
The first paragraph of the Shema’ invites us to affirm the unity of God, and then engages the topic of love, the love from a person to God: “ve’ahavat et Adonai Eloheykha” (You shall love Adonai your God). Several important questions present themselves. First, is the phrase “you shall love” to be understood as an imperative? The grammar supports such a construction, leading us to wonder how love can be commanded. A command can be given to bring specified sacrifices, to eat matzah on Pesah, and to show deference to the old, but how can we be commanded to love? Some commentators avoid the dilemma by suggesting the meaning is that we are to behave in a way that would express our love for God, but this avoids the deeper question about how and why this love for God is born in our hearts and minds.
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New Generation, Old Leaders
May 24, 2013 By Ute Steyer | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
To paraphrase Moses’s meltdown in Numbers 11:11–15, “Lord! I’m so done with them! I can’t take it anymore. These people are nothing but a bunch of whinging losers.” Yet the People are doing what they have been doing since day one of the Exodus: complaining. About the lack of water, the lack of food, and now the lack of meat. So why is Moses losing his temper so completely this time?
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The Importance of Being Humble
May 24, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
An unfortunate incident mars the otherwise solid familial bond between Moses and his siblings in Parashat Beha’alotekha.
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Shavu’ot—Hide and Seek with Torah
May 14, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Shavuot
In the kiddush we recite this evening, and in all the traditional services of Shavu’ot, we speak of “chag haShavuot hazeh, z’man mattan Torateinu” (This Festival of Shavu’ot, season of the giving of our Torah. [Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, 42]). There is a subtle yet subversive element to this description of the day: the parallels for Pesah and Sukkot speak of the “season of our liberation” and “season of our rejoicing,” each of which can reasonably be derived from biblical sources; however, there is no biblical source that associates Shavu’ot with the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Shavu’ot is called chag haKatsir in association with the harvest (Exod. 23:16), and the name Shavu’ot derives from the 49 days of counting the Omer after Pesah; the Talmud (BT Pesachim 68b) even uses the term Atzeret (conclusion), seeing the day as “concluding” Pesah much as Shemini Atzeret serves as conclusion to Sukkot.
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Going to the Head of the Prayer Line
May 14, 2013 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Naso
Sharp elbows at shul extend beyond the kiddush table line and back into the sanctuary. Prayer—or giving honor to God—can be a competitive business. There are lots of reasons why this is so, and some of them even have to do with loving God. But showing off how we love God can get us into trouble.
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The Importance of What We Give
May 14, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Naso
At the heart of Parashat Naso is a repetitive description of the offerings brought by the leaders of each of the tribes in honor of the anointing of the altar.
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Torah—Vision Beyond the Text (Part 2)
May 8, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Let us continue exploring, in these weeks before Shavu’ot, the metaphors of Torah in our liturgy. In the blessing immediately before the Shema’ in the morning service, we say “give light to our eyes through Your Torah” (ha’er eyneynu beToratekha) [Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat, 111], drawing upon the metaphor from the book of Proverbs that “Torah is light” (6:23). This connection of Torah (teaching) and light draws on a theme—common to many religions—that labels the attainment of ultimate understanding or a close or profound encounter with the Divine as “enlightenment.”
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How Do You Measure a Year?
May 8, 2013 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Bemidbar | Shavuot
We are doing an awful lot of counting this week: we count the final days of the Omer, and, as our parashah begins, take the census of the Israelite community. What does all of this counting have to do with the ways in which we measure what really matters?
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A Slow Walk to Freedom
May 8, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Bemidbar
With this coming Shabbat, we begin the fourth book of Torah known as the book of Numbers or Bemidbar.
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Torah—Vision Beyond the Text (Part 1)
May 1, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
In these weeks leading to the festival of Shavu’ot, designated by the Rabbis as Z’man matan Torateinu (Season of the Giving of Torah), let us look at the way that Torah appears in our liturgy. Torah refers, of course, to the humash—the Five Books of Moses—but the siddur makes clear that it is much more than that. In the preliminary service, the blessings for the study of Torah (Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, 63) are followed by verses from the humash, and these verses are followed immediately by selections from the Mishnah and Gemara, thus making it clear that these texts are Torah as well. The writings of the Sages (even to the present day) are not seen merely as commentary or amplification of Torah—rabbinic writings are also Torah, the “Oral” Torah.
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Yom Yerushalayim—Inhabiting the Land
May 1, 2013 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai | Yom Yerushalayim
Our double Torah portion opens with God’s command to Moses to tell the Israelites, “When you come to the land that I am giving you, and you inhabit the land.” No sooner did I read this verse as I prepared to write these words of Torah, than my own counting of the days flashed back 46 years to my first time ever in Israel, when I was a teenager on Camp Ramah Israel Seminar.
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The Promise of Security
May 1, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
Parashat Behukkotai opens with a dramatic quid pro quo.
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The Spirit of Jewish Leadership
Apr 23, 2013 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Emor
Two themes in this week’s Torah portion strike me with particular urgency and force: how Israelites should mourn the dead, and the qualifications required for the priesthood.
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Following Boston, Prayers for Healing
Apr 23, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Once more murderous acts have literally blasted their way into our hearts and souls. Images from the bombs in Boston are seared into our minds and memories, and these depictions challenge us. Our faith in humanity is challenged no less than our faith in God.
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Uncertainty and the Omer
Apr 23, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Emor
As we journey through these days and weeks, we find ourselves in the midst of Sefirat Omer, the counting of the Omer (the sheaf of barley offering, a ritual that took place in Temple times).
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