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Biblical Negotiations
Oct 18, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
This week’s Torah reading opens with the death of our matriarch, Sarah, and Abraham’s subsequent acquisition of a burial place for his deceased wife.
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The Revolutionary Nature of Learning Torah
Oct 15, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Simhat Torah
This weekend marks the solemn conclusion of Deuteronomy and the joyous beginning of Genesis as we celebrate the holiday of Simhat Torah.
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Seeing Sukkot in the Book of Jonah
Oct 7, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Sukkot | Yom Kippur
This week, we make our preparations for the coming festival of Sukkot.
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An Exegetical and Archaeological Experience
Aug 19, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Re'eh
This past June, our family journeyed to Israel — to reenergize our spiritual selves, to reconnect with the land and people of Israel, and to introduce our daughter to friends and family.
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The Root of All Blessing
Aug 12, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Eikev
Loyalty to covenant and the observance of mitzvot are the theme of Parashat Eikev. Even more movingly (and especially at this time of distress in Israel), the parashah speaks of the beauty and blessing of the land of Israel. In addition to enumerating the seven species (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates), Torah relates: “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill . . . a land where you may eat food without stint, and where you will lack nothing” (Deuteronomy 8:7–10).
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The Joy of Torah
Aug 5, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
This past week, I have been receiving many photographs of the destruction raining down on northern Israel. Among the many images, the most moving one was a modest picture taken in the city of Safed. Protected within the four walls of a bomb shelter, it is an image of a rabbi teaching Torah to a group of students. As a page of Talmud sits open before each participant, the rabbi teaches energetically to his receptive audience. For me, this demonstrates the power of learning within the Jewish community — and the extent to which learning has the potential to shape each and every one of us. Even at a time when our thoughts are undoubtedly elsewhere, Torah remains at the center of our identity.
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The Seven Qualities of Leadership
Jul 29, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Devarim
Leadership is the cornerstone of who we are as Jewish people.
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“My Heart Is in the East”
Jul 22, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Masei | Mattot
The stirring words of the medieval poet of Zion, Yehudah HaLevi, echo through each and every generation: “My heart is in the East, and I am in the far reaches of the West.”
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Hearing God’s Voice
Jul 8, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Hukkat
We communicate with each other and with God through our voices.
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An Extra Book
Jun 17, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
Parashat B’ha–alot’kha continues the narrative of the Israelite journey through the wilderness of Sinai. More than that, a curious phenomenon occurs at the midpoint of this week’s parashah. An inverted Hebrew letter nun appears twice, forming bookends around two verses: Numbers 10:35–36. They read, “When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say: Rise up, O Lord! May your enemies be scattered, and your foes flee before You! And when it halted, he would say: Return, O Lord, You who are Israel’s myriads of thousands!” While these verses are most recognizable from the opening of the ark during the Torah service, the unusual markings formed by the inverted nuns lead to a fascinating teaching in the Babylonian Talmud.
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Priestly Love
Jun 10, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Naso
At the heart of Parashat Naso stands the text of the priestly blessing. Numbers chapter 6, verse 22–26 relates, “The Lord spoke to Moses: Speak to Aaron and his sons: Thus shall you bless the people of Israel. Say to them: The Lord bless you and protect you! The Lord deal kindly and graciously with you! The Lord bestow God’s favor on you and grant you peace!” The text of this benediction is known asbirkat kohanim, the blessing of the priests. It is best known in the context of the priestly service called dukhenen.
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Diversity through Order
May 27, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Bemidbar
Order is the essence of Torah. In Genesis, God creates the world by imposing order on chaos; and in Exodus, God imposes order on a people shattered by 400 years of servitude. The transition is especially dramatic for the Israelites — their change in orientation must be two-fold, physical and spiritual. Nothing less than a revolution is required to transform these ex-slaves of Pharaoh into the loyal servants of God. And so, having proposed a legal (Revelation, specifically the laws of Torah) and ritualistic (sacrificial system as outlined in Leviticus) order for the newly freed Israelites, the Book of Numbers opens by establishing spatial order.
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Our Role in Creation and Revelation
May 20, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
Parashat Behar–Be–hukkotai opens curiously enough on Mount Sinai — curiously given the law promulgated at the beginning of the Torah reading. There, at the introduction to this parashah, we find the detailed laws related to sh’mitah, the sabbatical year, as well as the yovel, the jubilee year. While sh’mitah involves a seven–year cycle of letting the land lie fallow and the remission of loans, the yovel reflects a fifty–year cycle involving the emancipation of slaves and the return of property to their original owners.
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The Gift of Uncertainty
May 13, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Emor
Israel is a land almost wholly dependent on the heavens above. As such, concern for one’s crops is a dominant theme through the biblical and rabbinic periods. Far from being a land irrigated by a river flowing through its length as Egypt, Israel is dependent on the rains above — and the winds below. Accordingly, this week’s Parashat Emor delineates the calendar year and very specifically addresses the period in which we find ourselves — the counting of the Omer from Passover to Shavu’ot.
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Whose Land?
May 6, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Kedoshim | Shavuot
Over the past few weeks, immigration and the protection of foreign workers have taken center stage on the American political scene. Far from being a distant, abstract philosophical conversation, the issue is one that the Jewish community has wrestled with throughout its many years of wandering. Indeed, this is a topic that touches the heart and soul of our people.
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Refining God’s Creation
Apr 29, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Metzora | Tazria
Too often our perception of God’s creations and works assumes a sense of completion and perfection. We tend to place an inordinate share of responsibility on the shoulders of God, as it were — arguing that God’s involvement in creation necessarily implies wholeness. Our parashah this week, Tazri·a-Metzora, however demonstrate otherwise; humans are commanded to complete creation and enter into partnership with God. This lesson is evident from the opening of Parashat Tazri·a, which teaches, “On the eighth day, the flesh of [a newborn male’s] foreskin will be circumcised” (Leviticus 12:3). Why does God make a deliberate choice to create boys uncircumcised? What does this act teach us about the significance of brit milah — both for the particular act of circumcision and more generally, regarding the essence of Judaism?
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Seeing God in Loss
Apr 22, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shemini
Loss strikes each one of us at different points in our lives.
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Pesah: The Chesed Holiday
Apr 8, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol
Next week marks the beginning of Passover; with this annual celebration, Jews gather to celebrate the birth of the Israelite nation.
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The Meaning of Pesah
Apr 8, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Pesah
Next week marks the beginning of Passover; with this annual celebration, Jews gather to celebrate the birth of the Israelite nation.
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A House of Prayer for All Peoples
Apr 1, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayikra | Pesah
Creative tension is ever present in the poles found within Judaism. We are drawn to the balance between keva and kavannah, that which is fixed and that which is spontaneous; Hassidim fervently debate the Mitnagdim over the line between spirituality and intellectualism; and we are constantly in search of the golden mean between halakhah (law) and aggadah (lore). Another pair of opposites embedded within Judaism is the constant tension between particularity and universality. To what extent should a Jew be zealous in the particular observance of Jewish identity? Or is Torah better understood as a Jewish lens into universal experience?
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