Raising the King’s Sons
May 19, 2012 By David Levy | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
In Parashat Behukkotai, God spells out a list of blessings that will come if the Israelites will follow God’s rules. This is followed by a harrowing list of curses that will ensue if the Israelites fail in this task. Finally, at the end of chapter 26, God foretells that even after the curses, when the Israelites repent, He will remember the covenants He made with our ancestors, and will remember the land.
Read More
Our Relationship to God
May 10, 2010 By Lisa Gelber | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
As I chanted this verse from the end of Parashat B’har, over and over again, in preparation for reading Torah, it suddenly occurred to me how clear the Torah is about our relationship to God as slaves. Not so many weeks ago, we focused on our enslavement in Egypt. Think back to the Passover seder, where we sang Avadim Hayinu (We Were Slaves). Not to God; rather, l’Pharaoh b’meetzrayeem (to Pharaoh in Egypt). We know the story, and can name the oppressor. So if we were slaves to Pharaoh, and then God took us out of bondage—out of the narrow places, the straits of Egypt—what are we to do with this idea of our enslavement and servitude to God?
Read More
Between Heaven and Earth
May 16, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Behukkotai
Fertility of humans and of the land is the essence of divine blessing.
Read More
Blessing From the Inside Out
May 21, 2011 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Behukkotai
One of the claims that seems to have been made at different moments in my Jewish education is that Judaism concerns itself with what a person does in the world and not with what a person thinks. The Torah demands we pursue a life rightly lived over beliefs rightly held. This argument underscores that the project of Torah is concerned with our behavior and not our internal life.
Read More
The Promise of Security
May 1, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
Parashat Behukkotai opens with a dramatic quid pro quo.
Read More
Blessings From the Inside Out
May 19, 2012 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Behukkotai
One of the claims that seems to have been made at different moments in my Jewish education is that Judaism concerns itself with what a person does in the world, and not with what a person thinks. The Torah demands we pursue a life rightly lived over beliefs rightly held.
Read More
Walking Together with God
May 16, 2014 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Behukkotai
I saw a strange thing on my walk to minyan the other morning.
Read More
A Little Black Mark
May 15, 2015 By Rachel Bovitz | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin describes a personal practice that involved daily focus on 13 moral virtues. Franklin’s memoir, translated into several languages in the late 18th century, became widely influential, reaching even Eastern Europe, where Rabbi Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanov wrote Heshbon Hanefesh, published in 1808. Rabbi Lefin included justice and most of the other virtues in Franklin’s list when he created his 13 primary middot (moral virtues) to be focused upon in mussar practice (the Jewish approach to cultivating these virtues). Rabbi Lefin’s definition of tzedek (justice) paraphrases a classic Talmudic teaching attributed to Hillel: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.”
Read More
