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Time to Pass It On
The parsha baha'alotecha is "my family parsha". My uncle read it when he became a bar mitzvah eighty-nine years ago, my son read it nineteen years ago and my cousin read it for her bat mitzvah just six years ago. Additionally, the prophetic portion, the haftarah, from Zechariah is also read at Hanukkah and two…
Sage-ing, not aging
Age is an invitation and not a closed door. Take this week’s Torah portion, Naso. A census of the Levitical tribes is required. The priests with caretaking duties between the ages of 30 and 50 are recorded and enlisted for duties in the Tent of Meeting, where sacrifices were offered. We can opine as to why…
Uplifting History: Make Everyone Count
If you're reading this blogpost, your ancestors probably hailed from another continent. Most of us focus more on where we are than from where we've come. Today we might know little of our ancestral history: memories fade, wars ravage, families scatter and interest wanes. Yet, there are many advantages to recalling the names of those…
Learning Liberty
Take a breather: rest isn't just for the weary. That's the enduring message of this week's double portion ending the Book of Leviticus (Behar-Bechutotai, Lev. 25:1-27:34). In our ancestors' society, spiritual truth translated from agricultural means. Our ancestors worked the land, planting and reaping harvests, so often they expressed spiritual truths in terms of the…
A Defect in Torah
The legacy of the Jewish people includes a striving for perfection in ourselves, in our children and in the world. The quest for perfection inherently acknowledges that each of us is imperfect in some ways. In Parashat Emor, such defects are presented as a barrier. If taken on its face, this barrier could be confused for a…
One Love, lots of neighbors
This week's double portion, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim (Lev. 16:1-20:27), contains the famous phrase that Talmud's Rabbi Akiva recited while standing on one leg to summarize all of Torah (B.T. Shabbat 31a): "love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). This phrase, emerging from the middle part of Torah's middle portion dedicated to kedoshim (holiness), is the beating heart of Torah and living…
A Spiritual Time Out
This week we have a double portion, Tazria and Metzora. They both deal with the reasons for creating boundaries of time and space, and fixes due to being tamae, ritually unsure, or tahor, ritually, pure. For many who look at these two portions, they seem confusing, unsophisticated, and sexist. These are two of my favorite…
Eat Your Way to Holiness
Tragedies often leave us bewildered and disaffected. But Torah offers profound lessons in the wake of seemingly inexplicable tragedy. In parashat Shemini, the text details eight days of dedication ceremonies for the beautiful new mishkan, God’s tangible abode, including lots of animal sacrifices. At its end, the oldest sons of the High Priest, Aaron, make…
All in: body, heart and soul
Among the reasons that Jewish yoga and chant cultivate loyal followings is their focus on the body as a spiritual portal. After centuries of Jewish focus on matters of the mind (study) and spirit (prayer), we are rediscovering the spirituality of embodied corporeal life. Passover – especially the last day, when tradition celebrates the trek…
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