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After Charleston: Forward and Upward
This week nine people killed in a church in Charleston will be laid to rest down in the ground. 14 times in six years there have been mass killings in the United States. After such a tragedy we might seek some positive message in Torah. This week we learn that from descent comes ascent, and…
How to Question Authority (and stay alive)
We each have had the desire at times to confront our leaders, be they religious or political, and question their actions. The skill of questioning authority can mean the difference between holiness and sacrilege. The weekly Torah reading is named for Korach, a prince among the people who stood as an accuser against leaders Moses and Aharon. Korach reproaches…
Fashion and Spirit
"Clothes make the man," said Shakespeare (Hamlet I:iii). Jewish tradition couldn't agree more. This week's Torah portion (Shlach) brings a mitzvah (command) to tie fringes to our clothes. This is the derivation of the Jewish tallit (prayer shawl) tied with tzitzit (fringes). Torah records God to tell Moses (Num. 15:37-40): "Speak to the Israelites and tell them to make for themselves fringes…
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…
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