El na refa na lah (Numbers 12:13) — These are the words Moshe uses to cry out to God on behalf of his sister Miriam when she is afflicted by a skin disease after gossiping about him and his Cushite wife. O Lord please heal her. Translated word for word it reads: Lord, please, […]
SHORT ESSAY: The Healing Middle (Parashat Beha’alotecha) Read More »
#1: On Kedushah (Holiness) According to some Hasidic commentators, kedushah refers not to the content of what you are permitted to do or to eat, but to the way that you go about doing or eating it. What is required by kedushah, they say, is to take every action b’yishuv hada’at , with a settled
SHORT ESSAY: Two Thoughts on Parashat Acharei-Mot/Kedoshim Read More »
I have never understood the Rashi at the beginning of this week’s parsha. Rashi is responding to theTorah’s lengthy way of telling us Sarah’s age at death — vayeheyu hayei Sarah me’ah shanah ve’esrim shanah . . . . ”Sarah’s lifetime was 100 years and 20 years and 7 years — this was the span
SHORT ESSAY: A Post-humous Celebration of Sarah (Parashat Chayei Sarah) Read More »
When God appears to Avraham in the beginning of this week’s parsha, what is Avraham doing? He is yoshev petah ha’ohel , “sitting in the opening of the tent,” ready to greet and welcome and honor whoever happens to come by. He sits in a posture of openness towards the world; if war comes,
Parashat Vayera: Inviting in Whoever Comes Read More »
Hashavat Aveidah. This mitzvah — to return lost objects to their owners —appears in this week’s parsha (Deuteronomy 22) as well as in Parashat Mishpatim and is the subject of much detailed halakhic discussion among the rabbis. While not taking away from the concrete aspect of the mitzvah, I want to offer an additional,
ESSAY: Returning Lost Parts (Parashat Ki Tetze) Read More »
We come into this world with a faint memory of having once been part of something much larger than ourselves. We have a vague sense of incompleteness, that we are missing something essential. We are hungry, but not for food, never quite satisfied, always yearning. We are deeply and relentlessly lonely, even when we
SHORT ESSAY: On Becoming Whole (Parashat Shoftim) Read More »
The most vulnerable in society are a primary concern in this week’s parsha — there is a constant refrain of taking care of the poor, the widow, the orphan, the male and female servant and the Levite, who, because he did not have a land portion, was dependent on others for his survival. This concern
SHORT ESSAY: The Poor in Your Midst (Parashat Re’eh) Read More »
“If there are two people and one of them honors you and the other disparages you, are they the same in your eyes or not?” This is the question that the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzhak of Acco reports in the name of Rabbi Avner as being the essential question of equanimity, a state necessary in order
SHORT ESSAY: Getting Beyond Praise or Blame (Parashat Pinchas) Read More »
Venatan meimav. The rock will give its waters. This is how God instructs Moshe to get water for the thirsty people, how He wants things to work in His world: The rock will give its waters. You just have to ask for them, to speak gently to the rock, and the rock will unlock
SHORT ESSAY: Going with the Flow (Parashat Chukat) Read More »
Before I begin, I would like to thank my mother for graciously allowing me to write a guest blog on her blog this week and for her Torah which constantly inspires me. I would also like to to thank all my teachers at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa where I studied this year. Particularly, I am grateful
Guest Blog by Medad Lytton: Parshat Chukat-Balak Read More »