This Week’s Torah Portion: Sh’mini – שְׁמִינִי (Leviticus 9:1-11:47)
This is the greatest day possible; we are dedicating the Sanctuary, Adonai our God will now dwell amongst us!
The first verse reads “On the 8th day”, we count the days of the week in Hebrew by numbers, as we all know, there are only 7 days in a week. So what is the 8th day?
Spiritual events in our lives occur on the 8th day, the day beyond nature. Like the covenant of the new born child.
This Week’s Torah Portion: Sh’mini – שְׁמִינִי (Leviticus 9:1-11:47)
This is the greatest day possible; we are dedicating the Sanctuary, Adonai our God will now dwell amongst us!
The first verse reads “On the 8th day”, we count the days of the week in Hebrew by numbers, as we all know, there are only 7 days in a week. So what is the 8th day?
Spiritual events in our lives occur on the 8th day, the day beyond nature. Like the covenant of the new born child.
This Week’s Torah Portion: 7th Day of Passover – יוֹם שְׁבִיעִי שֶׁל פֶּסַח (Exodus 14:30–15:21)
We hear echoes of Passover every time we pray, in every service throughout the year. Just before we rise in prayer, we sing this song, perhaps the oldest song we know, which has echoed through the voices of our people for more than three thousand years:Mi chamocha ba-eilim Adonai, “Who is like you among the gods that are worshipped?” the song begins. “Who is like you majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, working wonders?”
This song echoes forth from this week’s Torah Portion, specially selected for the Sabbath during Passover, which contains the great poem of our people’s liberation, the Song of the Sea. It is an ancient victory ode which our people sang on the far shore of the Red Sea, having crossed through walls of water, on their journey from slavery to freedom.
Imagine for a moment if the echoes of Passover could echo in our lives throughout the year, not just in song but in deed as well. If we could say everyday the words: “Let all who are hungry come and eat.” If we could hear God’s call that “in every generation we should see ourselves as if we ourselves came forth from slavery to freedom.” If we could dedicate ourselves to the proposition that “until all of us are free, we are none of us truly free.” That would be a Passover worth remembering, when the echo of our songs of prayer became visions of a better world made real.
This Week’s Torah Portion: Tzav – צַו (Leviticus 6:1−8:36)
In this week’s Torah portion, Tzav, six times in six verses there is reference to the fire burning on the altar that must not go out. There is a hint here of something deeper, but reading the rest of this portion from the book of Leviticus gives us very little clue as to what that deeper meaning might be. For most of the rest of the Torah portion we seem bogged down in the details of priestly garments, and priestly sacrifices, how to build the fire and how to clean out the ashes which required special garments and ceremonies of its own.
But beneath all this ceremony – these rites and rituals of our ancient past – there echoes this message, six times repeated, on the importance of kindling light. Perhaps this light is a metaphor for our religious lives. On the surface of things, our lives are filled with the many responsibilities, the practical details of life that consumes our days – and yet there needs to be more to life than just that.
About a century ago, a chasidic master, The Sefat Emet, wrote: “In the soul of every Jew there lies a hidden point that is aflame with love of God, a fire that cannot be put out.” In other words, each of us is like the altar in the Tabernacle of old. Each of our souls is aflame with holy fire. And, each of our lives needs to make room for us to regularly feed that flame of God, through moments of holiness like celebrating holidays and sacred moments in our lives, through prayer and learning in God’s holy name. Each of us needs to care for that holy fire so that it might burn brightly within us and never go out.
May your flame burn brightly and may it bring warmth and healing to the world.
This Week’s Torah Portion: Vayikra – וַיִּקְרָא (Leviticus 1:1-5:26)
The letter א “Aleph” makes almost no sound. As it appears in the last letter in the first word this week’s Torah Portion, Vayikra, it is so small as to be almost invisible. A scribal tradition passed down for thousands of years, makes the Alef of Vayikra half its usual size. Do not expect – the Torah is teaching – that God’s presence in history will always be as clear as it was in the days of the Exodus from Egypt which we will commemorate on Passover, just a few days from now.
Seeing the Alef of Adonai in our own day, will depend on our own sensitivity. For those who look, it will be visible. For those who listen, it can be heard. But first you have to be one who looks and one who listens. If you choose not to see or hear, then God’s voice will fall silent. God’s call will be inaudible. History will seem mere chance. The history of the Jewish people testifies to the presence of God in our midst. The future of the Jewish people depends on our ability to hear God’s call.
This Week’s Torah Portion: Vayak’heil – P’kudei – וַיַּקְהֵל – פְקוּדֵי (Exodus 35:1–40:38)
There is a phrase we say this week as we complete our annual reading of the book of Exodus: chazak, chazak, v’nitchazeik, “be strong, be strong, and we shall be strengthened.” It is a tradition, but what does this tradition mean?
There is a Chasidic tale about a student who came to his rebbe and said: “For 30 years I have studied the Torah and still I feel no closer to God.” His rebbe replied: “Perhaps God cannot see you while you study and pray only for yourself and by yourself.” The rebbe explained that the phrase kol adat B’nei Yisrael, “all the community of the Children of Israel” which appears multiple times in this week’s portions, reminds us that when we work with others we can come to appreciate our own wholeness, our own self worth . When we engage with others, we can come to appreciate our own strengths, and how the strengths of others can complement our own. Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazeik, “be strong, be strong, and we shall be strengthened.”
We are stronger together: for ourselves, for each other, and in the building of a better world.
This Week’s Torah Portion: Ki Tisa – כִּי תִשָּׂא (Exodus 30:11−34:35)
“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion”
Adonai reveals to Moses one of the greats ideals of all times, the idea of Teshuvah (repentance), we give people a second chance.
We can start fresh and a new when ever we want and need too,
Adonai will always be there to forgive us!
Adonai is full of compassion and mercy! That should be a model for us, to allow people to have a second chance, to repent, try and be compassionate and show mercy, to those who have wronged us and repented.
This Week’s Torah Portion: T’tzaveh – תְּצַוֶּה Exodus 27:20−30:10) – Shabbat Purim
Purim story seems simple, there is a king, stupid and drunk, a beautiful queen, Esther, her wise uncle, Mordechai the Jew, and a wicked man who wants to kill all Jews (Haman). We win, and now let’s go drink (Alcohol) and eat Hamantaschen (literally Haman’s hat).
Purim has one great lesson in it! What we do matters. No miracles are mentioned in the story, God does not appear even once in the story. It is all up to how we behave, kind of what is happening in real life, actions matter.
This Week’s Torah Portion: T’rumah – תְּרוּמָה Exodus 25:1−27:19)
“…make a Temple for me, and I will dwell among them”
The great endeavor of having God dwell among us begins as we are building a Temple for God.
That has worked with the ebbs and flow for our people for thousands of years. The synagogues and the temples always being the centers of Jewish live and tradition and community.
Is that still the case?
What can we do to make it better?
Feel free to write me your thoughts, [email protected].
This Week’s Torah Portion: Mishpatim – מִשְׁפָּטִים Exodus 21:1−24:18)
The only place in the Torah where abortion is mentioned is here, in this week’s Torah portion.
Our Torah portion makes a clear point that an embryo is not considered life. Jewish law builds on this saying that only when the child emerges out it is considered a life.
Jewish law says that if there is a risk to the woman’s health, life (later rabbis add also socio – economic situation) then an abortion should be the woman’s option.
Will be speaking about this issue this Shabbat during Repro Shabbat service at The Temple.
This Week’s Torah Portion: Yitro – יִתְרוֹ Exodus 18:1–20:23)
It was time for Israel to receive the Torah. Moses gathered all the people around the foot of Mount Sinai, so that all would hear the 10 Commandments directly from God.
God began to speak the first letter of the first word, of the first commandment, “I am Adonai your God.” This first letter is the Hebrew letter alef, which is a silent letter. And yet, the sound of God’s voice speaking even this silent letter, was so loud and so awesome that it terrified all the people who ran away and hid in their tents.
Moses chased after them saying, “Wait, Wait! You have to hear God’s words yourselves.” But they said, “No. God’s voice is too awesome.” Finally, it was agreed that the 70 Elders would stand as witness at the foot of the mountain. But, as the Elders were returning to the camp to tell the people of God’s words, the strangest thing happened.
As they shared together each word they had heard, they realized that for each of the 10 Words which God had spoken, each of the Elders had heard a different word. And though none of their words were exactly the same, they were all different perspectives on God’s exact meaning. It was only they all spoke all the words they had heard, that they fully understood all that God had intended to say.
And this is the lesson we have learned. Each of us hears the words of Torah with our own unique perspective. And if we really hope to understand all of what God intends for us to be and do in this world, we must listen to each other so we might together build a world of justice, love, and peace.
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