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The Sanctity of the Schoolroom
Feb 25, 2022 By Ofra Arieli Backenroth | Commentary | Shabbat Shekalim | Vayak-hel
In the Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard (1884鈥�1962) highlights the importance of the home for each of us: 鈥淭he house, even more than the landscape, is a “psychic state,” and even when reproduced as it appears from the outside, it bespeaks intimacy鈥� (72). This week鈥檚 parashah speaks about building a home鈥攁 home for God. Reading the description of this process underscores for me, an educator and a scholar of the arts, the importance of aesthetics and beauty in what we study, the manner in which we study, and above all, the spaces where we study.
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On Needing Certainty Now
Feb 18, 2022 By Yitz Landes | Commentary | Ki Tissa
Imagine, for a moment, that you are an Israelite at the foot of Har Sinai. Over the past few weeks, your life has been turned upside down: you have witnessed mind-boggling miracles, you have been freed from slavery, and you have been brought out into the wilderness, to the bottom of Har Sinai. Too scared to go up the mountain (Exod. 19:18, 23), you and your fellow Israelites remain camped out below as Moses goes up and down, eventually staying up on top as God teaches him and prepares the Tablets. You know that you are going somewhere that you should consider home鈥攖o be sure, a place that you have never seen鈥攁nd you know that many of your practices must change.
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Garments of Light
Feb 11, 2022 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Tetzavveh
Last week, we read God鈥檚 orders to Moses for the construction of the Tabernacle and its accoutrements. This week, our parashah continues on the subject of the Tabernacle and the preparations for starting the sacrificial cult, focusing on the Tabernacle鈥檚 personnel: the priests鈥攑articularly their vestments and the rituals for the priests鈥� consecration.
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Holding God, Our Tradition, and One Another Close
Feb 4, 2022 By Jacob Blumenthal | Commentary | Terumah
As a leader in the Conservative-Masorti Movement, I see my own ambivalence around the use of technology on Shabbat and to form minyanim shared among many communities, clergy, and synagogue leaders. How should we position ourselves? Should the new opportunities provided by these technologies lead the way? Should we temper our enthusiasm? Should we heed Abraham Joshua Heschel鈥檚 call to experience Shabbat 鈥渋ndependent of technical civilization鈥� and trust in our inherited traditions to hold us together (The Sabbath, 28)?
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The Torah鈥檚 Creative Team
Jan 28, 2022 By David Shmidt Chapman | Commentary | Mishpatim
The metaphor of a playwright and director crafting a new play together can be applied to our parashah. The playscript God is developing is the set of mishpatim (rules), expanding on the Ten Commandments. God begins developing the 鈥渟cript鈥� in a speech to Moses in Exodus 21:1: 鈥淎nd these are the rules that you shall set before them . . . 鈥�
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Strangers at a Revelation
Jan 21, 2022 By Miriam Feldmann Kaye | Commentary | Yitro
Parashat Yitro is framed by the geographical and conceptual ideas of exile and homecoming. Against the backdrop of Bereishit, the notion of movement is critical in framing the experiences of biblical characters: the exile from Eden; the exile of Cain; the 鈥渃alls鈥� to Abraham, Jacob, and others to move, relocate, and find new homes.
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Commanded to Remember
Jan 14, 2022 By Nicole Wilson-Spiro | Commentary | Beshallah
In our Torah portion, after Amalek鈥檚 unsuccessful attack on the Israelites, God says to Moses, 鈥淲rite this as a memorial in the book and tell it to Joshua because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven鈥� (Exod. 17:14). Deuteronomy 25:17鈥�19 repeats the injunction: 鈥淩emember what Amalek did to you on your way after you left Egypt . .
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Teach Your Children Well
Jan 7, 2022 By Dov Kahane | Commentary | Bo
In Parashat Bo, we read about 鈥淧esah Mitzrayim鈥濃�擥od鈥檚 instructions to the Israelites for the eve of their exodus鈥攊ncluding slaughtering the lamb and placing its blood on the doorposts as a marker of divine protection. In Exodus 12:21鈥�28, Moshe conveys these rites, including the need to explain them to children. Many of these passages are most familiar to us from the Passover Haggadah. What can we learn from the way they have been incorporated there?
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Cover Crop for a Hardened Heart
Dec 31, 2021 By Dave Yedid | Commentary | Va'era
These two verses describe the impact of the final plague in the parashah, hail. They come in the short thaw between Pharoah softening his heart鈥攆or the first time this parashah鈥攁nd hardening it again, where our parashah ends. Why does our Torah mention these four crops? What do they have to do with the plagues, or in the calculation of Pharaoh’s change of heart?
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Who is 鈥淯s鈥�?
Dec 24, 2021 By Jessica Dell鈥橢ra | Commentary | Shemot
At first, Pharaoh feels sure he鈥檚 harming only them. These Hebrews that he’d inherited, who’d came with a story about some Joseph prince鈥攂ut who cares about ancient history? In Pharaoh鈥檚 view, the Hebrews are merely a tool for building out new garrison towns. What is a Hebrew slave to mighty Pharaoh, a living god among his people?
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Fear and Forgiveness
Dec 17, 2021 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Vayehi
ef; it can also reopen old woundsamongrelatives. This is what happens at the end ofParashatVayehi,which is alsotheendof the book of Genesis,after the patriarch Jacob dies.Following Jacob鈥檚 death, his sonsfear that things are not fully resolved in their family, and theybecome worried that their brother Joseph is still angry at them for the ways they mistreated him.
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Faith by Numbers
Dec 10, 2021 By Joel Seltzer | Commentary | Vayiggash
Most often, when I describe my own faith in God, I liken it to a number line from middle school math class. On the left are the negative numbers, in the center is the lonely zero, and to its right are all the positive numbers, stretching toward infinity.
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Joseph鈥檚 Brothers and the Naked Truth
Dec 3, 2021 By Howard Markose | Commentary | Miketz
Parashat Miketz, Jacob sends Joseph鈥檚 brothers on a mission to procure rations for the family, which is facing starvation in Canaan. The ten sons of Jacob, however, could not have anticipated what was to transpire upon their arrival. An intense interrogation by Egypt鈥檚 viceroy is followed by three days in detention, the incarceration of Simon, and a demand to bring Benjamin, their youngest brother, to Egypt. The brothers find no relief from their ordeal, and this unrelenting strain manifests itself both in the way they respond to Joseph鈥檚 questioning, as well as how they retell the incident to their father, Jacob, upon their return to Canaan.
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From Podcast to Parashah
Nov 26, 2021 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Commentary | Vayeshev
Many of us have become podcast connoisseurs during the pandemic. For me, the interview format has proven most appealing, and within that genre, The Axe Files stands out. Why? Like many interviewers, David Axelrod speaks to authors, politicians, thought leaders, and public figures. What sets his questioning apart is his ability to elicit the background story of his guests: Where were their grandparents from? Where did they grow up? What was their family life like? What challenges did they face in their early lives? And how did this impact the people they have become?
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Facing Our Fears
Nov 19, 2021 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Vayishlah
Soon after leaving Aram, the home of Laban his father-in-law, along with his wives, children, and possessions, Jacob instructed messengers to go to his brother Esau in Edom and say: 鈥淭hus says your servant Jacob: With Laban I have sojourned and I tarried till now. And I have gotten oxen and donkeys and sheep and male and female slaves, and I send ahead to tell my lord, to find favor in your eyes鈥� (Gen. 32:5鈥�6). Upon returning, the messengers relate that Esau himself is coming to meet Jacob and bringing four hundred men!
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The Give and Take of Biblical Vows
Nov 12, 2021 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Vayetzei
We live in a world of give and take. Transactions involving the exchange of money for goods and services, which the rabbis explicitly call 诪砖讗 讜诪转谉, 鈥渢aking and giving,鈥� are central to economic life. Successful relationships, whether professional or personal, are the result of effectively balancing the pursuit of one鈥檚 own wants and needs with acknowledging and accommodating the needs and desires of others.
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May We Be Known by the Work of Our Hands
Nov 5, 2021 By Ariella Rosen | Commentary | Toledot
How does deception begin? In the telling of Jacob鈥檚 acquisition of nearly all of the first-born advantages granted his brother Esau, the moment is perhaps not what it seems.
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What Was Isaac Doing in the Field?
Oct 29, 2021 By | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
The patriarch Isaac is one of the most passive biblical characters. He speaks infrequently and seems to stand still while other people feverishly act around him. His presence in Parashat Hayyei Sarah is no exception. After surviving the ordeal of the Akedah, and experiencing the death of his mother, Isaac is nowhere to be found. Abraham buys the burial plot and only Abraham is mentioned as present at Sarah鈥檚 burial. Abraham then sends his servant Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac, but again we lack any information as to what Isaac is doing or how he is feeling after successive traumatic life events. Isaac only returns to the story when Eliezer returns with Rebekah and she first sees Isaac.
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Lessons from Lot鈥檚 Daughters
Oct 22, 2021 By Abby Eisenberg | Commentary | Vayera
Parashat Vayera is the fourth Torah portion after Simhat Torah, the celebration of our annual Torah reading cycle and the culmination of the fall holidays. As we begin the new year, we also begin anew our exploration of ancestral family dynamics. Arguably one of the most famous parent-child scenes in all of literature can be found in Vayera: that of Abraham bringing Isaac to offer him as sacrifice. The parashah also contains another version of child sacrifice when Lot, Abraham鈥檚 nephew, subjects his unnamed daughters to assault and danger. From the tragedy of Jephthah鈥檚 daughter to the boldness of the daughters of Zelofehad, relationships between fathers and daughters in Tanakh are both deeply troubling and inspiring. The story of Lot and his daughters is certainly the former, and, perhaps surprisingly, potentially the latter.
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Was Avram a Second Language Learner?
Oct 15, 2021 By Avi Garelick | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
At the conclusion of Chapter 11 of Sefer Bereishit, the peoples of the world are divided by Divine command into distinct groups with mutually incomprehensible languages. This tale of the Tower of Babel accounts for the fundamental question of why human beings can be so different from each other while coming from the same source. It also sets the stage for what follows: a freshly divided world, with the inability to communicate as a driving force of division.
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