Search Results

Boundaries on the Move

Jul 25, 2025 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Masei | Mattot | Shabbat Rosh Hodesh

Every week, we read a parashah from the Torah during our Shabbat morning service, and then the beginning of the next parashah during our Shabbat afternoon service. The result of reading from two parashiyoton a single day can be surprising. This week, as we read first from Masei, the last parashah of Numbers, and then from Devarim, the first from Deuteronomy, we can hear an ancient debate about an issue that remains deeply contested: where to draw the line.

The Liberator and the Zealot

Jul 18, 2025 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Pinehas

In his recently published book,The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom, H.W. Brands contrasts the attitudes of Brown and Lincoln toward slavery, and the methods used by each to end it. In doing so, he makes the case that the terms 鈥渓iberator鈥� and 鈥渮ealot鈥� accurately encapsulate the role of each in abolishing slavery.

Fear, Truth, and a Donkey

Jul 11, 2025 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Balak

Bilam, the highly paid but visionless prophet, sits high in his saddle on his donkey鈥檚 back as she swerves off the path. She鈥檚 strayed, it seems, for no reason; an angel standing with sword drawn is as yet unseen by him. He beats the donkey to drive her back onto the path. The next time she stops short she traps her rider鈥檚 leg against a stone wall. He winces in pain. I imagine him throwing one hand down toward his leg and perhaps grabbing his headdress, by now slipping off, with the other. He frantically beats his donkey again, flailing to regain control. Bilam is coming undone: a prophet made a fool by an ass(Num. 22:22鈥�25).

The Humanity of Moses

Jul 4, 2025 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Hukkat

Moses is so very human in this week鈥檚 portion. He loses his sister to death at the start of chapter 20, and his brother at the end of that same chapter. In between, he is told by God that he will not live to see the fulfillment of his life鈥檚 work (guiding his people into […]

Where Does Holiness Come From?

Jun 27, 2025 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Korah

Parashat Korah can be challenging for a modern Jew. There is a good guy in this parashah鈥攊t鈥檚 Moses鈥攁nd there is a bad guy鈥擪orah. Modern readers, however, often find themselves sympathizing with the bad guy. In the opening verses of the parashah(Num. 16:1鈥�3), Korah stands up against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, saying, 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got too much! The whole congregation, all of them, are holy, and Hashem is in their very midst. So why do you act like princes, raising yourselves over Hashem鈥檚 congregation?鈥� Korah鈥檚 speech appeals to a modern reader: he鈥檚 the democrat who takes the aristocrat to task for acting so much better than everyone else. It can seem disturbing that Moses enjoys a monopoly on holiness, doling out a healthy serving of the sacred to his brother, the high priest Aaron (nepotism!), while leaving everyone else outside the priesthood. Aren鈥檛 we all holy? Doesn鈥檛 God belong to all of us equally?

The Desert Dead

Jun 20, 2025 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

When the spies returned to the Israelite camp in the wilderness of Paran after scouting out the Land of Canaan, they reported that the land did indeed flow with milk and honey but that it could not be conquered. It was full of warlike people鈥擜malekites, Hittites, Jebusites, Emorites, and Canaanites鈥攎en of enormous size and strength, giants descended from the sons of gods dwelling in fortified towns with walls that reached the sky. Even the land鈥檚 produce was intimidating, for it took two Israelite men holding a great pole on each end to carry out a single cluster of grapes that they had taken as a sample of the land鈥檚 bounty and as evidence of its supernatural scale. The spies were sincere in urging caution; they had been truly terrified by their experiences. When they were in Hebron, for example, they had hidden in a cave from giants. The cave was actually a pomegranate rind that a giant鈥檚 daughter had thrown away. But when the girl remembered her father鈥檚 admonition not to litter, she returned, picked up the pomegranate rind with the twelve spies inside it, and tossed it into her garden as easily as you pick up and throw an eggshell.

New Generation, Old Leaders

Jun 13, 2025 By Ute Steyer | Commentary | Beha'alotekha

To paraphrase Moses鈥檚 meltdown in Numbers 11:11鈥�15, 鈥淟ord! I鈥檓 so done with them! I can鈥檛 take it anymore. These people are nothing but a bunch of whingeing losers.鈥� Yet the People are doing what they have been doing since day one of the Exodus: complaining. About the lack of water, the lack of food, and now the lack of meat. So why is Moses losing his temper so completely this time?

The Problem with Priests

Jun 6, 2025 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Naso

Modern Judaism has a problem with the priesthood. The notion of hereditary holiness鈥攖hat one segment of the Jewish people is set apart from others, given ceremonial privileges, and invited to bless the people鈥攃onflicts with our egalitarian ethos.

Counting as a Spiritual Practice: Bemidbar and the Road to Shavuot

May 30, 2025 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Bemidbar | Shavuot

Every year, without fail, we read Parashat Bemidbar just before the festival of Shavuot. This liturgical pairing is more than a scheduling convenience; it offers a profound insight into the spiritual architecture of Jewish time. Bemidbar begins with a count: “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans, by ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head” (Num. 1:2; 讘职旨诪执住职驻址旨专砖值讈诪讜止转诇职讙只诇职讙职旨诇止转指诐). This act of counting seems administrative on the surface, but like so much in the Torah, its spiritual depth lies beneath.

Grappling with Slavery in Parashat Behar

May 23, 2025 By Marjorie Lehman | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai

Parashat Behar is filled with powerful messages about building a just and compassionate society, emphasizing commandments to care for the land, support the poor, and treat hired workers with fairness and dignity. However, I find that Parashat Behar stirs up more discomfort than ethical inspiration. I am always struck by the difficult distinction it makes between Israelites and non-Israelites with regard to slavery. With the themes of Passover and the Israelites鈥� freedom from Egyptian bondage in my mind, I find it hard to reconcile that Leviticus 25 permits the enslavement of non-Israelites while protecting Israelites from such a fate.

Who Belongs?

May 16, 2025 By Rachel Rosenthal | Commentary | Emor

Who is the Other? This question, which is asked more and more often in our world, is not often easy to answer. Can one choose to be part of a community? Are people who were once outsiders ever fully welcomed as insiders? In Judaism, these questions are especially important. While Judaism has categories to define and even praise non-Jews, opting into the Jewish community is not simple. However, the Talmud tells us that once someone converts to Judaism, we are supposed to treat them as any other Jew. Unfortunately, this is a mission in which many communities fail. This failure can have significant consequences, as we see in this week鈥檚 parashah, Emor.

The Torah鈥檚 Prescription for Healing

May 2, 2025 By Alan Cooper | Commentary | Metzora | Tazria

Given the discomfort, discomfiture, and uncertainty that even mild skin eruptions can cause us nowadays, it should come as no surprise that they were a source of anxiety in ancient times. In this week鈥檚 parashah, that anxiety finds expression amidst an array of concerns about the human body and its functions. The purity laws inLeviticus 11through 15, which digress from the narrative flow of the book,[i]are concerned with diet (chapter 11), reproduction (chapter 12), and bodily integrity (chapters 13 to 15, including property as an extension of the person).

Six Takes on a Leader鈥檚 Attributes

Apr 25, 2025 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Shemini

Identifying the textual problem: commentators have noticed that the phrase 鈥渄raw near unto the altar鈥� seems superfluous. If Aaron is being commanded to 鈥減erform the service of the sin offering,鈥� is it not obvious that he will need to approach the altar? This textual issue will serve as the basis for our consideration of the attributes of a leader based on our examination of the comments of the traditional Jewish commentaries.

The Bones We Carry

Apr 18, 2025 By Abigail Uhrman | Commentary | Pesah

Consider the scene: after over 200 years of slavery, the Israelites, at long last, are preparing to depart. They are frantically gathering their belongings鈥攇old, silver, all their earthly possessions鈥攁nd scrambling to prepare food for their journey. In this urgent rush, Moses, rather than attending to the needs of the people and their immediate concerns, embarks on a singular mission: to retrieve the bones of Joseph, fulfilling a centuries-old promise. It begs the question: Why, in the midst of these epic events, does the Torah highlight this seemingly minor detail? What is the significance of Moses’s dedication to this task, his resolute commitment to honoring a promise made generations ago?

Can We Sanctify Incivility?

Apr 11, 2025 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Tzav

Parashat Tzav opens with instructions for the olah, the offering (primarily the twice-daily sacrifice) that is entirely burnt on the altar. The ninth chapter of the talmudic tractate Zevahim, notes that the word olah, which means 鈥渁scending,鈥� can be understood both as denoting an ascent to heaven from earth, and equally, an ascent up the ramp of the altar to the place from which it is offered. The double meaning gave rise to a principle that is articulated in the opening mishnah of that ninth chapter. But some background is necessary before citing that principle.

Who is Liable?

Apr 4, 2025 By Alan Cooper | Commentary | Vayikra

The opening parashah of Leviticus comprises regulations for the performance of sacrifices. Of these, the most complicated are the hattat and the asham offerings, discussed in chapters 4 and 5. As James Watts observes in the best English-language commentary to appear since Milgrom鈥檚,[1] these chapters have been 鈥渢he subject of an especially contentious history of interpretation.鈥� The reason is the ambiguity of the biblical text, with its conjoining of 鈥渟in鈥� and 鈥済uilt,鈥� and the absence of a clear distinction between actual (objective) guilt and (subjective) guilty feelings.

The Give and Take of Strength

Mar 28, 2025 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Pekudei | Shabbat Hahodesh

Rituals of closure are common in both the secular and religious realms. An example of the first is the sounding of retreat and the lowering of the flag marking the end of the official duty day on military installations. An instance of the second is the siyyum, a liturgical ritual and festive meal that is occasioned by […]

Sacred Gifts and the Holiness of Diversity

Mar 21, 2025 By Rabbi Ayelet Cohen | Commentary | Shabbat Parah | Vayak-hel

Parashat Vayak-hel demands that we notice the details, recounting with exquisite specificity the ornamentation and beautification of the Miskhan and the sacred vestments. Among all of the parshiyot detailing the construction of the Mishkan, Vayak-hel is particularly notable in lifting up the sacred contributions of women and of the artists and artisans. It also expands […]

The Day Is Short, but Our Story Is Long

Mar 14, 2025 By Yael Landman | Commentary | Ki Tissa | Purim

Within the book of Exodus, certain details link the golden calf story with the account of revelation at Sinai. Mount Sinai is the site of the Israelites forming a covenant with God, but it is also the site of them violating that covenant. It鈥檚 where God tells Moses to go up and receive the stone tablets, and where Moses carries down those tablets before he witnesses the Israelites partying and hurls the tablets to the ground. The word kol (which we might translate 鈥渟ound,鈥� 鈥渘oise,鈥� or 鈥渢hunder鈥�) recurs in the context of God鈥檚 revelation, only to recur in the account of the golden calf with respect to the Israelites鈥� ill-advised festivities. In these ways, the golden calf story is inextricably connected to the initial moment of revelation and lawgiving at Sinai, even as it threatens to destroy that covenantal foundation.

Anina Dassa – Senior Sermon (鈥�25)

Mar 12, 2025 By 91快活林 Senior Sermon | Commentary | Senior Sermon | Ki Tissa

Ki Tissa

Pages:
Less
2
3
4
5
6
More

Reset Search

SUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM 91快活林

Our regular commentaries and videos are a great way to stay intellectually and spiritually engaged with Jewish thought and wisdom.

91快活林 Torah Commentary

Search Results

SUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM 91快活林