Category: Uncategorized
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A Faith of Listening
Judaism has always been more about belonging than believing. When Ruth expresses her desire to join Naomi following the death of Ruth’s husband, rather than return to her native Moab, she says, “Your people will be my people, your God will be my God”, (Ruth 1:16) preferencing “peoplehood” over belief in God. The most famous…
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The Miracles of Everyday Life
In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses assembles the Israelites and recounts the past forty years of their experience together. He reminds them of “the wondrous feats that you saw with your own eyes, those prodigious signs and marvels.” “Yet,” he continues, “The Eternal has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or…
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A Summary Execution?
Last week’s parasha closed with the Israelites, encamped at a place called Shittim. There, they begin to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moab, a pagan people. A plague breaks out among the people, an expression of God’s displeasure (to say the least) with the Israelite’s descent into paganism. An Israelite prince named Zimri brings…
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Extra Sensory Perception?
Our Torah reading (Numbers 22:2-25:9) this week opens with the Israelites encamped on the steppes of Moab, on the east side of the Jordan River, across from Jericho. Thay are poised to enter the Land of Canaan. Balak, King of Moab, has heard of the military victories of the Israelites and offers the prophet, Ballam,…
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A Crisis of Leadership
“Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation in front of the rock; and he said to them, ‘Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?’ And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank. But God…
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A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey?
We tend to think of “folk music” as music with no known composer that arises spontaneously out of a culture and that is passed down orally from one generation to another. The Hebrew song, “Eretz Zavat Chalav U-Devash” is one such folk song. The four words that compromise the lyrics of this song are first…
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The Color of Purple
At the end of this week’s parsha we have the commandment to make fringes on our garments, called “tsitsit”. The tsitsit are placed on the corners of our prayer shawl. Most of us wear this prayer shawl when we attend morning services. It is customary to recite this biblical passage as the third paragraph of…
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Finding the Fire Within
Our Torah reading for this week opens with God telling Moses to instruct Aaron on the lighting of the seven branched menorah. The text continues, “Aaron did so….” The sage Rashi comments on this text. “This verse comes to praise Aaron that he did not change.” What does Rashi mean, “That he did not change”?…
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The Moment Music Stood Still
Last week we began reading the fourth of the Five Books of Moses in our synagogues. In Hebrew we call the book “Ba-midbar” which means “In the Wilderness” because the book opens with the verse, “God spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai”. In English we call the book “The Book of Numbers” because…
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While Standing on One Foot
The sage Hillel had a saying, recorded for posterity in Pirke Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers: Be like the disciples of Aaron, love peace and pursue peace, love people (habriut) and bring them close to the Torah. In his commentary on Pirke Avot, Avigdor Shinar, Professor emeritus at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, asks…
Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 