Justice and Mercy

Jul 16, 2011 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Pinehas

The feminist in me adores this midrash: a tannaitic (first- or second-century CE) work acknowledging misogyny and extolling the women in this week’s parashah who appeal to a gender-blind God for mercy. With ever-present news stories of the gender-based gap in wages and job retention, the plea of the daughters of Zelophehad is still relevant.

Balam: Prophet, Sorcerer, Saint or Sinner?

Jul 9, 2011 By Jonathan Lipnick | Commentary | Balak

Reading Parashat Balak along with Rashi, the medieval 12th-century French exegete par excellence, one quickly discovers how vilified Balaam is in Midrash. But not all biblical commentators side with Rashi. There’s a fantastic chapter by Nehama Leibowitz (1905鈥�1997) in Studies of Bamidbar entitled “Prophet or Sorcerer?” Rabbi Jacob Milgrom (1923鈥�2010), too, has an article on the subject entitled “Balaam: Saint or Sinner?” in his extraordinary The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers.

God is Gracious, Not Angry

Jul 9, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Balak

So much for fire and brimstone!

The Perils of Leadership

Jul 2, 2011 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Hukkat

Great leadership is about successfully orchestrating change. Whether within organizations, communities, or other social systems, leadership involves developing a vision of the future and implementing strategies to achieve this vision. Exercising leadership means motivating and inspiring people to change habits, attitudes, and values that hold them back from reaching their goals.

Both Sides of Forgiveness

Jul 2, 2011 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Hukkat

This far into Numbers, we are inured to the Israelites’ complaints. The complaint of Numbers 21 takes place in five quick verses and stands out more for the unusual bit about the snakes than it does for the fact or content of the Israelites’ gripe.

Identities of Choice

Jul 2, 2011 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Naso

We live in an age in which we are all Jews by Choice. Whether born to Jewish parents or not, in 21st-century America our identities are a matter of our own selection.

Sympathy for Korah

Jun 25, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Korah

I have a great deal of sympathy for Korah and his rebel faction, despite the fact that they made life difficult for Moses, Aaron, and God.

The Deeper Meaning of Sacredness

Jun 25, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Korah

The antagonist of this week’s Torah portion rises and falls, according to the midrash above, when the logical fallacies in his argument reveal his true intentions. Korah, leading a revolt against Moses and Aaron, challenges the brothers’ leadership as detached from the Israelite people.

Israel, Evil Speech, and the Spies

Jun 18, 2011 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

The other scouts had not in fact stated that it was impossible to defeat the peoples of Canaan, yet Caleb seems to have understood this as being the import of their words. Why so?

Holding On to Torah

Jun 18, 2011 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Shelah Lekha

The metaphor is wonderful: the man at sea is Israel, grasping the tzitzit, with God the Captain of the ship stretching out a hand, holding the other end of the lifeline. As with all metaphors, it is not to be taken literally.

“Lights, Camera, Action!”

Jun 11, 2011 By Deborah Miller | Commentary | Beha'alotekha

We’ve all heard the adage about the opera not being over until the fat lady sings. But the opera doesn’t begin, at least not at the Metropolitan Opera, until the chandeliers go up. The performance starts even before the curtain opens, as the twinkling crystal chandeliers ascend to the ceiling. The stage has been set for something illuminating, magical, and transcendent. We are invited to enter into an alternate realm that whisks us away from the finite and ordinary world we inhabit.

The Idolatry of Stasis

Jun 11, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Beha'alotekha

Only in Hebrew leap years does Shavu’ot coincide with Parashat Beha’alotekha, but every day we are faced with the challenges that this midrash addresses.

How We Build Character

Jun 4, 2011 By Marjorie Lehman | Commentary | Naso

Parashat Naso begins with the appointment of the Levite families of Gershon and Merari to take care of the Mishkan, the Israelites’ portable sanctuary in the desert. While Aaron and his family were given the responsibility of overseeing the actual service of God in the Mishkan, the descendants of Gershon and Merari were defined as mere helpers, charged with the role of caring for the structure of the Mishkan, its cloths, its equipment, its posts and their sockets, its planks, pegs, and furnishings. I have always wondered鈥攚hy did God divide up the care of the Mishkan in this way?

Our Sacred Partnerships

May 27, 2011 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Bemidbar

In this week’s Torah and haftarah portions, the specter of rupture looms repeatedly. First, we are reminded of the deaths of Aaron’s two older sons, Nadav and Avihu. Similarly, our parashah recounts the undoing of the sacred place held by the firstborn sons, chosen to be dedicated to God when they were saved from the 10th plague, the plague of the slaying of the firstborns. Finally, in the haftarah, Hosea tells the story of Israel the Unfaithful, through the vehicle of Gomer, his harlot-wife.

The Poetry of Sinai

May 27, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Bemidbar

I rarely encounter texts like the midrash above that so completely challenge static notions about Torah.

Blessing From the Inside Out

May 21, 2011 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Behukkotai

One of the claims that seems to have been made at different moments in my Jewish education is that Judaism concerns itself with what a person does in the world and not with what a person thinks. The Torah demands we pursue a life rightly lived over beliefs rightly held. This argument underscores that the project of Torah is concerned with our behavior and not our internal life.

The Ancestral Roots of our Morals

May 21, 2011 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Vayikra

How wonderful to derive a great lesson from such a simple turn of phrase.

Man’s Plans vs. God’s Plans

May 20, 2011 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Behukkotai

I have such good intentions when I start off my day or my week.

Freeing Today’s Slaves

May 13, 2011 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Behar

“Proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” These words from our parashah (Leviticus 25:10) are famously inscribed upon the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, and they have resounded as a message of hope for the oppressed throughout the world. Yet our parashah also contains a darker message that endorses slavery, just as America has paired proclamations of liberty with cruel practices of slavery and discrimination throughout its history. In the same chapter of Leviticus, we read that non-Israelite residents of the land may be acquired as permanent slaves, and may be kept “as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property for all time.”

We Are All Borrowers

May 13, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Behar

I love discovering rabbinic texts like the one above that make such radical claims about Torah and God in general or about particular laws like tzedakah (righteous giving), one subject at the heart of this week’s Torah portion.

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