Mindful Torah...and more

This week's parashah/ portion is Va'era (Exodus/ Shemot 6:2 – 9:35).  The Israelites are still enslaved in Egypt and the conversation between God and Moses in Egypt continues.   God continues to instruct Moses on how to bring about the people's redemption.  However, Moses is reticent.  He claims that Pharaoh and the people will not listen to him because he is of "uncircumcised lips."  The implication being, once again, that he is unable to speak clearly or that his speech is not complete or whole.  In short, he believes that he is not up to the task. His reaction is something to which many of us can relate.  How often in our own lives believed we were unprepared for the task that lies before us.  Yet, one might imagine that, even if Moses felt unworthy or unprepared, he would have trusted God's judgment and God’s ability make the correct choice. However, it appears that this is not the case. Moses tries to convince God that God...

ישמח הר ציון תגלנה בנות יהודה למען משפטיך May the mountains of Zion be glad, the daughters of Judah rejoice; because of your judgments. Going back to earlier verses and commentaries, I interpreted the images as referring to the “heavenly Jerusalem,” which the rabbis and mystics imagined as a counterpart to the “earthly Jerusalem.” In the heavenly Jerusalem, all is as we imagine it should be. There is no fighting, no war, just simply peace (see previous psalm commentaries) . Zion is a synonym for Jerusalem throughout late Biblical and rabbinic literature. Mt. Zion itself is also synonymous with Mt. Moriah, where Abraham bound Isaac and where the Holy Temple would eventually be built. It is the center of the earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly one. Within Jewish mythology, it is where the two connect; it is a spiritual umbilical cord. Referring back to my commentaries on the two previous verses, it is connecting with God’s hesed (overflowing love) and tzedek (righteousness) that ...

This week's parashah is Shemot (Exodus/ Shemot 1:1 – 6:1). The saga of slavery and redemption that we remember each year at the time of Passover, as well as now during the Torah reading cycle, begins with this parashah. The narrative opens by reminding us of the names ( shemot ) of the sons of Jacob/Israel. Then we read that the Israelites multiplied greatly in Egypt. In fact, the Torah tells us that they "swarmed and multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them (1:7)." This increase in population is the reason given by Pharaoh for his decision to enslave the people. Many commentators have wondered why it was necessary to give any reason for the enslavement. After all, Abraham was told in Bereshit /Genesis 15:13 "Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years." If the enslavement was portrayed as part of "God's plan" then ...

כשמך אלהים כן תהלתך על־קצוי־ארץ צדק מלאה ימינך׃ Like Your name, God, so is Your praise unto the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness. In my commentary on verse 9 (Monday Dec. 6, 2010) I discussed the difference between two of the primary names of God, according to the great 12 th century scholar Maimonides.  According to him, the four-letter name of God (Y-H-V-H) represents God’s unknowable essence, and the name Elohim , represents that which we can intuit or observe of God through human experience. In this verse, God is referred to as elohim .  Hence, following Maimonides’ distinction, the Psalmist is writing about that aspect of God, which we intuit or observe in the world, even if we do not feel like we have actually “experienced” God’s essence. Truth be told, this experience of God is much more common than any sense of a truly transformational, mystical experience where we feel the essence of God’s being – at least as much as a human...

[In order to post this commentary in time for Shabbat, I feel that I left a few loose ends, as well as some inconsistencies and error. Such as making Jacob only 47 and not 147!  So here is a newly edited version.  This is still a work in process, so I would love any comments, questions or suggestions.  spn] This week we conclude the reading of the Book of Bereshit /Genesis with Parshat Va’yehi (Genesis 47:28-50:26).  The name and first word of the parashah/ portion means, “he lived.”  This refers to Jacob, who is on his deathbed. He had been brought down to Egypt to live with his beloved son Joseph, whom he thought dead for over 20 years.  Now, after 17 years in Egypt he is ready, at the age of 147, for his life to end.  He gathers his twelve sons around his bed (daughter Dinah has long since disappeared from the narrative. But that is for another time), as well as Manasseh and Ephraim, Joseph’s sons by his Egyptian wife Osnat.  When h...

As I mentioned in the introduction to the midrash I posted this past Shabbat, I have returned with another installment of the story of Joseph and the ego. Last Shabbat we read Parshat Vayigash ( Bereshit /Genesis 44:18-47:27). This is the dénouement of the saga of Joseph’s reunion with his brothers. The narrative begins with Judah offering himself as a replacement for Benjamin, whom Joseph is going to keep as a slave.   This after Joseph had his silver goblet planted in Benjamin’s bag in order to test the brothers.   Judah, who had been intimately involved in throwing Joseph into the pit and selling him into slavery, becomes therefore becomes the hero of this story. When Judah pleads with Joseph to take him, it is too much for Joseph to bear.   He orders his servants to leave the room and reveals himself to Jacob’s other 11 sons as their long-lost brother Joseph.   Having already broken into tears twice in the previous parashah , he does so once ...

דמינו אלהים חסדך בקרב היכלך׃ We have compared (thought of) your overflowing love in the midst of your palace. This verse is often translated simply as “we have thought of your loving kindness in the midst of your Temple.” However, the root of the phrase translated as “we thought” דמינו has its origins in the word דמה, which also means, “to compare.”  The word חסד ( hesed ) tends to be translated as “loving kindness” since the Coverdale Bible translation of 1535 used this term to translate the Latin misericordia .  However, I find that this translation almost trivializes the word.  Loving-kindness is a wonderful thing.  It is something that we all desire to give and receive.  However, hesed is something much more profound.  In terms of human interaction, acts of hesed is one of the three pillars upon which the world stands, according to Pirkei Avot (The Chapters of our Fathers), a compilation of rabbinic ethical aphorisms completed around the year ...

Dear online Hevre (community): I am sorry that was not able to write a new commentary in time for this Shabbat, due to a very busy work week.  So I am reposting an original midrashic story that I posted last year.  However, watch this coming week for a new commentary on this parashah /portion, as it is too important to igore (unless I decide to combine it w/ next week's post.  But that remains to be seen). Shabbat Shalom, Steve This week's Torah portion, Vayigash (Genesis 44:18), begins with the words " Vayigash aylav Yehudah ...." "And Judah drew near" to Joseph to plead for his brother Benjamin's freedom. Judah volunteered to be taken as a slave in Benjamin's stead, so that his father Jacob would not 'lose' another son. Judah's pleads with Joseph to keep him instead of his youngest broth Benjamin, who is the only other son of Joseph's mother, Rachel and, therefore, dearest to their father. Moved by Judah's appeal, Jos...

           כאשר שמענו כן ראינו בעיר יהוה צבאות בעיר אלהינו אלהים יכוננה עד עולם סלה׃ As we have seen, so have we heard in the city of YHWH of hosts, in the city of our God; God shall establish for eternity. Selah. When last we visited our psalm, the ‘self’ was in the process of being destroyed. That which we believed to be strong, secure, protecting us, is finally seen for what it is: a façade. We could not see that when we were in the land of the ego, as represented in the previous verse by the mysterious “ships of Tarshish” (see commentary from 11/19/10 on 48:8).  We can only see that when ego is diminished and we are able to connect to the divine energy flowing through all existence.  We can only experience the Truth in the “city of YHWH tzeva’ot , in the city of the God of Hosts.” The psalmist uses two different names for God.  YHWH is the tetragrammton, or four-letter name of God.   This n...