Mindful Torah...and more

  Dear online community: As you may be aware, I have not been writing about the daily psalms for quite sometime. As I am on retreat for the week, I decided to use this as an opportunity to start again. Since I did complete my commentaries on the psalms for Monday and Tuesday, I am now continuing with psalm 94, the psalm for Wednesday. After my commentary on verse 8, I have pasted my commentaries for verses 1-7, should you wish to refresh you memory or read some of them for the first time. Shalom/Salaam, Steven 8. Understand, you senseless among the people: and, you fools, when shall you comprehend. In my exploration of this complex psalm, the main theme is how the ego tries it’s best to make us feel separated from God, humanity and the world.  This is how the ego tries to destroy us.  The verse is simply a call to each of us, even if we do not feel that we have succumbed to the tricks of the ego. In someway at some times each of us is senseless.  Eac...

With this week's parashah/portion, Be’midbar, we begin reading the fourth book of the torah, also called Be’midbar, which means "in the wilderness.  This book of the Torah is known as Numbers in English, for it begins with the counting of the Israelites for a census. Jewish tradition has long taught that counting people can be a dangerous business.  An obsession with numbers can indeed be destructive, yet we still continue to count. In writing the poetic commentary on this parashah I had in mind two facts: 1) It  has intrigued commentators for years that the individual numbers in the census never seem to add up to the total that is given in the parashah. 2) In his commentary,  R. Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev (19th century) comments on the fact that the Levites are counted in a census separate from the other 11 tribes of Israel. The tribe of Levi is the priestly tribe that serves in the Sanctuary, or Mishkan, and will later serve in the Temple in Jerusalem. As...

Dear online community, Once again I must apologize for missing a week. For various personal reasons, these last few weeks have been quite hectic and my blog has suffered for it. Hopefully things are now back on track and you will seeing my commentaries every week once again. But before I continue with my commentary, I must do a bit of shameless self promotion ;-)  I am currently beginning to schedule visits to teach and learn together with communities across the country in the upcoming Jewish/academic/programming year (i.e., Sept-June, and even summer if you'd like).  If you would like to bring me to your community, please either contact me at mindfultorah@gmail.com or pass my information along to those who are doing the planning for your community for next year.  I would love to work something out so I can pay you a visit! This is true for synagogues, schools, JCCs Hillels and other campus venues, as well as non-Jewish or interfaith venues.  So please keep me in mi...

I must apologize for not writing a commentary for the past two weeks.  Between Passover and other things happening, I just let the two weeks stop by.  However, I feel that this past Shabbat’s parashah /portion from the Torah is significant enough that I did not want to let this opportunity pass. This past Shabbat we read from Parshat Kedoshim (Vayikra /Leviticus).  The word kedoshim means holiness, and this parashah contains within it the Holiness Code.  This code is physically and spiritually at the center of the Torah and represents the central principles guiding the formation of the new people of Israel.  Though we may take issue today with some of the prohibitions, including that against homosexuality (which is actually more complex than I can discuss right now), the main principle of the parashah   This is encapsulated in the final verse of the chapter: “Love your fellow human being (or neighbor) as yourself. I am the Eternal your God”  is...