Mindful Torah...and more

 This weeks parashah/portion is Lekh-Lekha. These are the words by which God commands Avram (he will later become Avraham) to go to the land which God will show him. And so Avram and Sarai (latter Sarah) begin the journey that will eventually lead to creation of the Israelites and then the Jewish people. The Torah provides no reason as to why God chose this particular man to go on the journey. However, later the rabbis filled in the gap with a plethora of midrash as to why Avram was chosen. Basically, what they all come down to is that Avraham knew that idols were false and that there had to be some greater power that created and "ran" the universe. In one of the most famous midrashim we read that Avram's father Terakh sold idols for a living. One day, when Terakh went out and left Avram alone in the shop, Avram smashed every idol except the largest one. When Terakh returned he asked Avram what had happened. Avram told him that the big idol smashed all the others. Terakh ...

Today’s Torah portion is Noah (Genesis/Bereshit 6:9 - 11:32). Though it begins with the story of Noah, the ark, and the flood, it also contains within it the story of the Tower of Babel.  In the middle of the Noah narrative, after the flood has subsided and Noah, his family, and the animals begin to repopulate the earth, one of the first things Noah does is to plant a vineyard. He then makes wine (we won’t discuss the time lapse) and passes out drunk. While lying naked in his tent when one of his sons, Ham, enters the tent and sees him. He runs out to tell his brothers Shem and Yaphet what he has seen. They then go into the tent and cover up their father.  When Noah awakens and hears what Ham has done, he curses him saying, “ Cursed be Canaan, son of Ham, a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.  Blessed be God, the God of Shem and may God extend Yaphet to live in Shem’s tents.  And to them both, Canaan shall be a slave.” This short passage was one of the roots...

  This week’s Parashah /portion is Bereshit . It takes its name from the first book of the Torah, Bereshit /Genesis, because it is the first parashah in that book. And so, of course, it begins with some of the most familiar words in our tradition B’reshit barah elohim ...In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The rest, shall we say, is history. Or at least religious mythology. As most of us have been taught through the years, God created Adam, the first man, on the sixth day. This was followed by the creation of the first woman Havah /Eve who was taken from Adam's rib. We all know the story. And yet, we don’t. In the first Chapter of Genesis we read that on day six “ God created Adam /the human in God’s own image, in the image of God was [Adam] created; male and female God created them.”  In other words, a singular human being, Adam, was created, but that Adam was male and female. It isn’t until Genesis Chapter 2 where we read that, after God has created all t...