Mindful Torah...and more

     Covid-time related confusion took hold of me yesterday.       I posted my commentary on Parshat Bo, which I forgot to post last week, and did not post my commentary on this week's Torah portion. So here it is....a day late. Shabbat Shalom! ----------------------------------------------- This week's parashah is Beshallakh ( Exodus/Shemot 13:17-17:16 )  week's parashah is Beshalach. Pharaoh has not just allowed the Israelites to leave, but he almost forced them out of the land after the tenth plague, the death of the first born. Now they are standing on at the shore of the sea of Reeds waiting to see what comes next. Once again, Pharaoh has had a change of heart. Suddenly they see that him and all of Egypt's chariots bearing down upon them at the shore of the Sea of Reeds. The people are crying out to Moses in fear. His basic response is to tell them to watch as God performs a miracle for them. God then replies to Moses “Why are you crying out...

This week's parashah is Hayyei Sarah ( Bereshit /Genesis 23:1-25:18). Though the name of the parashah means "life of Sarah," it actually begins by telling of her death at the age of 127. Our matriarchs,and other women in the Torah, often get forgotten as compared to their husbands and other men. For though many portions are named after a man, this is the only one named after a woman. And if only one woman were to have a parashah named after her, it is quite fitting that it be Sarah. Not only because she was one of the two first monotheists (and proto-Jews), but because looking at the character of Sarah as portrayed both in the Torah and the midrash (rabbinic exegetical tales) it is easy to se that she surely deserves recognition. Within the Torah, Sarah is a character who is strong, yet flexible. When she thinks that her son Isaac is being threatened by his brother Ishmael (even though this may not have been the case) she immediately protects him by insisting tha...

Last week we began the annual torah-reading cycle over once again with the reading of Parshat Bereshit – the first chapters of the book of Bereshit /Genesis. This week we continue the narrative with Parshat Noach (Noah) , which includes not only the story of Noah and the flood, but also the Tower of Babel. As many of you are aware that there are certain portions in the Torah that are combined when it is not a leap year in the Jewish calendar and separated in leap years (when an entire extra month is added). Though Bereshit and Noach are not two such portions, I decided to treat them as if they were and see what might happen. The first thing that struck me was the name of this new double portion – Bereshit Noach . This could be translated as "In the beginning. … rest." This new name fascinated me for many reasons. For in the beginning of the Creation narrative there was chaos and formlessness. This is followed by an almost frenetic six days of creative activity on Go...

The name of this week's parashah /portion, and the fourth book of the Torah, is Be'midbar which means "in the wilderness"  (Be’midbar /Numbers 1:1 - 4:20). A rabbinic commentary points out that if we change one vowel in the name of the parashah ,  the word במדבר   be’midbar , in the wilderness, becomes be'midabeיr , or with one who is speaking. I found this ironic, since the wilderness is usually associated with silence and solitude. However, we can imagine that the wilderness of Sinai and its surroundings must have been anything but silent, with the multitudes of Israelites and others wandering through it for 40 years. However, we all know that even in the midst of a cacophony one can experience silence, just as one can experience deafening noise while walking in solitude.  What determines the silence or the solitude is not one’s physical surroundings, but one’s inner state. This poem uses the two different readings of the letters ...

This week we conclude the reading of the book of Leviticus/ Va'yikra with the reading of the double parashah/portion Behar-Behukotai (Vayikra/Leviticus 25:1 - 27:34).  I would like to focus primarily on a concept found in the first part, Parshat Behar .  For in Behar , God gives Moses the instructions concerning the Sabbatical/ Shabbaton and the Jubilee/ Yovel .  Moses is told that, once they are settled in the land of Canaan, every seventh year the land must "rest" completely. One is not allowed to plant, sow or reap at all.  No real harvest may take place.   The people may gather whatever grows from plants seeding themselves the previous year, but that is all. They are not to sow or reap anything. Just as the people need a rest every seven days, so too the land needs a Shabbat in order to replenish itself. After the conclusion of seven cycles of seven years,  in the 50th year the Jubilee/Yovel is to be announced with the blast of a shofar....

 Note:  I apologize for not being consistent with my psalm commentaries, I will try to improve on this.  In the meantime, we are still looking at the traditional Psalm for Wednesday.  I hope you find this meaningful.  spn   לְהַשְׁקִ֣יט   לֹ֖ו   מִ֣ימֵי   רָ֑ע   עַ֤ד   יִכָּרֶ֖ה   לָרָשָׁ֣ע   שָֽׁחַת [verse 12 - Happy is the one who is chastened by God, and those whom You teach from Your Torah,...] ... may you grant them quiet from the days of adversity [or bad days] until a pit is dug for the wicked. I have included verse 12 in this translation because in English it really forms the first half of the verse.  In my blog commentary on verse 12 (Dec.21, 2011) I write about the connecting the concept of  chastisement with learning a life lesson. I also related it to how mindfulness practice can teach us as well. However,  I can't help but notice that, read as one long verse, it expresses the ...

This week we read the double portion/ parashah of Aharei Mot-Kedoshim ( Vayikra /Leviticus 16:1-20). These two portions contain numerous mitzvot / commandments, some of which make sense to us today, some which don't, and some which are totally antithetical to what we view as righteousness and justice. This includes the "holiness code" in chapter 19 which includes the commandment "you shall be holy, for I, the Eternal your God, am holy" as well as "you shall love your fellow human being as yourself."  This section is viewed by our tradition as the center of the Torah.  Indeed, it is actually located almost at the center of the scroll itself.                                               Though some of the prohibitions in the parashah...

This week we read the double parashah/portion of Tazria-Metzora (Vayikra/Leviticus 12:1-15:33). The parashah introduces the various categories of tumah (ritual or spiritual “impurity”, for lack of a better word) emanating from human beings. The parashah describes in great detail the varying and numerous manifestations of the disease called tzara'at.  Although it has been commonly mistranslated as leprosy, this disease has little resemblance to any bodily ailment transmitted through normal exposure. Rather, tzara'at appears to be some kind of growth that can occur on a house or on clothing (like mold or fungus) or on a person's body. Tradition views the disease as being the physical manifestation of a spiritual malaise, a punishment from God primarily for the sin of speaking lashon hara (evil speech). Known as a metzora, someone afflicted by a tzaraat-like patch on their skin is subject to a series of examinations by a Kohen (high priest), who declares the patient...