Mindful Torah...and more

This week's  parashah /portion is the double portion called Matot-Maasei , which brings to a close the book of Bemidbar /Numbers. I will focus on the text of  Matot , in the beginning of the  parashah  we read that if a man makes a vow it is binding on him. However, if a woman makes a vow while still living in her father's house and her father becomes aware of the vow and agrees to its terms, then the vow remains in effect. However, if he does not approve of the vow, then he may render it null and void. The same applies if the woman is married and her husband discovers the vow. If her father or husband do annul her vow, the woman is not to be held as guilty for not fulfilling the vow she has made. However, if her husband agrees to the vow upon discovering it and later changes his mind and annuls the vow, then there is guilt, but it is to be upon the husband's head. Viewing this text through 21st century eyes, it is yet another example of how women had little ...

The last blog post I wrote focused on the (then) new war in Gaza to the prophetic reading ( Haftarah ) from the opening chapters of the book of Jeremiah. Since then, the fighting intensified, as did the death and destruction. Sitting helplessly here in the USA, I truly felt for the first time like I was in galut /exile. But it was not so much that I was in exile from my homeland, but from my people. And I am speaking not only of the Jewish people, but of so many friends and family members about whom I care, but whose words and rhetoric disturbed or even angered me. What made this exile even stranger was the fact that it was not based on a particular ideology. It was not simply that I felt exiled from those on the “right”or the “left” because I disagreed with them. Rather, I felt exiled from everyone, because I did not know exactly how I felt or what I believed. I could see, and at times agree with, perspectives from all sides, except for the most extreme expressions of...

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...