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 ...

  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...

 The story of Akeidat Yitzhak, or the Binding of Isaac, is one of the most suspenseful, and probably problematic, narratives in the Torah. For a father to be asked to sacrifice his son in order to prove his faith in God seems to be an almost sadistic test. Yet, I have always wondered who was really being tested. Was it merely Yitzhak or was it also his father Abraham. What about Sarah, who is not even mentioned in the narrative? And perhaps God was testing God's self. This poem imagines what what have been going through the minds of all four "characters" in the story at that time and ends with my own thoughts and response to the events in the narrative.  As you read it, think about your own reactions and how you might see yourself in the story. L'shanah tovah u'metukah - a happy, sweet (and meaningful!) New Year, Rabbi Steve ----------------------------------------------------- The binding a poem in 5 parts I. bound faith Yitzhak my name Yitzhak a verb    ...