Mindful Torah...and more

 I first wrote and posted this poetic commentary on Psalm 27 a few years ago.  Each time I return to it I make some changes, as my experience of the psalm, and of life, has changed.  I wanted to share this psalm once again with all those who are preparing their hearts and souls for the Yamim Noraim, or Days of Awe, which begin tomorrow night with Rosh Hashanah and end 10 days later at the close of Yom Kippur. Below is the poem and introduction as I posted it two years ago as, to be honest, I am still caught up in finishing my sermons for this year, which I will also post online.  I hope you find these words meaningful and I wish you a happy, sweet, blessed and fulfilling New Year of 5755. L'shanah tovah tikateivu - may you be inscribed for a good new year, SPN ----------------------------------------- From the beginning of the month of Elul , the last month of the Jewish year, through all of the fall holiday season, it is customary to read Psalm 2...

This  week's parashah, Hukkat  (Bemidbar/Numbers 19:122:1),  begins with the description of the ritual slaughter of the red heifer by Eleazar the priest. The ashes of the heifer are then to be mixed together with water, hyssop, crimson thread and other ingredients in order to make a solution that will be used to purify those who have becometamei/ritually impure (for lack of a better translation) through contact with a corpse. Following the description of the ritual slaughter of the red heifer, we read of the death of Miriam the prophet, sister of Moses and Aaron. Immediately following her death the people cry out to Moses that they have no water to drink This passage is most likely the origin of the ancient rabbinic legend of Miriam’s Well, that sustained the people through their years in the desert and dried up following Miriam’s death. As the people cry out to the bereaved Moses and Aaron for water, God instructs them to speak to a rock...

The parashah /portion this Shabbat is Naso ( Be'midbar / Numbers 4:21 - 7:89 ). The parashah includes one of the most difficult and painful passages in the Torah, the ordeal of the Sotah , or suspected adulteress. According to the Torah if a man suspects his wife of adultery (not the other way around, since man could have many wives and have sexual relations with other women as long as they weren't betrothed or married to another man) he would bring her before the priest and there would be a ritual in which she would be made to drink the "bitter waters". This was a concoction consisting of water, dirt from the sanctuary floor and ink from a piece of parchment on which had been written the words of the curses that would befall the woman were she to be found guilty and which had just been read aloud to the woman and all those present. The parchment was then dipped in the solution. If the woman drank the bitter waters and nothing happened she would be declared innocen...

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 ...