Mindful Torah...and more

Dear Online Hevre/community,   This following is the text of a sermon which I delivered on the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5775, though I have tried to expand and clarify some of the ideas in the original version.  In some ways this is a work in progress, because it has been in the process of being written as I have lived my life for almost the last 30 years.  I welcome any comments or uestions you might have, so please don't hesitate to contact me with your comments. I wish you a good New Year and a joyous festival of Sukkot, if you celebrate that particular holiday. SPN -------------------------------------------------------------------------  Rabbinic tradition teaches that Rosh Hashanah celebrates the creation of the first human being. Throughout Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur I want to explore what it means to be a human being created in God's image and how it relates to creating a better world as “partners with God.” I especially want to focus on the imp...

This week's parashah /portion is Korach ( Bemidbar / Numbers 16:1-18:32).It begins with the rebellion against the leadership of Moses led by Korach, Dathan, and Aviram. These three tribal leaders question the authority of Moses and end up being swallowed by the earth. The parashah then ends with a reminder that the first born of every human being and animal is meant to be dedicated to God. However, the first born [male] of each human being is instead to be redeemed by the priests and replaced by the Levites, who are to serve in the Mishkan /Tabernacle and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. Furthermore, the first born of impure (unfit) animals are also to be redeemed, but the first born of cattle, sheep and goats are not to be redeemed, for they are to be dedicated to God through ritual sacrifice. Surprisingly, there is a connection between these two parts of the parashah. This common thread is the concept of "opening." In the rebellion narrative the earth 'opens up...

This week's parashah /portion is Ki Tavo ( Devarim / Deuteronomy 26:1 -29:8). The opening lines describe the ritual that the people are meant to enact when they enter the Promised Land and bring their first fruits of their harvest as an offering of thanks to God. When the people bring the basket of first fruits to the priest we read: "And the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of YHWH, your God. And you shall answer and say in front of YHWH, your God:   My father was a wandering Aramean, so he went down to Egypt and resided there with few persons and became a large, powerful and numerous nation there. And the Egyptians oppressed us and degraded us and imposed hard work on us. And we cried out to YHWH ... And YHWH brought us out from Egypt ... to this place and gave us this land ... and now, here, I've brought the first of the fruit of the land that you've given me, YHWH." (26:4 - 10) . The phrase used to begin...