And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. Breysheet / Genesis 1:26 This is one of the more enigmatic passages in the incredibly terse presentation of the story of Creation prompting many commentators to ask why God speak in the first-person plural. The Torah, and thus Judaism’s, absolute rejection of Continue Reading »
This morning, as Jodi came into our Family Room where I was watching the news, I was able to tell her that the 20 still living Israelis who were being held by Hamas in Gaza were now home, reunited with their loved ones, and in special hospital facilities around the country designed help them recover Continue Reading »
After the ingathering from your threshing floor and your vat, you shall hold the Feast of Booths for seven days. You shall rejoice in your festival, with your son, and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow in your communities. You shall hold a festival for the Continue Reading »
May my discourse come down as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, Like showers on young growth, Like droplets on the grass. D’varim / Deuteronomy 32:2 Sifre D’varim (1) is inspired by Moshe’s imagery in his teaching especially the four different terms representing precipitation. The Torah is comparable to rain. Just Continue Reading »
…when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose, you shall read this Teaching aloud in the presence of all Israel.12 Gather the people — men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities — that they may hear and so learn to revere the Lord your Continue Reading »
Instead of counting pages, choose one prayer, or even one line from a prayer, and reflect upon it. Break it down, parse its meaning, wrestle with its message. Check the comments on the sides of the page to see if they help explain or unpack the prayer. Don’t worry if you are no longer on Continue Reading »
You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God: your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, all the rest of Israel’s citizens, your children, your wives, even the stranger in the camp, from wood chopper to waterdrawer… those are standing here with us this day before the Eternal our God and Continue Reading »
But if you do not obey the Lord your God to observe faithfully all His commandments and laws which I enjoin upon you this day, all these curses shall come upon you and take effect. D’varim / Deuteronomy 28:15 Our teacher, Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Continue Reading »
If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it; you must raise it together. (The Hebrew uses the verb “raise” twice in its formulation but is rendered more idiomatically in the JPS English translation.) D’varim / Deuteronomy 22:4 With him, with the donkey’s owner. However, should the Continue Reading »
So, Which Is It? 4 There shall be no needy among you — since the Lord your God will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a hereditary portion… 7 If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kinsmen in any of your settlements in the Continue Reading »
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