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 »
12 And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers: 13 He will favor you and bless you… D’varim / Deuteronomy 7:12-13 The author of the Torah commentary Orach Chayim understands the opening word of our parasha, v’haya, Continue Reading »
All you need is love All you need is love All you need is love, love Love is all you need All you need is love (all together now!) All you need is love (everybody!) All you need is love, love Love is all you need The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour Hear, O Israel! Continue Reading »
The third haftarah of admonition, the opening chapter of Isaiah, is the prophet’s chilling depiction of a “faithful city” (kiryah ne’emanah) that has become distorted and debased, a once noble society that has sunk to the level of Sodom and Gomorrah. What sins does Isaiah associate with such faithlessness? Isaiah notes ironically that there is Continue Reading »
If a man vows a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Bemidbar / Numbers 30:3 Our teacher, the S’fat Emet,1 begins his reflection on this Continue Reading »
Parshat Pinchas concludes with a detailed list of the holy days and their required animal offerings. For each of the holy days the Torah prescribes an extensive array of bulls, rams, lambs, and goats, but for Shabbat, it stipulates only two additional lambs over and above the daily morning and evening sacrifices. The rabbis saw Continue Reading »
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