The past two articles I wrote for Radical Torah, here & here, explained the small Alef at the end of the word Va-Yiqra (He called), & the diminutive Mem at the beginning of the word moqdah (firewood).
These two parshiyot work together to provide us all with a glimpse of Olam Ha-Ba (The [...]
SocialAction.com has a great collection of Passover readings on social justice issues. Check it out here.
Reb Arthur, at the Shalom Center, has a large collection of writings on Passover: You can view them all here.
Also, on Jewschool, Radical Torah’s contributing editor Sarah “Shamir” Chandler has compiled a list of online Passover [...]
The Haggadah is about telling a story that can transform us. It’s a seder because we order the different meanings of each symbol by arranging them from slavery to freedom, or as the Talmud says, “from g’nut/degredation to shevach/praise”. Most of the time there are four meanings, going from slavery, to leaving Egypt, to [...]
For gay and lesbian Jews and their allies, parshat Acharei Mot contains some of the most infamous passages of the Torah, but the preceding two, Tazria and Metzora — usually read together as a “double portion” — contain some of the most obscure. In these portions, we learn about the laws of leprosy (actually [...]
Shavu’ah tov! I’d intended to post this before Shabbes, but as I only just got back from here, yesterday, well…
Parshat Tzav Sefer Va-Yiqra/Leviticus 6:2 reads:
Tzav et-Aharon v’et-banav leymod zot Torah ha’olah hi ha’olah al moqdah al-hamizbey’ach kal-halailah ad-haboqer v’eysh hamizbey’ach tuqad bo:
“Command Aharon & his sons, saying: This is the instruction for the offering-up [...]
Like many Jews my age, I was raised on the stories of my great-grandparents’ immigration struggles—my great-grandfather waking at dawn to study Talmud before spending the day working as a peddler; my grandfather and his two brothers doing homework together in the room they shared in their family’s tiny apartment in Dorchester, Massachusetts; and the [...]
ñîë: the root means “lean, lay, rest, support.” It’s a laying-on of hands. We use it today for the ordination of rabbis, but in this week’s Torah portion we see the word’s older usage, in the description of how Aaron and his sons became the first Israelite priests.
It’s an intense ceremony. It requires Moses, [...]
This year, Earth Day falls on a Saturday, April 22, providing a perfect opportunity to turn the day into an “environmental Shabbat.”
Shabbat is a reminder of creation, as the Bible writes after six days of creation: “The heaven and earth were finished, and all their hosts. And on the seventh day, God finished all the [...]
Jewish Funds for Justice’s Simon Greer writes,
The holiday of Passover celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, but the Haggadah doesn’t mention Nachshon ben Aminadav. Who was this man?
According to the biblical account of the exodus, the people have no sooner left Egypt than they encounter a seemingly insurmountable obstacle — [...]
Heeb N’ Vegan’s Michael Croland provides numerous tips and resources for vegans celebrating the Passover holiday.
Several years ago I became dissatisfied with the haggadah my family had always used for Pesach. I wanted something that moved freely between traditional texts and contemporary poetry, written and assembled with a progressive spirit but usable by Jews (and non-Jews) across the political spectrum. I wanted something that would draw seder participants in, [...]