Parashat Pinchas is another one of those Torah portions that’s hard for many contemporary liberal Jews to read comfortably.
The story begins at the tail-end of last week’s portion, when the eponymous Pinchas spears an Israelite man and a Midianite woman — called, in later texts, Zimri and Cosbi — who are consorting at [...]
After the excesses and revelry of June’s gay pride parades, I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of rituals, how they can transform us (or not), and how they help to remind us who we are.
On the day of Denver’s gay pride parade I hosted a “dyke brunch.” Bagels and lox with my lesbionic [...]
Like many people, Moses doesn’t get the reward he’s been working toward his whole life.
Venerated through the generations as God’s faithful servant, Moses discovers in Parshat Chukat Balak that, because of his own actions, he will die before the Israelites enter the land of Israel.
The scene leading up to God’s announcement of this punishment is [...]
“Now Balaam, seeing that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, did not, as on previous occasions, go in search of omens, but turned his face toward the wilderness.”
Earlier in the parsha (parashat Balak), we learned that Balak was agitated to see the Israelites — victors in war against the Bashanites — encamped beside [...]