You shall further instruct the Israelites to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly. Aaron and his sons shall set them up in the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain which is over [the Ark of] the Pact, [to burn] from evening to morning before the Lord. It [...]
This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Terumah, is one of those portions that can be the bane of every Bar or Bat Mizvah kid: a seemingly endless litany of picayune details regarding the construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). What on earth can we possibly learn from this parade of dolphin skins, acacia wood, crimson yarns, loops [...]
This week we publish from KOACH Kallah 2007 at the University of Pennsylvania. We’ll be talking to the young college Jews about our favorite biblical comic.
In this week’s parsha, Moses is alone with YHWH in Her private, mountaintop abode. Does our god reveal to her favorite human the meaning of life? Does she allow [...]
We’re entering a section of Torah which I used to find repetitive and kind of dull, and which I now look forward to ardently: the details of the construction of the mishkan, the portable Tabernacle in which the tablets of the covenant where carried, which the Israelites built (according to detailed instructions) as a home [...]
This week’s portion, Moses and 70 elders of Israel have lunch with their god, YHWH, and we see, once again, that Moses is G!d’s favorite Hebrew.
Meanwhile, in heaven, we peek in on a Torah study session featuring another newly minted angel.
“You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9)
The most oft-repeated commandment in Torah - it appears 36 times - is the injunction against mistreating the stranger. (It actually appears twice in this week’s portion, Parashat Mishpatim). The [...]
The other day I found myself reading a lovely internet article by Michael Medved entitled “Why the World Hates the Jews.” (No, I won’t provide the link for you here, but I’m sure you can find it if you’d like to read it yourself.) When I finished I ended up asking myself, is this really [...]
This week’s Torah portion, Yitro, invites us to join our ancestors in preparation, purification, and encounter. We’re invited to follow Moses toward the place where God will descend into creation — to follow Moses inward, into the Sinai of our hearts — and to cluster together as a community at the base of the mountain, [...]
Editor’s note: Welcome to Nati Passow of the Jewish Farm School and Teva Learning center.
Shalom and welcome to a Tu B’Shevat edition of Tikkun Tips, a monthly nugget of eco-Jewish thought from your friends at the Teva Learning Center. Today on nytimes.com the leading headline declared, “Climate Panel Issues Urgent Warning to Curb [...]
In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Beshallach, the newly liberated Israelites do battle with their arch-enemies, the Amalekites. After the Israelites emerge victorious, God tells Moses:
Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!” (Exodus 17:14)
At first glance [...]
“What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us be, and we will serve the Egyptians, for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness’?”—Exodus 14:11-12
“It is better to die on [...]
This week we’re in parashat Beshalach, in which the Israelites pass through the Sea of Reeds and begin their wandering in the wilderness. Late in the parsha, the people camp at Rephidim, where there is no water, and the people begin to grumble. Moses cries out to God, “What shall I do with this people? [...]