Parshat Vaykrah: Why him and not me?
Parshat Vayikra Last week we finished reading the Book of Exodus. The last scene was: “And the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle [the portable sanctuary]” and “Moses was not allowed to go into the part of the Tabernacle known as the ‘Ohel Moed’, because the Holy Cloud dwelled within it”. […]
Parshot Vayakhel-Pekudei
Have you ever felt your heart rise up to your throat at the sight of a work of art? “ He has God in his throat” was my dad’s favorite phrase when he heard an opera singer or a particularly talented cantor. For me, it happens when I see Michael Baryshnikov dancing or […]
Parshat Ki Tisa
A surge of rage rose from his depths, went up with the intensity of a tsunami and completely overcame him. Like a blind man he threw from his hands the testimony written in the finger of God, the tablets of the covenant, and smashed them. Later, when he tried to recall what had […]
Parshat T’ruma: God is in love
I remember a story of O. Henry that I heard in my youth. A love story, about a young and poor couple. Approaching Valentine’s Day, or maybe it was their wedding day, they wanted so much to make each other happy. But they did not have the means to purchase expensive gifts. The […]
Parshat Mishpatim: a quilt of social stories
After the impressive audio-visual spectacle at the foot of Mount Sinai (the “wedding” between God and his people), and the receiving of the Ten Commandments (some say the “Ketubah”), after the people went through an ecstatic experience of seeing the voices, the time has come to “get down” to the ground floor of reality. […]
Parshat Yitro :The story of Zipporah
Exodus 18:2-5 The story of Zipporah Part A She couldn’t remember exactly when he spoke to her about separation. Maybe after the Nile turned into blood? But one day he turned to her and said: “Zipporah, it’s not going to work”. “While I love you,” he continued, “you are a beautiful, sexy and smart woman, […]
Parshat Beshalach: “To be …or not to be”
The sound of horses galloping grew louder. Were these his heartbeats? Or were they the hooves of Pharaoh’s chariot horses that pursued them? Cold sweat covered his body, and as he looked ahead and saw the Sea of Reeds as an open abyss before him — and he froze in place. His legs refused to […]
Parshat Bo
Parshat Bo The Torah Portion “Bo” tells us about the three last plagues out of the ten plagues of Egypt. Many commentators have already argued that the commandment “Come to Pharaoh” that opens the affair is puzzling because it does not meet the syntactic-linguistic logic of the Hebrew language. It assumes that Pharaoh is not […]
Miketz: revealing the secrets
On a continuum between memory and forgetfulness (I remember things that have happened to me in the distant past versus, I do not remember anything) — where would you put yourself? In this week’s Torah portion “Miketz” Yosef gives his two sons the names: Menashe (נ.ש.ה..) and Ephraim (פ.ר.ה.) By giving these names, which mean […]
Vayeshev: What kind of a mother sends her daughter to cross a wolf-infested forest ?
His father’s scolding shook him. It felt like a whip on bare flesh. “And his father rebuked him, and said unto him, what is this dream which thou hast dreamed?” He looked at him embarrassed, like a child breaking an expensive tool while playing. Why is he mad at me? A thought went through […]