D’vrei Torah

    There are many lessons in this week’s portion. We are reminded again that, you do not mess with the God of the Torah. The punishment is often death. Korach, and his followers find that [Read more…]

The major thrust of this week’s portion is the famous story of Moses sending spies into Canaan, that land promised by God, a land “flowing with milk and honey”. They all report that the land [Read more…]

Numbers 11 is a very interesting chapter. The Israelites begin to grumble against Moses, setting in motion a glimpse into Moses’s own personality, the private man (see 11: 10ff). As the Israelites grumble and complain [Read more…]

This week’s Torah portion, Naso, presents us with a variety of themes. There is the strange ritual of the sotah (chapter 5) on the one hand; and in Numbers 6, the description of what has [Read more…]

God speaks to the Israelites in the wilderness. Thus begins the Book of Numbers, a book that details much of the Wilderness experience. The portion counts people, days and generations. No doubt, those of you [Read more…]

This is not an easy portion. This is not an easy week to discuss it. It seems that the curses promised in the portion are all too true. When the text promises misery to us [Read more…]

This week’s portion, Behar, contains a wealth of challenges. We meet again the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. (25) and a series of injunctions that relate to the land, its use and issues related to redeeming a “brother” [Read more…]

In this week’s portion, we read that no one “that has a defect ” (moom) is allowed to perform a variety of rituals. We read this in the context of laws and commands that deal [Read more…]

You shall be holy because I, your God, am holy” (Lev.19:1)With this statement, one of the most famous and powerful Torah portions begins. The 19thchapter of Leviticus , the so-called “Holiness Code—provides us with a [Read more…]