By Risa Dunbar In the summer of 2011, I spent six weeks in Israel on a program called Nesiya. Our group, composed of forty teens, half North American Jews and half Jewish Israelis, began with a three-day backpacking trek in the Negev. Two days after meeting, we were carrying 20-liter jerrycans and hoisting one another up desert craters. Yet what I recall most about those days wasn’t physical strain, but deep encounters of awe with a vast new landscape, strangers... Read more
Parshat BaMidbar Numbers 1:1-4:20 Parshat BaMidbar ends with detailed instructions of how to properly pack up the Mishkan, our wandering-desert-sanctuary, and its objects. The Kohathites, one of the three Levite clans, are tasked with transporting the Mishkan’s holiest items. We read: זֹ֛את עֲבֹדַ֥ת בְּנֵי־קְהָ֖ת בְּאֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֑ד קֹ֖דֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִֽׁים׃ וּבָ֨א אַהֲרֹ֤ן וּבָנָיו֙ בִּנְסֹ֣עַ הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה וְהוֹרִ֕דוּ אֵ֖ת פָּרֹ֣כֶת הַמָּסָ֑ךְ וְכִ֨סּוּ־בָ֔הּ אֵ֖ת אֲרֹ֥ן הָעֵדֻֽת׃ וְנָתְנ֣וּ עָלָ֗יו כְּסוּי֙ ע֣וֹר תַּ֔חַשׁ וּפָרְשׂ֧וּ בֶֽגֶד־כְּלִ֛יל תְּכֵ֖לֶת מִלְמָ֑עְלָה וְשָׂמ֖וּ בַּדָּֽיו׃ This is the responsibility of the Kohathites in... Read more
By Rabbi Avi Killip, Hebrew College Rabbinical School ’14 Parashat Emor Leviticus 21:1-24:23 The priest must be holy. Parshat Emor tells us how to achieve this, through a myriad of very specific (and sometimes unintuitive) rules and directions. One such rule can be found in Leviticus 21:10: “The priest who is exalted above his fellows, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the vestments, shall not bare his head or rend... Read more
By Rav Rachel Adelman ’21 Parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim Leviticus 16:1-18:30; Leviticus 19:1-20:27 These days I live in a double calendar. I am counting the 49 days of the Omer, seven times seven weeks, from the Exodus from Egypt to the moment of Revelation, when we received the Torah at Sinai. As I write, it is the 17th Day—two weeks and three days of the Omer. In my other calendar, I am counting every day from the 7th of October. Today... Read more
Parashat Tazria Leviticus 12:1-13:59 Chapter 13 of Leviticus lays out prescriptions for addressing tzara’at (often translated as “leprosy”) within the Israelite community. The priests are assigned responsibility for managing these outbreaks, suggesting an entirely different frame of understanding of human health. The scientific method of understanding biology and human physiology was several millennia away — concepts such as microorganisms, virality, and the immune system did not enter into their thinking. Instead, the chapter’s descriptions of diagnostic and treatment methods read... Read more
Parshat Shemini Lev. 9:1-11:47 Parshat Shemini concludes with God describing to Moshe many of the laws of kashrut (dietary laws), namely, lists of animals which are either permitted or forbidden to eat. Moshe also receives information about procedures for responding to cases in which the corpse of a deceased animal – that is, an animal which was not ritually slaughtered – comes into contact with people or objects, thereby transmitting ritual impurity. Note the difference in how different materials are... Read more
By Julia Spiegel, fourth year rabbinical student Parashat Tzav Leviticus 6:1-8:36 The right to free speech, the right to a fair trial, the right to protest, and freedom of expression. I have been thinking about rights and freedom because of the crackdowns on civil liberties happening around us, filling my newsfeed. Not new but intensified, shifting shape. Watching the footage of Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk be picked up by ICE in Somerville a few weeks ago makes me wonder... Read more
Parashat Vayikra Leviticus 1:1-5:26 “Vayikra”: “And God called” (Lev 1:1). This could have been a loud, dramatic word, announcing a series of divine decrees to open the book of Leviticus. But Parshat Vayikra begins with an unusual calligraphic detail: the final aleph of the first word, ויקרא (Vayikra), is smaller than all the other letters. This oddity of script catches the eye; it asks the reader to stop, linger, and draw closer to the text. The word “call out” contracts... Read more
By Jayce Koester, Hebrew College rabbinical student Parashat Pekudei Exodus 38:21-40:38 My spouse and I are currently preparing for a big move in a few short months. This will be our fourth move in four years, and the question “What makes a home?” has been a constant companion amidst the waves of excitement, stress, and trepidation. Building a new home, even with people you already love and are in a deep relationship with, is no small task. Unsurprisingly, the questions... Read more
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The World Is “Under-Blessed”: A Call to Spiritual Generosity
Parashat Nasso Deuteronomy 4:21-7:89 My late teacher, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, of blessed memory, often said, “The world is under-blessed.” In his gentle, playful way, he reminded us that while we are quick to name what is broken or lacking, we are much slower to offer words that sanctify, uplift, and affirm the good that persists—even in the midst of hardship. He believed the world aches not only from violence and injustice, but from spiritual poverty—a drought of blessing. To say... Read more