By Jayce Koester Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22) It is the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year in the desert. We have stopped on the edge of the river, and on the other side is the land G!d has promised us. Instead of shouldering our packs and making bittersweet goodbyes between those who will stay and those who will go, we stop. We gather around Moshe and he begins to tell us a story. It’s familiar in many... Read more
By Naomi Gurt Lind, 70 Faces Blog Editor Parashat Mattot-Masei (Numbers 30:2-36:13) With our double portion this week, Mattot-Masei, we find ourselves at the end of Sefer Bamidbar, the Book of Numbers. For all intents and purposes, it is also the narrative end of the Torah. Sefer Dvarim, the Book of Deuteronomy, is mainly a retelling of the previous four books, punctuated by Moses’s long goodbye. Here, as we conclude Parashat Mattot-Masei, the Israelites are poised to enter the land of Israel. This is the... Read more
Parashat Pinchas (Numbers 25:10-30:1) By Rev. Tom Reid In a world where random violence seems increasingly routine, and in the wake of a horrific and inexplicable triple homicide that has shaken Newton, Massachusetts (the community where I work and serve as a Protestant Christian pastor), Parashat Pinchas landed heavily on me. I could not shift my attention away from the disturbing passage that opens the parashah. The text continues the story of Pinchas and the apparent reward he receives from God for taking... Read more
Parashat Chukat-Balak (Numbers 19:1-25:9) Rabbi Shani Rosenbaum The sequence of parashiyot that follows us through early summer—Korach, Chukat, Balak—is saturated in disappointment and its aftermath. One by one, we watch our heroes succumb to a plot thread so common it feels like TV: character experiences significant loss; then, in predictable yet always cringe-inducing fashion, said character proceeds to lose it about something totally trivial at an unsuspecting innocent. See the rebels in our previous parashah, Korach. Their complaint to Moses... Read more
By Rabbi Or Rose Earlier this week, approximately 150 people—from over 20 countries—gathered in Boston for the annual conference of the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ). The meeting was hosted by Boston College and my institution, Hebrew College. The conference theme was “Negotiating Multiple Identities: Implications for Interreligious Relations,” and our meeting coincided with the national holiday of Juneteenth. One highlight of the ICCJ conference for me was our visit to the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground of Boston University (BU). There, we... Read more
By Rabbi David Maayan Parashat Shelach L’cha (Numbers 13:1-15:41) “Who lit the wonder before our eyes and the wonder of our eyes?” With these words, R. Abraham Joshua Heschel evokes the profound sense of wonder at the world that we see as well as the wonder of the experience of our seeing itself. This week’s parashah opens with the story of the twelve spies whom Moses sends to scout out the Land of Israel. What Jewish tradition refers to as “the sin of... Read more
By Rav Hazzan Ken Richmond Parashat Beha’alotecha (Numbers 8:1-12:16) I participate in morning minyan at my synagogue almost every day. The experience and routine is meaningful but generally unremarkable. But two moments stood out to me last week, which are related to the journeys—the comings and the goings—in this week’s Torah portion. The first moment took place during a Torah service. Each time we read Torah, we bracket the Torah reading with the two verses from our portion, Beha’alotecha that are themselves bracketed by mysterious... Read more
By Heather Renetzky Parashat Naso (Numbers 4:21-7:89) The first time I ever read Parashat Naso was in preparation for my Bat Mitzvah. As a curious 12-year-old, there was a lot in this Torah portion that could have caught my eye: The instructions for how we can repair wrongdoings (Numbers 5:6-9), the baffling Sota ritual (I remember looking up what “adultery” meant), the very specific commitments of the Nazarite. But the thing I got stuck on was not any of the flashier parts... Read more
By Rabbi Avi Strausberg `15 A Drasha for Shavuot As a rabbi and someone who genuinely loves learning Jewish text, I am fortunate to learn a lot of Torah. Over the last 15 years, my learning has taken me from the midrash of Israeli feminists to the hasidic writings of Kedushat Levi, from the stories of our ancient rabbis in the pages of Gemara to modern poetry on God and revelation. And, yet I wonder: To what extent has my learning made an... Read more
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What If?
Parashat Vaetchanan (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) I have a tendency to think of all the worst case scenarios that might come up in any given situation. Going beyond protectiveness and anxiety, my precautions tend to veer onto the side of severe. Once a troubling thought grips me, I find it difficult to be rid of its grasp—even for a moment. Once, while listening to me express my fears over a given situation, a friend responded with the simple words: “But what if everything... Read more