Vayeira

Avraham promises his guests a morsel, but gives them a feast. Why? My brother Isaiah points out that he sees G-d in the men. He recognizes the divine in others. While I think this is true, I think the point here is a little different. Avraham promises them a morsel, but never says they should… Continue reading Vayeira

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Lech Lecha

Lech Lecha starts like an old-fashioned long distance marriage. The bride leaves her land, the land of her birth and her father’s house and goes to a distance place she’ll be shown. The proposal is a good marriage in return. Avram accepts this marriage  just as Rivkah does later. He doesn’t know everything about the ‘groom.’… Continue reading Lech Lecha

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Noach

Hashem’s policy of ‘encouraging through forgiveness’ ends in Parshat Bereshit. We have now entered another stage – ‘encouragement through threat.’ The story of the flood is the baseline of this threat – like a paddle hanging on the wall of an old-fashioned school house. Recording the measurements and capturing the dates of this event serve… Continue reading Noach

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Bereshit

There is a critical line: “And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made.  “And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made.”… Continue reading Bereshit

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V’zot Ha’beracha

Rabbi Twerski of Portland Oregon asked me how it could say Torah tziva lanu Moshe, morasha kehilat Yaacov “Moses commanded us a Torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob” if Moshe is speaking. If we go back to the beginning of the Parsha, Moshe is called “the man of G-d” for the first and only… Continue reading V’zot Ha’beracha

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Shabbat Chol Hamoed (Pesach and Sukkot)

As mentioned in the parsha writeup, there is a phrase repeated three times in this short reading in various variations – matzati chain be-einecha, I find favor in your eyes. It is a common turn of phrase – but never this common. Christians might translate it as ‘grace’. It is not exclusive to G-d. Jacob says it to Esav. It first… Continue reading Shabbat Chol Hamoed (Pesach and Sukkot)

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Yom Kippur

The Holy of Holies is referenced as being within the Parochet/curtains or the House of Parochet/Curtains. The woven curtains cross between the outside world and the holiness of the Mishkan and the Holy places and the Holy of Holies. The inner curtains are a point of crossover between the timeless and the point of conversion… Continue reading Yom Kippur

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