During the last ten years I met many many friends and colleagues struggling with this, emotionally flooded. Beautiful, brilliant and talented people becoming closed, passing hard times. And most of them not asking for help and therefore not receiving what is required in order to continue, to get over it. One of the things which worry me the most is the
Read more
The capability to look with love and empathy and to grant the gift of a good word, a hug, a thought, your presence. Parashat Naso is the longest Parasha in the Torah, 176 verses! It continues to list details regarding enrollment in what later will become the Israeli army (not that of the nowadays state). To this end it deals with
Read more
Nuestra, tu capacidad de observar con amor y empatía y regalar una linda palabra, un abrazo, un pensamiento, tu presencencía! Parashat Naso es la más larga de toda las tora, 176 versículos! Relata y continua el enrolamiento a lo que luego será el ejército de Israel (no del estado ), como así contiene una gran variedad de leyes y
Read more
Army. This is the first word in my reading of Parashat Bamidbar, and it’s the most remarkable word. It is of course not a new word in the Torah, but it is a new concept. The Israelites are turning into a nation, and as such we need an army! Following God’s announcement to Moses about enrolling the people of Israel in
Read more
Parashat Kedoshim: Res non verba! (Deeds not words) Often the role of the interpreter of the words of the Torah is to bridge the gap between the text and the reader. In other cases our role is much closer to delivering the message “as is”. Parashat Kedoshim (Lev. 19-20) is one of the latter, conveying a clear message and
Read more
Yeshayahu Leibowitz explains that the reason to couple the Torah portions of Tazri’a and Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33) in the Jewish communal reading of the Torah is that they both deal with biology of Man, with the biological filth of human existence. A central element in both portions is impurity. A woman who gave birth is considered impure for a period of
Read more
Parashat Tzav relates a detailed description of the different kinds of offers and some of the specific ceremonial aspects related to the beginning of the “work” of the priests (Kohanim). Now that we are already in the second Torah portion of Leviticus we understand that it wasn’t a misunderstanding – the book continues to deal with the subject of “offers
Read more
And God observed the people of Israel and He read their hearts. He understood that they didn’t know how to communicate with Him. So he called them and said: – We have to start to develop a relationship, affinity, better flowing communication. The people of Israel looked at Him surprised; they never expected such words from Him. Then He
Read more
(this portion belongs to last week’s reading, my apologies for the late publishing) During the last parashot the Torah has been talking about the Mishkan (Tabernacle) building. Materials, sizes, locations and specifications were mentioned. I even compared these instructions with an Ikea manual, considering the substantial difference – Ikea doesn’t instruct with which mindset you’re supposed to assemble your stuff and when
Read more
(This portion belongs to last week’s reading, my apologies for the late publishing) Making non-physical or non-material connections challenges intrinsically our condition as simple human beings , but meaning in life can be found only by assuming the imperative necessity of being reflective beings. The missassumption of this challenge means sentencing our souls to be separated from our existence. In the last Torah
Read more
Po Ve Sham 