The story of the Tower of Babel is one of the most famous and in my opinion misinterpreted stories in the bible. Genesis 11:1-9 וַֽיְהִ֥י כָל־הָאָ֖רֶץ שָׂפָ֣ה אֶחָ֑ת וּדְבָרִ֖ים אֲחָדִֽים׃ Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and
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We are starting again a cycle of Torah reading. Jewish tradition teaches us That Elohim- God created “iesh mi’ayin, which means that the beginning of existence came out of nothing. Again, we are reading the Book of Genesis, but can we really do that like we came out of nothing? When we start to read Torah we are not a
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ELE PEKUDEI HAMISHKAN – “These are the numbers of the Mishkan”, they are the words that begin our Torah portion. We are concluding the fifth of 5 Torah portions that are focused on the construction of the Tabernacle. We continue reading on Exodus 38:21 : “These are the numbers of the Mishkan that are counted by Moses’ command.
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In the context of last week’s voices coming from Israel: Minister of religious affairs David Azoulay said: Reform aren’t Jews! and MK Moshe Gafni added: Reforms are Jews but they are stabbing Torah on its back! This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Pinckhas, has a very special meaning. The lack of “filters” when we read Torah or interpret god’s will
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In Parashat Balak we are granted with the blessing “Ma Tovu”, which later will be adopted as the first sentence that we say every time we walk into a Jewish sanctuary. 2Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel dwelling according to its tribes, and the spirit of God rested upon him. 3He took up his parable and said, “The word of
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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
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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
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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
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Torah has this great quality of being something you can read over and over again, yet every year you find how your reading changes as your own life-story develops…. This week I was reading Parashat Yitro and all of a sudden it came to my awareness that Moshe’s family is being brought to him (Exodus 18:2-5). And for the first time
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Overworked? Got no time for friends or family? Take a tip from Yitro. In this week’s G-dcast, Leah Jones shares with us some wisdom from Moses’s non-Jewish father-in-law who pretty much changes the course of Jewish history.
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Po Ve Sham 