What could TikTok and Facebook users learn from a 600 year old man who built an ark? “These are the stories of Noah. Noah was a righteous and perfect man, for his generation” The Torah contextualizes a human being, who in the midst of a corruptive and chaotic reality is told by God to build an ark in order to
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When we look retrospectively at the book of Genesis, which we just finished reading a week ago, there are two key concepts that keep coming to my mind. The first one is ethical monotheism, which appears at first by the statement that man and woman were created in the image of God, and of course is deepened in the
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Ki Tetzeh (Deuteronomy 21:10–25:19) is the Torah portion with the highest amount of Mitzvot in the entire Torah: 74 Mitzvot. Maimonides explains that the function of the Mitzvot is to help us sharpen our humanity, or in other words, to bring more “human” to our beings. I want to start by exploring the first 3 Mitzvot in this Torah portion.
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“I see why you wear that shirt, you’re trying to hide your belly, but you can’t do that, it’s right there so you better do some diet”. I remember that I felt beyond embarrassed, totally naked. “It’s late in the evening; she’s wondering what clothes to wear She puts on her make-up and brushes her long blonde hair And
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This week we read Parashat Shoftim. This Torah portion introduces us to one of the bases of our social system: Judges – Shoftim – and Shotrim – the law enforcement. Immediately afterward, Torah introduces a very famous verse that brings justice to a different level: Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof – Justice, justice you shall pursue. Our Rabbis say that there must
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“This Torah portion begins with “Shelach lecha”. According to Rashi, God says – if you wish, send the envoys over to check. We often think that we need to see in order to believe. However this portion demonstrates that the truth is generally the opposite: we need to believe in order to see”. People know a lot about statistics, but statistics
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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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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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If you want to learn about the essence of the Jewish People you should consider reading Parashat Bo. Two characteristics in defining something can be: 1- Limits – What is inside and what is outside! 2- How do you connect it with “others”? In this Torah portion we learn about the mitzvah (the commandment) of Mezuzah, which
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Po Ve Sham 