Living Practice: Not 鈥淗ow鈥� but 鈥淲hy鈥�
Jan 9, 2014 By Ute Steyer | Commentary | Beshallah
鈥淣ow when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer; for God said, 鈥楾he people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.鈥欌�� (Exod. 13:17)
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Pesah: A Liberating Experience for Women
Mar 4, 2013 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Pesah
There is no festival more home- and family-oriented than Pesah. Sukkot may run a close second, but the seder places Pesah way ahead. Although celebrating at home with a lavish family meal should make this holiday a pleasure to anticipate, for many women this is not so. The painstaking conversion of the kitchen from leaven-filled to leaven-free status has turned the Festival of Freedom into an intense period of domestic labor rather than a celebration of personal and national liberation. That was not the intention of the halakhah.
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God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
Feb 12, 2013 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Purim
How is it possible to tell a story of redemption without even once mentioning the name of God?
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The Challenge of Nadab and Abihu
Apr 21, 2012 By Deborah Miller | Commentary | Shemini
The idea of distinctions persists throughout the Torah and in Jewish life. The word lehavdil (to separate/distinguish) occurs in the first act of Creation鈥斺�淕od separated/distinguished between light and darkness.鈥� The theme continues into this week鈥檚 parashah, Shemini.
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The Torah’s Prescription for Healing
Apr 9, 2013 By Alan Cooper | Commentary | Metzora | Tazria
At a glance, the opening chapters of Parashat Metzora seem like a biblical antecedent of WebMD. Leviticus 13 describes the disfiguring symptoms of 爪专注转/tzara`at, starting with 鈥渁 swelling, a rash, or a discoloration鈥� that 鈥渄evelops into a scaly affection鈥� (Lev. 13:1).
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Getting Out of Your Own Way
Apr 16, 2013 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Kedoshim
鈥淵ou shall not . . . place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God. I am the Lord.鈥� Taken literally, this is a verse about respecting the disabled. Taken figuratively鈥攁s the Rabbis give us ample precedent and license to do鈥攊t is about all of us.
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Yom Yerushalayim鈥擨nhabiting the Land
May 1, 2013 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai | Yom Yerushalayim
Our double Torah portion opens with God鈥檚 command to Moses to tell the Israelites, 鈥淲hen you come to the land that I am giving you, and you inhabit the land.鈥� No sooner did I read this verse as I prepared to write these words of Torah, than my own counting of the days flashed back 46 years to my first time ever in Israel, when I was a teenager on Camp Ramah Israel Seminar.
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How Do You Measure a Year?
May 8, 2013 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Bemidbar | Shavuot
We are doing an awful lot of counting this week: we count the final days of the Omer, and, as our parashah begins, take the census of the Israelite community. What does all of this counting have to do with the ways in which we measure what really matters?
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