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Innovation vs. Imitation. Numbers 3

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Now these are the records of the generations of Aaron and Moses at the time when the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. These then are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he ordained to serve as priests. But Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD when they offered strange fire before the LORD in the wilderness of Sinai; and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests in the lifetime of their father Aaron. Numbers 3:1-4 I wasn't sure what to make of this “ strange ” story, when I was asked to read it in services. Half of the first-generation priests died in God’s presence because of offering a “strange fire”.    Now, I think I know what happened.  It's the difference between faking it and making it, even in the highest of callings. Tonight begins Shavuot , the anniversary of the giving of the law, one of the lasting innovations a...
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Ruth and Boaz, Odd Couple / God Couple

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  Boaz and Ruth, Rembrandt - 1643 Is the Book of Ruth about a romance or a marriage of convenience?      I think it's more of an arrangement that turns into a romance.  Maybe.  But that’s the wrong question. The right question is "why do they matter?" Their union is the two poles of the faith of Israel.  It blends Ruth’s personal relationship with God, and her personal choice to follow God, so well known here… where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.” Ruth 1:16-17 …complimented and completed in the Boaz’s adherence to the traditions, laws, and enduring principles of scripture.  Their marriage results in the start of the line of King David and Yeshua the Messiah. That is not a quirk of fate. The setting Like the story of the "Akeidah...
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The Wings of Eagles, Revisited

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  2/14/2004 Parashat “Yitro” Exod. 19:3-6 Isaiah 6:1-8 1Pet 2:9,10 In January of 2021 I was scheduled to read this very same parashah I am reading today:  Exodus 19:3-6. The Eagles were ending a miserable 4 -11-1 season, played in the isolation a Covid-emptied stadium.   My wife of 38 years had just had extensive emergency surgery to remove cancerous tumors.   Due to Covid no one was allowed to even visit their loved ones in the hospital.   The sick were dying in forced isolation.    I was about to leave for services to read from the Torah, when the hospital finally answered my dozen calls with the worst possible news: the beginning of the end.   I cancelled my Torah reading.   Of course.   Linda passed away six brave and gruesome months later, full of faith, at peace with God.  But for us, a great loss.   I wrote an article about the experienced that was front paged in the Times of Israel. I felt I knew the meaning of t...
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The Flood and the First Promise

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Genesis 9:8-11  "Noach" There is only one first: first pitch, first born, first steps , first kiss . This chapter is God's first Promise. The setting is where Noah learns that the flood is about to end and God makes the very first promise / 讘专讬转 / "brit", or "covenant" with humans (and your dog will be happy to know, God says this is a covenant with animals as well per Gen 9:9). This may also be the first Ark that saves the world, b ut it is NOT the last Ark that saves mankind. Do you know where the second one is? (no, not the "Ark" of the Covenant (sorry "Raiders of the Lost Ark" fans, that's a different word, so hold that thought...) Early in my career I was working on an historically certified large addition to the 1880's Pew estate, a massive “banker bucolic” style stone home, clad in our area's signature gray Wissahickon Schist.   Since it was historically certified, the stone facade of the new work had t...
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A Sukkot Magic Trick

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(and all the Sukkot verses) This is the Parashah that wasn't. Rabbi David was sick, and I was asked to prepare to read from the Torah if he didn't make it for this Sukkot Shabbat 馃懠. He got better, which is good, and this story (or the short form) went un-told. Easy to fix that.
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Rosh Hashanah 5785 Thoughts

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  Considering Rosh Hashanah is a “high” holiday, there is certainly very little said about it in the scriptures.  The command for the day is only a couple lines long and tells us in Leviticus 23.24-25. ACTUALLY - it the directions for Rosh Hashanah are only 4 words long.   砖讘转讜谉 - Have a complete rest.   (no formal gathering is spoken of) 转专讜注讛 - Make a blowing / blasting / teruah   of (something).  Shofars aren’t actually mentioned. 讝讬讻专讜谉 - Have a Zi karon - a remembrance. 讗砖讛 - An offering by fire .  (Would an eight pound brisket be OK?) “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet Nehemiah 8:10" ... so we did!  Rosh Hashanah is only mentioned once more:  When the people return from captivity and read the scriptures for the first time in at least a generation.  They wept at what lousy Jews they were. But they were told to rejoice and feast instead because “the JOY of the Lord is your strength”.   Nehemiah 8.10 (would four diffe...
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