Parashot

  There are times in life when whether we know it or not, we touch the fabric of eternity:  Births, weddings, and deaths.   This passage is about births.   It is a tender moment in the life of a mother when she is welcomed back into the fullness of life after childbirth.    Some have said the Torah is archaic.   And I will agree that many interpretations of it are more about the temporal ideas of the interpreter than about God’s intentions.   But the Torah was cutting edge in its time.  To my knowledge, it is the first written civil and spiritual code in history that does not treat women as property.  On the contrary,  it encouraged women to own property and to engage in business.   Read about such an eshet chayal , a woman of valor, in Prov 31.    The Old Testament is very sensitive about blood, so many laws involve it.   Because, a few chapters after this one, God explains to Moses that “the ...

   .What pleases God?  You might be surprised by the answer (18)  ויקרב את איל העלה ויסמכו אהרן ובניו את־ידיהם על־ראש האיל Then he brought forward the ram of burnt offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the ram’s head, (19) וישחט ויזרק משה את־הדם על־המזבח סביב and it was slaughtered. Moses dashed the blood against all sides of the altar. (20) ואת־האיל נתח לנתחיו ויקטר משה את־הראש ואת־הנתחים ואת־הפדר The ram was cut up into sections and Moses turned the head, the sections, and the suet into smoke on the altar;  (21) ואת־הקרב ואת־הכרעים רחץ במים ויקטר משה את־כל־האיל המזבחה  Moses washed the entrails and the legs with water and turned all of the ram into smoke.  עלה הוא לריח־ניחח אשה הוא ליהוה כאשר צוה יהוה את־משה That was a burnt offering for a pleasing fragrance, an offering by fire to יהוה —as יהוה (God) had commanded Moses. This section of scripture is called “tzav” - command.   There are a number of different Hebrew words for “comm...

   Moses Changes God's Mind Parashat KiTisa Torah: Exodus 30:11-34:35 Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16 - 36:38 | Shabbat Parah The section I am commenting on is Exodus 32:11-14 Starts 8 lines up from the break ויחל משה את־פני יהוה אלהיו ויאמר למה יהוה יחרה אפך בעמך אשר הוצאת מארץ מצרים בכח גדול וביד חזקה But Moses implored the LORD his God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. למה יאמרו מצרים לאמר ברעה הוציאם להרג אתם בהרים ולכלתם מעל פני האדמה שוב מחרון אפך והנחם על־הרעה לעמך Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that He delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’ Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people. זכר לאברהם ליצחק ולישראל עבדיך אשר נשבעת להם בך ותדבר אלהם ארבה את־זרעכם ככוכבי השמים וכל־הארץ הזאת אשר אמרתי אתן לזרעכם ונחלו לעלם Remember Your servants, Abr...

   Lev 9:22-25.  The Very First “Service”.   “Surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes”. ROMANS 6:13  This portion of the Torah, that I read last week at services, is called שמיני “shmini”, which means “eighth”.   It describes the very first biblical religious service.  First ever.  Every Jewish or Christian service ever held is the great-great-grandchild of this one.   God was going to raise Aaron and his sons up as a priesthood, priests from the hood ;-), and He had a plan for changing them from the spiritual slobs they were into actual “priests”.   This happened in the year 1145.   Just a couple months prior to this service where Aaron, Mose's brother becomes the priest of all Israel, he was busy building the golden calf!   H ow is a person like that changed into a priest, a Cohain, a heart set apart for God?    First, God tells Aaron and sons to sequester themselves insid...