Parashot

Ki Teitzeh … Dvarim (Deuteronomy) 24:17-19   There is a single word, a conditional word, in this chapter that changed my life.   It gave me a career, a family, and a certainty that there was wisdom for life in the path I had chosen.    It sits quietly at the end of this portion, waiting to see if anyone will notice.     17 לא תטה משפט גר יתום ולא תחבל בגד אלמנה  You shall not subvert the rights of the stranger or the fatherless; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pawn.  וזכרת כי עבד היית במצרים ויפדך יהוה אלהיך משם על־כן אנכי מצוך לעשות את־הדבר הזה   Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and that your God יהוה redeemed you from there; therefore do I enjoin you to observe this commandment.  כי תקצר קצירך בשדך ושכחת עמר בשדה לא תשוב לקחתו לגר ליתום ולאלמנה יהיה למען יברכך יהוה אלהיך בכל מעשה ידיך When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, do not turn back to get it; it shall go to the...

    July 30, 2021 Deuteronomy 6:4 Deuteronomy 7:6-8  The parashah portion this week is titled ואתחנן “va'etchanan”... “And I pleaded” ...Moses pleaded with God to enter the promised land. What follows is God's answer to Moses, a resounding "no".   Not just “no” but God answered him “Enough! Never speak to Me about this again” Dt 3:23.     Do you know a little bit about prayers that are “unanswered”?   I do.   Today is the “shloshim”, thirty days since my wife, Linda’s, passing.    Moses said to God, “it would be so easy for you to answer this prayer of mine” Dt 3:23 (paraphrased).   Moses prayed to enter the land for the better part of forty years.    I, and many of you, prayed long and hard for Linda to be healed.   Moses did not take “no” very well. His first reaction was not bitterness, and lashing out. He told the people of Israel that “it’s because of you that I can’t enter the land” Dt. 3:26. ...