Parashot

(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 👼. He got better, which is good, and this story (or the short form) went un-told. Easy to fix that.

  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.   שבתון - Have a complete rest.   (no formal gathering is spoken of) תרועה - Make a blowing / blasting / teruah   of (something).  Shofars aren’t actually mentioned. זיכרון - Have a Zi karon - a remembrance. אשה - 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...

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. ...

Job’s story is one of the first biblical accounts I took seriously.   Not from reading it, but because I heard it set to music, almost word for word. It’s one of two biblical portions that have followed me around my entire life, tapping me on the shoulder at milestone moments.   It started in my early teens when scripture meant little to me other than as a relic of my Jewish heritage, closed up in synagogue Ark and prayerbooks to see the light of day to mark occasions.   This being a moment when, as for Job, even friends have become accusers and Zionism turns into seemingly universal rejection, the story takes on a new and unexpected life exploring condemnation of those who seemed to be friends and the bright future beyond it. I first heard “The Tale of Job” told in electrified 120-decibel amplification at a rock concert fifty-three years ago.   It was a triple bill but my friends and I had gone to see just the middle act, a group called “Seatrain” wit...

‘Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field , nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:9-10 17 ‘You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. 18  You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:17-18 A quote of a quote of a quote.    "Love your neighbor as yourself"      This is a very well-known phrase.   Even folks who don't read the Bible know it.   Many aspire to practice it.    I wonder if the curious history of that quote made it so well known.   It's a quote of a quote o...