Army. This is the first word in my reading of Parashat Bamidbar, and it’s the most remarkable word. It is of course not a new word in the Torah, but it is a new concept. The Israelites are turni...Read More
The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord” (Lev 25:1-2) Th...Read More
Yeshayahu Leibowitz explains that the reason to couple the Torah portions of Tazri’a and Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33) in the Jewish communal reading of the Torah is that they both deal with b...Read More
In this week’s parsha, Parashat Vayishlach, we read one of the Torah’s most difficult and upsetting narratives—the rape of Dinah, the only daughter born to Jacob and Leah, by Shechem, the son of...Read More
The daughters of Zelophehad—Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah—are first mentioned in the 27th chapter of the Book of Numbers. Their bold and necessary petition to Moses changed the laws of i...Read More