Comfort After the Cracks
This week we read Parashat Vaetchanan, on Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of comfort after Tisha B’Av. After the heaviness of the fast, after remembering destruction, exile, and all the painful […]
Learning to Hear the Warning
This week we begin the book of Devarim, with Moshe standing before the Israelites and looking back over the journey they have taken. He does not offer a sentimental farewell. […]
The Journey Does Not End There
Parashat Matot-Masei brings us to the closing chapters of Bamidbar. After all the wandering, complaints, battles, mistakes, grief, and moments of courage, the Israelites are finally standing near the edge […]
Careful With Fire
Parashat Pinchas is difficult, and it should be. It opens with Pinchas being rewarded after taking violent action in the middle of a national crisis. That is not the sort […]
Blessing in the Places We Least Expect
This week we read the double parashah of Chukat-Balak, and together they offer a strikingly honest picture of human limitation. In Chukat, the people face death, thirst, frustration, and uncertainty. […]
Who Do You Think You Are?
This week’s parashah, Korach, is one of the most uncomfortable in the Torah because Korach does not present himself as wicked. He does not openly say that he wants power, […]
When Fear Writes the Report
This week’s parashah, Sh’lach, tells one of the most frustrating stories in the Torah, and perhaps one of the most human. Moshe sends twelve spies to scout out the Land […]
When the Light Is Not Enough
This week’s parashah, Beha’alotcha, opens with the lighting of the Menorah in the Mishkan. Aharon is instructed to raise the flames, ensuring that each lamp gives light. It is a […]
The Danger of Hollow Holiness
This week’s parashah, Naso, is the longest in the Torah, yet one of its most striking themes is not quantity, but contradiction. Within a single parashah we encounter the Nazir, […]