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torah commentary
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Broken promises addressed by Torah
Naso, Numbers 4:21-7:89 Parsha Naso is interesting. While a great deal of the sedra refers to its name, identifying the offerings and count of the leaders of each tribe, or nasiam, there are iso...
May 17, 2013 | 0 0 comments | 2 2 recommendations | email to a friend
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Our firstborn no longer belong to God
Bamidbar, Numbers 1:1-4:20 Once upon a time, a long time ago, every firstborn belonged to God. We were always supposed to give the first of all “our fruits” to God, literally. Now, let’s go way b...
May 09, 2013 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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<i>Rabbi Aaron Bisno</i>
Shabbat as a utopian ideal
Behar-Behukotai, Leviticus 25:1-27:34 This week’s Torah reading is drawn from a double portion, Behar-Behukotai. Behar is associated with the laws of sabbatical; that is, we are instructed to al...
May 02, 2013 | 0 0 comments | 4 4 recommendations | email to a friend
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<i>Rabbi Scott Aaron</i>
You kiss your mother with that mouth? Blasphemy then and now
Parshat Emor, Leviticus 21:1 – 24:23 This week’s portion ends with a troubling story of blasphemy, social isolation and death.  (I know … a lot of our Torah portions have troubling stories of bla...
Apr 25, 2013 | 0 0 comments | 3 3 recommendations | email to a friend
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<i>Rabbi James Gibson</i>
‘Can’t we all just get along?’
Achare Mot–Kedoshim, Leviticus 16:1-20:27 Those famous words, “Can’t we all just get along?” were plaintively said by Rodney King, whose beating at the hands of the Los Angeles Police more than ...
Apr 18, 2013 | 0 0 comments | 3 3 recommendations | email to a friend
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<i>Rabbi Joe Hample</i>
Getting it together
Tazria-Metzora, Leviticus 12:1-15:33 Just between you and me, I feel a lot of ambivalence.  I’m full of faith and doubt, calm and stress, gloom and hope.  I’m an introverted extrovert, a sloppy p...
Apr 10, 2013 | 1 1 comments | 6 6 recommendations | email to a friend
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Archives
Love without reason trumps senseless hatred
by Rabbi Sharyn Henry, Rodef Shalom Congregation
Jul 26, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 7 7 recommendations | email to a friend
Devarim, Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22 Last week, The Times of Israel published an article entitled, “Why I’m not fasting on Tisha B’Av this year.” The title arises out of the fact that this year, Tisha ...
Invisible realities
by Rabbi Nosson Sachs, UPMC Shadyside
Jul 19, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 5 5 recommendations | email to a friend
If one were to choose among the greatest benefactors of humanity, Louis Pasteur would certainly rank at the top. He solved the mysteries of rabies, anthrax, chicken cholera and silkworm diseases, a...
Daughters of Zelophehad came before feminism
by Rabbi Martin William Shorr, Temple Hadar Israel
Jul 12, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 5 5 recommendations | email to a friend
Pinchas, Numbers 25:10-30:1 No need for coming that “long way baby,” G-d already got you there a long time ago. In recent times, more specifically the late 19th to the mid 20th century, women hav...
Klal Yisrael on a Wisconsin campground
by Rabbi Donni C. Aaron, Jewish Community Center
Jul 05, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 6 6 recommendations | email to a friend
Balak, Numbers 22:2-25:9 Every summer, my family drives to Baraboo, Wis., specifically to the campsites at Devil’s Lake. For the last eight years, we have packed our tents, sleeping bags, bug sp...
The well of Miriam
by Rabbi Eli Seidman
Jun 26, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 6 6 recommendations | email to a friend
Chukat, Numbers 19:1-22:1
‘Friending’ the stranger
Shelach, Numbers 13:1-15:41
by Rabbi Scott Aaron
Agency for Jewish Learning
Jun 14, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 7 7 recommendations | email to a friend
In the rather cut-and-dry world of the Bible, one was identified by the people one was born in to, and kept that identity regardless of where one lived or whom one married. Israelites were Israelit...
The good, the bad, the opportunities
Be’ha-a-lot-cha (Numbers 8.1-12.16)
by Rabbi James A. Gibson
Temple Sinai
Jun 08, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 6 6 recommendations | email to a friend
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” So Charles Dickens wrote in his epic “Tale of Two Cities,” his novel of revolutionary France. We could say the same thing about so much of w...
Lesson from the greater northeast
Naso, Numbers 4:21-7:89
by Rabbi David C. Novitsky Beth Israel Congregation
Washington, Pa.
May 31, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 6 6 recommendations | email to a friend
I was born and raised in the largest shtetl in Pennsylvania known as northeast Philadelphia. The neighborhood was lined with a whole host of synagogues whose members were similar theologically and...
Everyone counts
Bamidbar, Numbers 1:1-4:20
by Rabbi Jessica Locketz
Temple Emanuel of South Hills
May 24, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 9 9 recommendations | email to a friend
This week, we begin the fourth book of the Torah — Bamidbar. In the portion bearing the same name, Moses is commanded to take a census of the people, to couxnt all who are over the age of 20 and ab...