Weekly Torah Reading, Noah, October 17, 2026
Tower-Building’s Bad Side This week’s Torah reading ends with a somewhat mysterious incident, the building of the Tower of Babel. The Torah recounts that a ragtag band of people (apparently all of humanity at the time) traveled “from the …
Weekly Torah Reading, Bereshit, October10, 2026
Blind to the End This week’s reading opens with an account of the creation of the world, including the creation of the first two human beings, Adam and Eve. These chapters are so significant that …
A Jewish New Year’s Card Summery exaltation or summary execution? The more-than-august judgments have been handed down in silence, without our ever guessing what’s in store. And so we stumble on, confessing this or that, while …
Weekly Torah Reading, Nitzavim-Vayyelekh, September 5, 2026
Long Live Asymmetry Symmetry is such a beautiful thing. First you say this, then you say that—and it’s as if the very act of speaking is inviting us to express ourselves in matching pairs. “Easy come, easy …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tavo, August 29, 2026
Centered on a Book This week’s reading contains a curious provision. Moses instructs the Israelites that as soon as they cross the Jordan River to enter their future homeland, they are to write down the words of “this Torah” …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tetze, August 22, 2026
Keep Them Coming This week’s Torah reading is full of divine commandments—by tradition, more commandments than any other week in the annual cycle of readings. They cover a broad variety of topics in ritual, civil, and criminal …
Weekly Torah Reading, Shofetim, August 15, 2026
Up with Kings! “The ancient Near East,” wrote the Egyptologist Henri Frankfort, “considered kingship the very basis of civilization. Only savages could live without a king. Security, peace, and justice could not prevail without a ruler to champion them. …
Weekly Torah Reading, Re’eh, August 8, 2026
Waiting for the “Day of Rage” “You are children of the Lord your God,” it says in this week’s Torah reading (Deuteronomy. 14:1). But what could this possibly mean? In what sense can God be said to have …