Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tetze, August 26, 2023
Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8 The More, the Meritorious 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 …
Weekly Torah Reading, Shofetim, August 19, 2023
Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9 A Distant Dream I suspect many speakers of modern Hebrew are misled by the second word in this week’s Torah reading. In today’s Israel, shoterim are policemen—and this same root also underlies the collective mishtarah, “police.” But …
Weekly Torah Reading, Re’eh, August 11, 2023
God’s Children Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17 This week’s reading contains an odd injunction: “You are children of the Lord your God,” it says, “You shall not gash yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead” (Deut 14:1). Ancient scholars …
Weekly Torah Reading, ‘Ekev, August 5, 2023
The expression “Not by bread alone” has certainly gotten around. It is, among other things, the name of a website promoting a farmer’s market in Green Bay, Wisconsin; an anthropologist’s book about the Inuit and Eskimo peoples; the title of …
Weekly Torah Reading, ‘Ekev, August 5, 2023
Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25 Eat What I Say The expression “Not by bread alone” has certainly gotten around. It is, among other things, the name of a website promoting a farmer’s market in Green Bay, Wisconsin; an anthropologist’s book about …
Weekly Torah Reading, ‘Ekev, August 5, 2023
Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25 Eat What I Say The expression “Not by bread alone” has certainly gotten around. It is, among other things, the name of a website promoting a farmer’s market in Green Bay, Wisconsin; an anthropologist’s book about the Inuit …
Weekly Torah Reading, Devarim, July 22, 2023
Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22 “How Could This Happen?” This week’s Torah reading is taken from the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy. It is always read on the Shabbat preceding the Ninth of Av, a day of mourning that commemorates the destruction …
Weekly Torah Reading, Mattot and Mas‘ei, July 15, 2023
Numbers 30:2-36:13 The Right to Revenge One of the most widespread legal principles in the ancient world was the lex [or “ius”] talionis, the law [or “right”] of retribution. A person who, for example, injured someone was to be …