Weekly Torah Reading for Sukkot, Exodus 33:12-34:26
September 25, 2021 Leaving You Here This week’s Shabbat reading follows the disastrous episode of the Golden Calf. As such, it may seem to have no direct connection to Sukkot, but it does recount an important (and sometimes …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ha’azinu, September 18, 2021
Deuteronomy 32:1-52 This Shabbat’s Torah reading consists of Moses’ farewell song, known in Hebrew by its first word Ha’azinu (“Give ear!”). In it, Moses recounts Israel’s prior history, starting back in “days of yore,” when things were fine, but then …
Weekly Torah Reading, Vayyelekh, September 11, 2021
Deuteronomy 31:1-30 Moses Didn’t Want to Die In this week’s Torah reading, God instructs Moses that the time has come for him to die—in fact, He says this more than once. The reading opens with Moses relating that “the Lord …
Weekly Torah Reading, Rosh ha-Shanah, September 7-8, 2021
Rosh ha-Shanah means, literally, “the beginning of the year.” But it’s an interesting fact that this name never occurs in the Torah, in fact, this name for the New Year’s festival never occurs anywhere in the whole Bible. Rather, the …
Weekly Torah Reading, Nitzavim, Sept. 4, 2021
Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20 Rulers and Tribes “Today, you are all standing before the Lord your God,” this week’s reading opens, and continues: “your chiefs, your tribes, your elders, your officials, every man of Israel.” But there’s something disturbing in this …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tavo, August 28, 2021
(Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8) The Seventy Languages In this week’s reading, the Israelites are about to enter the promised land. At this crucial point, they are given an odd instruction: On the very day that you cross the Jordan River, set …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tetze, August 21, 2021
Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19 A Common Thread This week’s reading is full of commandments, more than any other reading in the annual cycle. They cover all sorts of things that can arise in daily life, governing relations between husbands and wives, …
Weekly Torah Reading, Shofetim, August 14, 2021
Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9 Kings, Think Twice! “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 …