Weekly Torah Reading, Shemini ‘Atzeret/ Simḥat Torah, October 7, 2023
Weekly Torah Reading, Shemini ‘Atzeret/ Simḥat Torah, October 7, 2023 Two for One Within the land of Israel, the end of the seven-day Sukkot festival is followed by a special, one-day festival, Shemini ‘Atzeret, the “Eighth Day of Solemn …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ha’azinu, September 23 (Shabbat Shuvah), 2023
Deuteronomy 32:1-52 Changing Direction 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 …
Weekly Torah Reading, Nitzavim-Vayyelekh, Sept. 9, 2023
Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20 The Day of Revelation 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, …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tavo, September 2, 2023
(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 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 …