Weekly Torah Reading, Pineḥas, July 15, 2017
Two Names for One Last week’s Torah reading ended with a certain Israelite hero slaying a flagrantly offending couple, thereby turning aside God’s wrath. The name of the hero is written Phinehas in English, although Phineas used to be …
Weekly Torah Reading, Balak, July 8, 2017
Leave Us Alone In this week’s Torah reading, the pagan seer Balaam is hired to curse the people of Israel, but every time he tries, he ends up blessing them instead. In the first of these blessings he …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ḥukkat ha-Torah, July 1, 2017
A Bit Too Confident This week’s reading relates that, toward the end of their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites ran out of water. They complained bitterly to their leaders, Moses and Aaron: “Why did …
Weekly Torah Reading: Koraḥ June 24, 2017
As Rich as…Who? This week’s reading centers on Koraḥ, the Levite leader who sought to foment a revolution against Moses and Aaron. Ultimately, Koraḥ went down in defeat—quite literally! The Torah reports that the earth “opened its mouth and …
Weekly Torah Reading, Shelaḥ Lekha, June 17, 2017
To Be an Ish Commentators have long noticed a contradiction in the Torah’s account of the tribal leaders who were sent to spy out the land of Canaan. In this week’s reading, the idea of sending them clearly came …
Weekly Torah Reading, Beha‘alotekha, June 10, 2017
The Good Old Days In the book of Ecclesiastes, the author advises, “Don’t say, ‘How has it come about that things were better in earlier times than now?’ for you are not asking about this out of wisdom” (7:10). …
Weekly Torah Reading, Naso, June 3, 2017
Among all the different items covered in this week’s reading is a brief commandment to Aaron and his sons. As is well known, Aaron’s sons will henceforth be the kohanim, the hereditary priests in Israel, and one of their jobs, …
Weekly Torah Reading, BeMidbar, May 27, 2017
Don’t Look! This week’s Torah reading begins with a detailed census of Israel’s tribes. However, the Levites are not included in the census; they are listed separately afterwards. The Torah says that there were three main clans of …