Weekly Torah Reading: July 2, 2016
In Israel: Koraḥ The Whole Garment Koraḥ is the villain of this week’s Torah reading, the leader of a foiled rebellion against Moses and Aaron. “Look, all of us are holy,” Koraḥ said to them. By this he …
Weekly Torah Reading, June 25, 2016
In Israel: Shelaḥ Lekha Memorable Threads This week’s Torah reading ends with the law of “fringes” or “tassels” (tzitzit). In pre-modern times, weavers used different means to finish off a piece of cloth so that it would not …
Weekly Torah Reading, June 18, 2016
In Israel: Naso Continue or Stop? In this week’s reading, Moses gathers up the 70 elders of the people and stations them all around the Tent of Meeting (Num 11:24). Then God comes down in a cloud, and …
Weekly Torah Reading: Shavu‘ot, June 12, 2016 The Giving of the Rest of the Torah As everyone knows, the festival of Shavu‘ot commemorates the giving of the Torah. Year in and year out, we mark the day …
Weekly Torah Reading, June 4, 2016
In Israel: BeMidbar 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 …
Weekly Torah Reading (in Israel): BeHukkotai, May 28, 2016
“I Will Walk About in Your Midst” This week’s reading is known in Hebrew as the tokhaḥah (“warning”), because it contains a detailed list of all the evils that will strike Israel if it fails to keep God’s laws …
Weekly Torah Reading (in Israel): BeHar, May 21, 2016
Good Old Slavery? This week’s reading includes a number of laws concerning the institution of slavery. Nowadays, the word slavery inspires justifiable horror, but in ancient times it was a common practice in many societies (ancient Israel and ancient Greece …
Weekly Torah Reading (in Israel): Emor; (outside Israel) Kedoshim
Weekly Torah Reading (in Israel): Emor, May 14, 2016 Why Do We Count the ‘Omer? In this week’s reading, the Torah commands the people of Israel to bring the first sheaf (‘omer) of the new grain harvest …