Weekly Torah Reading Pinhas July 11, 2015
What Happened to Phinehas? Last week’s Torah reading ended with Phinehas (the common English spelling of Hebrew Pinhas) slaying a flagrantly offending couple in the sight of all Israel, thereby turning back God’s wrath. This week’s reading opens with …
Weekly Torah Reading Balak July 4, 2015
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 says …
Weekly Torah Reading Hukkat (Numbers 19-22:1) June 27, 2015
Thanks to Miriam Note: For an explanation of the account of Moses striking the rock (Num 20:6-13), please see “Moses’ Big Mistake” under “Free Stuff” on my website. Back in the book of Exodus, the Torah recounted …
Weekly Torah Reading: Korah June 20, 2015
The Whole Garment Korah 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,” Korah said to them. By this he meant that he and his …
Weekly Torah Reading: Shelah Lekha June 13, 2015
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 unravel. One way was to …
Weekly Torah Reading: Beha’alotekha June 6, 2015
The Problem with Y-S-F In this week’s Torah Reading, Moses gathered up the 70 elders of the people and stationed them all around the Tent of Meeting (Num 11:24). Then God came down in a cloud, and the divine spirit …
Weekly Torah Reading: Naso, May 30, 2015
Do It the Hard Way Last week’s Torah reading began with a detailed census of Israel’s tribes. But the Levites were not included in this census; they were treated separately afterwards. The Torah says that there were three …
The Festival of Shavu‘ot, May 24, 2015
The Great Handoff The festival coming up on Sunday, Shavu‘ot (the “Feast of Weeks”), was the subject of some controversy in late biblical times. The reason was that, unlike other festivals, this one had no specific date. Instead, …