Rabbi | Adath Israel

Ekev ~ the beasts in our field

Ekev Triennial 10:12-15 – 11:22-25 The parashah tells of the blessings of obedience to God, the dangers of forgetting God, and directions for taking the Land of Israel. Moses recalls the making and re-making of the Tablets of Stone, the incident of the Golden...

Shabbat Hazon – destruction and renewal

Devarim Triennial: 2:31-3:22 // Ishaiahu 1:1-27 // Shabbat Hazon == There is a special name for this Shabbat, which is Shabbat Hazon, the Shabbat of the vision. The vision is the vision of our haftarah, the first vision of the book of Isaiah, of the destruction of...

Behaalotcha – a person and a candle

Behaalotcha Behaalotcha opens with Aaron being commanded to raise light in the lamps of the menorah, and the tribe of Levi is initiated into the service in the Sanctuary. A “Second Passover” is instituted in response to the petition “Why should we be deprived?” by a...

Terumah ~ the Shechinah, us and the Torah

We are embarking, for this and the next week, on what is called “the Shechinah unit”. That spans this week’s portion, Terumah, and the next, Tetzaveh. Both of those portions have the first description of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, and the unit begins and ends with...

Yitro: use your voice

Yitro is one of the three portions named after a non-Jew – the other two being Noach and Balak. Yitro, differently from the other two, even according to the Torah text, joins the Jewish people. This portion is famous because it is the one where the Ten Sayings appear,...