TorahParsha

What can we offer mourners?

 

for Parshat Chukat

 

i

God tells Moses:

Take a pure, red cow

that has never borne a yoke.

Slaughter it,

burn it to ash,

set the ash in water.

When a man touches a corpse

or a grave,

the priest should sprinkle the man with the ash-water,

making him pure again.

 

ii

This ceremony is unlike sacrifices,

Which are pleasing aromas to God,

smoke rising upward.

Here is a ceremony of ash,

char on the earth.

*

And what of the color red?

The color of blood,

that is the soul—

life coursing in the body;

the color of the hair

of Esau the hunter,

the man of strength.

*

Cattle are creatures of strength,

meant to bear the yoke.

A cow yet to bear the yoke

is strength- in- waiting.

Cows,

mothers of cattle,

are strength-in-waiting.

*

So this is a ceremony of the strength of life.

That is the ceremony we bring to death.

 

iii

A man who encounters death

could become consumed by it.

We touch him with this ash-water,

we tell him: come back to this world,

to the strength of the living earth,

to the strength of this red cow.

 

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

 

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This Friday marks the 5^th anniversary (Hebrew date) of the taking of Gilad Shalit, a young Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas against international law. Please keep Gilad ben Aviva in your prayers.

TorahParsha.com

 

Why does religion need Law?

for Parshat Korach

 

i

The people refuse to enter the Land.

God is angry with them for this.

But the people relent. And Moses prays for them. And God forgives them,

saying: I will bring you to the Land.

And God commands Laws for the people to keep when they enter the Land.

 

ii

Korach and his followers rebel against the priests.

They say: Everyone should serve in the Temple,

not just the priests.

God punishes Korach and his followers.

The rest of the people see these punishments,

and are afraid.

We are all lost, the people say.

*

Then God commands that the Levites serve in the Temple,

standing between the people and the Temple,

between the people and God.

 

iii

The people sin. Then they are punished.

A good life with God seems impossible.

Then God offers Law.

*

Offering Law, God says:

We will be together for a very long time.

Offering Law, God says:

you are capable of a holy life.

If God did not think this,

handing out rules would make no sense.

*

In this way, Law is a promise:

that we and God will always be together;

that we—

even we—

can be holy.

 

_______

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

 

________

Please pray for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, a one-year-old who needs a bone marrow transplant, and get your cheek swabbed today.

 

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For short Torah thoughts throughout the week, follow TorahParsha on Twitter or Facebook.

 

 

 

Who decides who belongs?

for Parshat Shelach

 

i

Moses sends spies into the Land.

These spies see the Children of the Giant there.

They see the fierce people of Amalek.

They say: we were like grasshoppers… in the eyes of those people.

*
They report back to their own people that the Land is too dangerous  to enter.

And the people agree.

 

ii

God is angry with this rejection of the Land.                                                 

But the people soon realize what they are giving up. And Moses prays for the people’s forgiveness.

God says: I will forgive the people, I will take them into the Land in the end.

*

Then God speaks of Laws the people must keep when they come to the Land.

They will be Laws for the citizen and for the immigrant alike.

 

iii

The frightened spies, and the frightened people, think the nations in the Land decide who comes there.

But God says: that is not so.

The immigrant is as much of the Land as the citizen is.

See, God says: I give them all the same Laws.

*
Because it is not for people do decide who belongs in the Land, and who does not.

Only God decides such things.

 

_______

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

 

________

Please pray for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, a one-year-old who needs a bone marrow transplant, and get your cheek swabbed today.

 

________

Read short Torah thoughts throughout the week. Follow TorahParsha on Twitter or Facebook.

 

Is the past more important than the present?

 

for Parshat B'HaAlotcha

 

i

At the start of Israel’s freedom, God says: 

conduct the ceremony of the Passover lamb

now and this time every year

to recall how God freed you from Egypt.

*

The next year

at the same time

God mobilizes the people

from Mount Sinai

and into the Desert

and toward the Land.

God says:

conduct the ceremonies of the Passover lamb.

But He makes no mention of Egypt at all.

*

So the Passover lamb is tied to the past,

and the Passover lamb is tied to the new journey.

 

ii

History is what has happened,

but what is unfolding now is also our history.

*

Both call for ritual,

both call for tying history back to God.

 

 

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

 

Please pray for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, a one-year-old who needs a bone marrow transplant, and get your cheek swabbed today.

Why we pray in groups

for Parshat Naso

 

i

The Torah speaks twice of the completion of the building of God’s Tent.

*

In the first telling

(at the close of the Book of Exodus

and then opening Leviticus)

God comes to the Tent

and Moses cannot enter,

because who can come before God?

But then God calls to Moses,

and God speaks to him.

*

In the second telling (in the Book of Numbers)

the Princes of the Tribes of Israel

volunteer gifts,

donations for the Tent from each tribe.

Then following the Princes’ gift-giving

Moses walks in to the Tent,

and God speaks to Moses.

 

ii

Alone, you wait for God’s grace.

*

But the entire people can march up to God’s Tent

Following the people,

you can come to the place of God,

to the place where God speaks to you.

 

____

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com