TorahParsha

When change isn’t good

for Parshat Tazria

 

i

There is skin-sickness

house-sickness

clothes-sickness;

it discolors skin

discolors hair

discolors walls

discolors cloth.

*

When the discoloring appears

or when the discoloring spreads

or the discoloring shrinks,

the sickness brings impurity.

 

ii

A person is not born

with this impurity;

a house is not built with it;

it does not come

ready-woven into cloth.

The impurity comes in change.

 

iii

Sometimes your impurity

is not who you are;

it is how you’ve changed

from what you used to be.

 

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Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

Leviticus Chapter 13 – 14

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How God talks to us

for Parshat Shemini

 

i

God speaks of the animals we may eat

and the animals we may not:

we may eat

cloven-footed beasts that chew their cud;

insects with jumping legs

like crickets, grasshoppers, locusts;

we may not eat

rabbits, pigs, eagles, owls, mice.

*

God says we may eat

any creature of the water

with fins and scales,

but no other water- creatures.

*

God mentions beasts, birds, vermin by name.

He mentions nothing of the water by name.

For creatures of the water,

God mentions only qualities.

 

ii

Perhaps this is because

God speaks to a desert people.

In the desert,

the people know beasts,

birds,

vermin.

But the sea is far away.

Water and the fish and the animals in it

are far away.

So perhaps these people

have many names for beasts,

birds,

vermin—

but few names

for the creatures of the sea.

*

So God does not mention

the creatures of the water

by name;

God merely describes.

 

iii

To say:

God does not speak to us

in spiritual codes

in lofty constructs;

God speaks to us

in the language we speak

in the lives we live,

as the people

we actually are.

 

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Shabbat Shalom,

~Abe

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Leviticus Chapter 11

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Answer to last week’s question: The “error” in last week’s piece was that it was about Parshat VaYikra, not Parshat Tzav. A special commendation to Evan Farber, Hadar Wise, and Yosi Kra for guessing correctly!

When you matter

 

i

God speaks

of the man who brings a sacrifice

in God’s holy Tent:

how he lays hands on the animal

and slaughters it before God.

And God speaks

of how after the priests sprinkle the animal blood

and prepare the animal parts

they must set the fire on the altar

and lay wood on the fire

and lay the animal on the fire.

 

ii

First comes the man

who comes to God.

Then comes the priest

with God’s fire.

*

This is the opposite

of the Creation of the world,

that begins with God’s Light

and culminates in Man.

Here, it is a person

who triggers God’s flame.

                                                            

iii

Here is the amazing dialogue:

Our world begins with God’s Light;

when we come to God

we let God’s Light begin.

 

____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

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Leviticus 1:1-9

I have read this according to the simple reading of the passage, but the Halakha is clear that the flame is constantly on the altar. See Leviticus 6:5-7 and Maimonides Temidin Umusafin Chapter 2.

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Purim quiz: What’s wrong with this week’s email? Send the answer and I’ll announce the mistake & your name next week. -a

 

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What if you are not perfect?

for Parshat VaYikra 

 

i

God tells us of the sacrifices

we must bring in God’s Tent,

God’s home.

*

First He speaks of the sacrifices we bring

as gifts of the heart.

Then He speaks of the sacrifices we bring

as acts of penance.

*

We begin addressed as the pious ones.

We end addressed as sinners.

 

ii

Perhaps this ordering is so

because the closer you get to God

the more your sins matter:

the more perfect you become

the more imperfect you are revealed to be.

 

iii

But perhaps, also,

it is that a home is something you come to in love

and a home is the place you come back to

after you wander away.

Once you say:

This is my home,

you are always welcome—

perfect,

imperfect,

it does not matter.

*

And we make God’s home

into our home:

so that perfect,

imperfect,

we are always welcome,

we are always at home,

whatever we are.

 

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

Leviticus Chapters 1-5

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