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Weekly Torah
How do you feel about yesterday? Are you being held back by what was? At dawn, a single kohen – priest – is chosen to remove from the altar an amount of ashes and places them at the base of the altar, a procedure known as “trumat hadeshen” – the lifting up of the ashes and their removal to a pure place. Literally, “yesterday’s ashes.” Torah is teaching us, through the Temple service, how to deal with our yesterdays.
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Tzav (Leviticus 6:1-8:36)
Parashat Tzav is read on Shabbat HaGadol:
Nissan 10, 5769/April 4, 2009
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The book of Leviticus: All about the korbanot (offerings): Getting closer to G-d. Bringing an offering is a unique opportunity to realign, recalibrate, renew and strengthen our unbreakable connection to G-d.
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Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26)
Parashat Leviticus is read on Shabbat:
Nissan 3, 5769/March 28, 2009
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Building the Mishkan – Tabernacle: righting the wrong of the golden calf. Don’t look for intermediaries to stand between you and G-d, but recognize that G-d’s presence is woven into the very fabric of creation. By extending G-d’s creation into the reality of the Mishkan, we create a place for G-d’s presence – no intermediary needed!
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Vayakhel-Pekudei (Exodus 35:1 – 40:38)
Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei is read on Shabbat:
Adar 25, 5769/March 21, 2009
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This Shabbat we read parashat Ki Tisa, and also the special reading of Parah – the red heifer. The sin of the golden calf, which takes place in Ki Tisa, is the sin of man attempting to hold G-d in his hand, to be able to comprehend and rationally explain G-d, to be able to point to G-d’s infiniteness and say, “Ahh – there it is!” – as if that were humanly possible. Parah Adumah, considered to be the “antidote” to the golden calf, is testimony to the unknowable and ungraspable reality of G-d.
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Ki Tisa (Exodus 30:11-34:35)
Parashat Ki Tisa is read on Shabbat:
Adar 18, 5769/March 14, 2009
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Clothes make the man. This old saw is certainly applicable to the case of the kohen gadol – the high priest and his “garments of glory and splendor.” The garments themselves possess an intrinsic holiness. Their detailed components each can effect an atonement for the vast array of human failings. The kohen gadol, when wearing the garments and achieving a level of self-conscious identification with the human character common to all of us, can open up a window of atonement and spiritual realignment through will we all can emerge enhanced and ennobled, if we but take hold of the moment.
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Tetzaveh (Exodus 27:20-30:10)
Parashat Tetzaveh is read on Shabbat:
Adar 11, 5769/March 7, 2009
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“They shall make an ark of acacia wood…” (Exodus 25:10) Aron HaBrit – The Ark of the Covenant – performs no function in the Divine service, and is approached but once a year when the Kohen Gadol – the High Priest – enters the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement. It is the one Temple vessel that actually serves as a permanent receptacle – holding the Tablets of the Law. Yet of all the vessels described in the Torah reading of Terumah, the Ark of the Covenant remains the most compelling to the imagination. From the Ark emanates the supernal light of Torah and a reflection in this world of the perfected world and the pure light of the Garden of Eden.
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Terumah (Exodus 25:1-27:19)
Parashat Terumah is read on Shabbat:
Adar 4, 5769/February 28, 2009
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The Hebrew slave who demurs on freedom and chooses servitude has his ear pierced against the doorpost. G-d opens many doors for us as we march forward toward our own destiny. As free men we are to pass through those doors, not become affixed to them.
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Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18)
Parashat Mishpatim is read on Shabbat:
Shvat 27, 5769/February 21, 2009
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