Weekly Torah Reading, Noaḥ, November 2, 2024

Genesis 6:9 – 11:32 The Broken Tower This week’s Torah reading ends with a brief incident, the building of the Tower of Babel. According to the biblical text, the ragtag band of humanity (apparently all of it) arrived at some …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Rosh ha-Shanah, October 3-4, 2024

It’s an interesting fact that the Hebrew name for the Jewish New Year, Rosh ha-Shanah, never occurs in the Torah, In fact, this name for the New Year’s festival never occurs anywhere in the whole Bible. Rather, the Torah refers …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Shofetim, September 7, 2024

Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9   Holding Out for Fairness This week’s reading opens with the subject of courts and the proper administration of justice. Judges and other officials are to be appointed in all your [city] gates, that is, in …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Re’eh, August 31, 2024

Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17 Don’t Form Groups This week’s reading contains an odd interdiction: “You are children of the Lord your God,” God says. “You shall not gash yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead” (Deut 14:1). Ancient …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Ekev, August 24, 2024

Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:25 Good Tastes and Bad The expression “Not by bread alone” has certainly gotten around. It is, among other things, the name of various bakeries, restaurants, diet books, as well as the title of numerous sermons and …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Devarim, August 10, 2024

Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22 Man of Constant Sorrow The biblical book of Lamentations recounts in painful detail the events leading up to the fall of the Jerusalem Temple, including the gruesome account of the inhabitants’ starvation during the great siege …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Mattot-Mas’ei, August 3, 2024

Numbers 30:1-36:13 The Right to Revenge One of the most widespread legal principles in the ancient world was the lex (or “ius”) talionis, the law of retaliation. A person who, for example, injured someone was to be punished by suffering …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Pineḥas, July 27, 2024

Numbers 25:10-30:1 One and the Same   Last week’s Torah reading ended with a certain Israelite hero slaying a flagrantly offending couple, thereby turning aside God’s wrath. The hero’s name—Pineḥas or Phineḥas—seems connected to the dark-skinned Nubians who dwelt in …

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