Weekly Torah Reading

Exodus 30:10-35:1 The Real Hero   Moses was on Mt. Sinai for forty days and forty nights, during which time God revealed to him the various laws and regulations to be included in the Torah. But as this period dragged …

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Exodus 27:20-30:10 Clothes Made the Man This week’s Torah reading describes the special garments to be worn by the kohanim (priests) in the Temple. Those garments were no minor detail. In ancient Israel, clothes made the kohen. Kohanim couldn’t serve …

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Exodus 25:1-27:19 Back to the Garden   This week’s reading contains God’s instructions for the building of the mishkan, a kind of great, portable tent in which the Israelites could offer sacrifices to God. Hardly a detail is left unmentioned …

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Exodus 21:1-24:18 A Case of Abortion This week’s reading contains numerous laws governing various aspects of daily life. At first, some of these might seem far removed from our own daily lives. You’re probably not going to pay anyone compensating …

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Exodus 18:1-20:23 Two Stone Tablets? Ancient readers asked a question about the Ten Commandments, one that occurs to few people nowadays: Why did they need to be written on two stone tablets? One rectangular tablet certainly would have been sufficient—in …

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Exodus 13:17-17:16   Not One But Two   This week’s reading prominently features the Song of the Sea—the song that the Israelites sang after their miraculous crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15). For this reason, this Shabbat is also …

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Exodus chapter 10:1-13:16 Laws Endowed with Life   Chapter 12 of this week’s reading contains the first commandments given to the people of Israel, starting with the laws of the new month and then moving on to the laws of …

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Exodus 6:2-9:35   The Divine Signature     This week’s reading begins with God telling Moses, “I am the Lord” (YHWH). But surely Moses knew that already. In fact, just a few paragraphs earlier, God had instructed Moses to tell …

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