Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tavo, August 28, 2021

(Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8)   The Seventy Languages In this week’s reading, the Israelites are about to enter the promised land. At this crucial point, they are given an odd instruction: On the very day that you cross the Jordan River, set …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tetze, August 21, 2021

Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19 A Common Thread   This week’s reading is full of commandments, more than any other reading in the annual cycle. They cover all sorts of things that can arise in daily life, governing relations between husbands and wives, …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Shofetim, August 14, 2021

Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9   Kings, Think Twice!    “The ancient Near East,” wrote the Egyptologist Henri Frankfort, “considered kingship the very basis of civilization. Only savages could live without a king. Security, peace, and justice could not prevail without a ruler …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Re’eh, August 7, 2021

Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17 The Children of God 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). …

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Weekly Torah Reading, ‘Ekev, July 31, 2021

Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25 Eat What I Say   The expression “Not by bread alone” (Deut 8:3) is well known nowadays, and its meaning is not particularly obscure. Look it up on the internet and you will find it succinctly paraphrased as …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Va-etḥannan, July 24, 2021

Deuteronomy 3:12-7:11 Thinking about the Shema   According to a rabbinic tradition, when the “men of Jericho” recited the Shema, they would say it in a slightly different way from that followed by Jews nowadays. They would recite the first …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Devarim, July 17, 2021

Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22 What an Ox and a Donkey Know   This week’s Torah reading, from the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy, is always read on the Shabbat preceding the Ninth of Av (Tish‘ah be-Av), a day of mourning that …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Mattot and Mas‘ei, July 10, 2021

Numbers 30:2-36:13   The Lex Talionis   One of the most widespread legal principles in the ancient world was the lex [or “ius”] talionis, the law [or “right”] of retribution. A person who, for example, injured someone was to be …

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