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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Weekly Torah Reading, Balak, July 20, 2024
Numbers 22:2-25:9 Dwelling Apart In this week’s Torah reading, the pagan seer Balaam is hired to curse the people of Israel, but every time he tries, he ends up blessing them instead. In the first of these blessings Balaam …
Weekly Torah Reading, Korah, August 6, 2024
Numbers, chapter 16:1-18:32 Assembling Against Moses This week’s Torah reading recounts the attempted revolt of Koraḥ and his allies. According to Num 16:3, the rebels “assembled” (vay-yiqqahalu) against Moses and Aaron. The same verb appears again in Num 16:19, …
Weekly Torah Reading, Shelaḥ Lekha, June 29, 2024
Numbers 13:1-15:41 One Man Job Commentators have long noticed a contradiction in the Torah’s account of the tribal leaders who were sent to spy out the land of Canaan. In this week’s reading, the idea of sending them clearly came …