Weekly Torah Reading, Re’eh, August 15, 2020

Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17 Waiting for the “Day of Revenge”   “You are children of the Lord your God,” it says in this week’s Torah reading (Deut 14:1). But what could this possibly mean? In what sense can God be said to …

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Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25 Eat What I Say   The expression “Not by bread alone” has certainly gotten around: it is, among other things, the name of a website promoting a farmer’s market in Green Bay, Wisconsin; an anthropologist’s book about the …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Va-etḥannan, August 1, 2020

  Weekly Torah Reading, Va-etḥannan, August 1, 2020 Deut 3:23-7:11 The Real 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 …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Devarim, July 25, 2020

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-Mas‘ei, July 18, 2020

Numbers 30:2-36:13   The story of the tribes of Reuben and Gad in this week’s Torah reading contains a rather subtle message. Following Israel’s defeat of Midian, the Reubenites and Gadites realize that the territories conquered on the far side …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Pineḥas, July 11, 2020

Numbers 25:10-32:42 An Eternal Priest Last week’s Torah reading ended with a certain Israelite hero slaying a flagrantly offending couple, thereby turning aside God’s wrath. The name of the hero is written Phinehas in English, although Phineas used to be …

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Weekly Torah Reading, July 4, 2020

Inside Israel: Balak  (Numbers 22:2-25:9)   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 …

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Weekly Torah Reading, June 27, 2020

Weekly Torah Reading, June 27, 2020   In Israel, Ḥukkat (Numbers 19:1-22:1)   A Bit Too Confident   This week’s reading relates that, toward the end of their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites ran out of …

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