Weekly Torah Reading, Re’eh, August 31, 2019

The Children of God   This week’s reading contains an odd injunction: “You are children of the Lord your God,” it 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, 2019

The Shema, Part II The Shema (“Shema Yisrael,” etc.) is rightly thought of as summing up the basic message of the Torah. But what is that message? We saw last week that it was not simply “Don’t worship any other …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Va-etḥannan, August 17, 2019

What Did the Shema Originally Mean?   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, August 10, 2019

Mystery Man   This week’s portion, Devarim, always precedes the reading of the book of Lamentations on the ninth of the Hebrew month of Ab, which commemorates of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. As the name indicates, Lamentations consists …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Mattot and Mas‘ei, August 2, 2019

In Israel: Mas ‘ei   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 …

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Weekly Torah Reading, July 27, 2019

In Israel: Mattot   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 …

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Weekly Torah Reading, July 20, 2019

Weekly Torah Reading, July 20, 2019   In Israel: Pinehas The Priest Who Never Died   Last week’s Torah reading ended with Pineḥas (known in English as Phineas) slaying a flagrantly offending couple, thereby turning aside God’s wrath. For his …

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Weekly Torah Reading, July 13, 2019

In Israel: Balak Just Leave Us Alone 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 …

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