Weekly Torah Reading Vayyelekh September 19, 2015
Moses Didn’t Want to Die In this week’s Torah reading, God instructs Moses that the time has come for him to die—in fact, He says this more than once. The reading opens with Moses relating that “the Lord said …
Weekly Torah Reading Nitzavim Sept. 12, 2015
A Minor Change in Translation “Today, you are all standing before the Lord your God,” this week’s reading opens, “your chiefs, your tribes, your elders, your officials, every man of Israel.” But there’s something wrong with this list (which …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tavo, September 5, 2015
Reuben, Where Art Thou? “Today,” Moses tell the Israelites, “you have become the people of the Lord your God” (Deut 27:9) Our Rabbis asked: What did he mean by “today”? Wasn’t Israel chosen to be God’s own people …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tetze, August 29, 2015
Remembering Amalek At the very end of this week’s reading comes a well-known commandment, “Remember what Amalek did to you along the way as you were leaving Egypt.” The reference is to the battle fought between the Amalekites and …
Weekly Torah Reading, Shofetim, August 22, 2015
How to Make War This week’s reading, Shofetim, mentions a number of issues having to do with warfare. The first of these concerns the institution of kingship. Elsewhere in the ancient Near East, kings were virtually all-powerful: in Mesopotamia, …
Weekly Torah Reading, Re’eh, August 15, 2015
Children of the Lord “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 have children of …
Weekly Torah Reading, Ekev, August 8, 2015
Not by Bread Alone 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; the title of a Russian novel by …
Weekly Torah Reading August 1, 2015
The Real Shema According to one 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 “bind it” with what follows; that is, …