How We Build Character
Jun 4, 2011 By Marjorie Lehman | Commentary | Naso
Parashat Naso begins with the appointment of the Levite families of Gershon and Merari to take care of the Mishkan, the Israelites’ portable sanctuary in the desert. While Aaron and his family were given the responsibility of overseeing the actual service of God in the Mishkan, the descendants of Gershon and Merari were defined as mere helpers, charged with the role of caring for the structure of the Mishkan, its cloths, its equipment, its posts and their sockets, its planks, pegs, and furnishings. I have always wondered鈥攚hy did God divide up the care of the Mishkan in this way?
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“Lights, Camera, Action!”
Jun 11, 2011 By Deborah Miller | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
We’ve all heard the adage about the opera not being over until the fat lady sings. But the opera doesn’t begin, at least not at the Metropolitan Opera, until the chandeliers go up. The performance starts even before the curtain opens, as the twinkling crystal chandeliers ascend to the ceiling. The stage has been set for something illuminating, magical, and transcendent. We are invited to enter into an alternate realm that whisks us away from the finite and ordinary world we inhabit.
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Israel, Evil Speech, and the Spies
Jun 18, 2011 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Shelah Lekha
The other scouts had not in fact stated that it was impossible to defeat the peoples of Canaan, yet Caleb seems to have understood this as being the import of their words. Why so?
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The Perils of Leadership
Jul 2, 2011 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Hukkat
Great leadership is about successfully orchestrating change. Whether within organizations, communities, or other social systems, leadership involves developing a vision of the future and implementing strategies to achieve this vision. Exercising leadership means motivating and inspiring people to change habits, attitudes, and values that hold them back from reaching their goals.
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Balam: Prophet, Sorcerer, Saint or Sinner?
Jul 9, 2011 By Jonathan Lipnick | Commentary | Balak
Reading Parashat Balak along with Rashi, the medieval 12th-century French exegete par excellence, one quickly discovers how vilified Balaam is in Midrash. But not all biblical commentators side with Rashi. There’s a fantastic chapter by Nehama Leibowitz (1905鈥�1997) in Studies of Bamidbar entitled “Prophet or Sorcerer?” Rabbi Jacob Milgrom (1923鈥�2010), too, has an article on the subject entitled “Balaam: Saint or Sinner?” in his extraordinary The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers.
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The Danger of Separation
Jul 23, 2011 By Ute Steyer | Commentary | Mattot
There seems to be great fluidity in using tribal affiliations: the story here switches between Moabites and Midianites, and the tribe who sold Josef as a slave is identified in Genesis as both Ishmaelite and Midianite (Gen. 37). Little importance is put on keeping the records straight on who did what and why. This leads me to believe that this account of the war against Midian is not about revenge at all but something else.
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“On the Road”
Jul 30, 2011 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Masei
Standing at the precipice of the Promised Land, Moshe looks back with the people and relates their journey with the same sweeping overview that Sal Paradise narrates. 鈥淭hese were the marches of the Israelites who started out from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moses and Aaron鈥� (33:1). What follows through the first half of the parashah is a virtual Trip Tik of the journeys of the children of Israel.
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Tears at the Moon
Aug 13, 2011 By Vivian B. Mann <em>z”l</em> | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
Throughout my youth, I sat next to my grandmother in the synagogue. When we recited the Blessing Over the New Moon, in which we beseech God for a spiritually rewarding life that knows no physical impediments, my grandmother would cry. Each month, I remember her tears and they deepen my understanding of the prayer.
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