I don't usually watch a lot of TV, but this summer I find myself glued to the Tour de France bike race and the Olympics. Watching bikers and sprinters and pole jumpers move through the air at the speed of light, I can sometimes feel a little pathetic as I sit stationary on my couch. However, Ekev, our portion this...
In this week's Torah portion, we read how Moses fervently prayed that he be granted the privilege of entering the Promised Land. "Oh Lord ... let me go over, I pray Thee, and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan ... but the Lord was wroth with me ... and hearkened not unto me; and the Lord said...
The book of Numbers opened with a list of the heads of the tribes of Israel and with the preparations for the journey toward the land of Israel. Here it ends with the portion Masei, recounting the journeys or marches that the Israelites have just completed. This is a more narrative list than the first. The starting point of each...
This week's Torah reading begins by dealing with the aftermath of a horrific event at the end of last week's reading. God has brought a plague on the Israelites because of their sexual immorality and idolatry. In the midst of the plague, an Israelite publicly sins with a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation. Pinchas,...
In the midst of our book of wandering, a Moabite sovereign engages a seer from a distant land in the hopes of cursing and thus defeating the Israelites. In the central irony of this fanciful tale that opens with the verb " vayar " (he saw), neither king Balak nor the hireling Balaam are able to "see" the Israelites. Balaam...
Sivan 10, 5773
