This week’s Torah portion, Beha’alotecha calls our attention to many themes and ideas from the period of the Israelites’ wandering through the desert.  Amidst the complex and detailed narrative is one short passage has captured my attention this year: Read more...

This week's parashah continues the teachings concerning the sanctuary. It discusses lighting the menorah, the observance of Pesakh Sheni for those unable to observe Passover in its proper time, laws of the first-born and the Levites, and the procedures for breaking camp and walking in the wilderness. Read more...

"Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married: 'He married a Cushite woman!' ... As the cloud withdrew from the Tent, there was Miriam stricken with snow-white scales! And Aaron said to Moses, 'O my lord, account not to us the sin that we committed in our folly...'" (Numbers 12:1, 10, 11) Read more...

Three words in the Torah become six words in Rashi’s commentary. They then become multiple columns of interpretation in the teachings of the Alexander Rebbe (Rabbi Yerachmiel Yisroel Yitzchak Danziger, 1853–1910). The Torah says: "ויעש כן אהרון" (Bamidbar 8:3) – "And Aharon did so". Meaning to say, that Aharon did as God commanded when lighting the menorah, the seven candles in the mishkan (tabernacle). Read more...

"Where's the beef?" Modern consumers (or advertisers) of fast-food were not the first to ask this question. Beginning with this parashah, Beha'alotcha, the book of Bamidbar recounts multiple episodes of rebellion and complaint among the Children of Israel during their journey from Mount Sinai to the Land of Israel. We read in Chapter 11 that the Israelites in the wilderness receive an ample supply of manna (which "tasted like rich cream"; Num. 11:8), but they are not satisfied. Read more...