Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

On the eve of the Festival of Shavuot, celebrating God’s gift of Torah and our ongoing receiving of Torah, it is fitting to share Rabbi Artson’s words delivered at the most recent ordination celebrated by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism. 21 new rabbis were launched in their new service with a community of 1300 celebrants – family, friends, and community to cheer them on. May these words help you to receive the Torah anew this Shavuot, and throughout the year. *** Read more...

Judaism in antiquity was a rugged, grounded faith.   Poised between wandering in the wilderness and entering a promised land, the spirituality of biblical Judaism was one of creation as a sign of God’s greatness and munificence, of learning to love a particular land as our inheritance and as God’s gift. Biblical festivals and holy days pulsated to the cycles of agriculture and of weather, recalling not only the great events of Israel’s past, but also the way the earth could adorn itself and provide for its denizens throughout the year. Read more...

With Parashat Be-Hukkotai, the Book of Leviticus comes to an end. The central book of the Torah, Leviticus is the book of priestly holiness, enjoining the people Israel to become a nation of priests and a holy people. Laws pertaining to ritual purity and impurity, to sexual ethics, as well as a magnificent summation of Torah itself, in the Holiness Code, give this book its abiding value and depth. Read more...

In an age that struggles with the paradox of pockets of fabulous abundance and global poverty and devastation, of power enough to alter the climate but a seeming inability to prevent the recurrence of slavery, in democracies that can’t inspire constituents to bother voting and totalitarians that won’t permit their people’s will to surface, today's Torah portion offers some insight.  Instructing the Israelites on the laws of priestly conduct and the calendar cycle, God then speaks to Moses, saying "Command the Israelite people to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for ki Read more...

With Parashat K’doshim, we begin what the rabbis of the Midrash recognized to be a distinct section of the Torah, "the section dealing with holiness".  In this estimation, they anticipated modern scholarship, which also recognizes a distinct "Holiness Code" within the various strands that comprise our Torah.  Characteristic of this portion of Scripture is the repeated injunction, "You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Read more...