Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

With a Torah portion, filled with so many details of so many commandments it is hard to decide which issue to single out. Some have theological questions lurking behind them, some practical and technical ones. Some scream 'I represent social justice, pick me!' If that isn't enough, we bless the new moon this Shabbat, ushering in the month of Elul. I know of someone who already received an invitation to a Rosh Hashana meal, how can Elul not be addressed? Read more...

More than any other book of Jewish text or literature, we jews read the siddur, the prayer book. As we imagine and re-imagine our relationship to our people and to God, we engage our heart, mind, and soul in the words of the siddur, sifting through generations of Jewish theology, belief, practice and history. No prayer is more central to daily liturgy than the Shema, the quintessential statement of faith that reminds us of the totality of the covenant we share with God. Read more...

The rabbis had two names for the book of the Torah we begin reading this week. It is, on the one hand, known as D'varim, after one of its opening words, just as other books of the Torah are named. Yet on the other hand, it is also called Mishneh Torah, a "repetition of the Torah" (indeed, the translation of this phrase into Greek, Deuteronomion, gives us the common name by which we know it in English, Deuteronomy). Read more...

I am always in awe of people who can learn and speak multiple languages. As a high school student I spent four years learning Spanish. And, despite how it might seem today, I was really quite proficient. The problem was that when I entered college and returned to learning the Hebrew I had begun in elementary school, my words kept coming out in Spanish. Over time, I found myself blocking more and more of the Spanish to the degree that while I can still understand some basic conversations, it is far more difficult to formulate full sentences to have a meaningful conversation. Read more...

There is a part of all of us that is anal-compulsive. To some degree we all want things to be neat and clean. We want them to be clear, and to stay the same, so that we can know what to expect in the future and be assured that our own view of everything is correct. Read more...