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B’haalot’kha: Spiritual Authority in Judaism

Is anything touchier in Judaism than the issue of authority?  This week's Torah reading addresses the question of authority head on—and through the person of Moses himself. The answers are unlikely to please either Orthodoxy or Reform Judaism.B’har: Liberty and the Jubilee

This week's reading, though little more than a single chapter, deals with two separate topics: first, the sabbatical year; second, the obligations of family members to a relative in economic distress. What links them is a focus, unusual for the Torah, on macroeconomics.Emor: Judaism, the Temple, and the Royal Wedding

Many Jews today suffer from BCD: Biblical Cognitive Dissonance. The Bible, they feel, should be mostly about morality, accompanied by some nice stories to keep the kids interested and, if one is religiously observant, by a smattering of arbitrary, cut-and-dried laws for regulating one's daily life.Aharei Mot: When a Scapegoat is Not Enough

This week's portion describes one of the most curious rituals found anywhere in the Bible, that of the "scapegoat." It would seem to be a reparative procedure, since the Lord commands it to Moses "after the death of Aaron's two sons": that is, Nadav and Avihu, who (as we learned earlier and are reminded here) were killed after bringing "strange fire" to the altar.Tazria: Purity is Only Skin-Deep

At last, leprosy! Just when we've had our fill of tabernacle ornaments and animal sacrifices, the Torah shows us how arcane it's willing to get.Tzav: Priests, Food, and God

This week's reading, like last week's, delves into the details of the ritual sacrifices performed by the priests in the Tabernacle. These sacrifices can generally be divided into three types: olah, in which the sacrificed animal is burned entirely on the altar, reflecting a solemn commitment and deference to the divine; shlamim, which is mainly brought during personal celebrations and holidays, partly burned, and partly eaten by both the priests and the owner to express the joy of the occasion; and hatat, brought as an atonement for sin and partly burned and partly eaten by the priests but not by...Vayikra: No “I” in Moses

"God summoned Moses and He spoke with him from the Tent of Meeting, saying..." (Leviticus 1:1). The first Hebrew word of this week's portion, itself the first portion in the third book of the Torah, is VAYIKRa: "summoned." That's not a typographical error; the letter aleph at the end of the word is intentionally written in miniature in a Torah scroll (and usually in print as well). This is sufficiently unusual to raise the question: why?T’rumah: Wood in the Wilderness

By Moshe Sokolow  This week's portion summons the Israelites to make free-will offerings (t'rumah) to the tabernacle (mishkan) being built in the desert. Rather than donating money, however, they are called upon to contribute goods that will be used in the construction of the edifice, in its furnishings, and in the manufacture of priestly vestments. Of the dozen or so specific materials requisitioned, one is outstanding in the perplexity it would induce in medieval commentators: acacia trees.Mishpatim: Hebrew Slaves and their Masters

"Should you purchase a Hebrew slave [eved ivri], he shall labor for six years and go free, gratis, in the seventh." This week's portion commences with a topic that is of poignant and almost eerie pertinence in this period of upheaval caused by economic straits, when many Jews have increasingly been compelled to depend on communal and philanthropic welfare. How does a Jew become a slave? And can another Jew become a slave master?Yitro: The Commandments and the Man

There's something confounding about the way the Torah presents the delivery of the Ten Commandments in this week's reading. The revelation at Sinai, the centerpiece of God's message and perhaps the most influential single text ever given to mankind, appears against the backdrop of two poignantly human stories that consistently undercut the mythic stature of Moses.