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B’haalot’kha: Like His Likeness

Torah Talk with Michael Carasik This week, the temunah of God makes a surprising and rare appearance. As God lets Aaron and Miriam know, it's one more way that Moses is special. (Click here for source sheet.)  Download | Duration: 00:11:51Naso: Speech! Speech!

Torah Talk with Michael Carasik There is something extremely unusual about the way God's voice speaks to Moses in the Tent of Meeting—both grammatically and theologically. (Click here for source sheet.)  Download | Duration: 00:12:17B’midbar: Tribe and Staff

Torah Talk with Michael Carasik When is a tribe not a shevet? When it is a mateh (and vice versa). We begin "the Book of Tribes" this week, and one of the two Hebrew words for "tribe" will play a major role. (Click here for source sheet.)  Download | Duration: 00:11:22B’har-B’hukotai: A Jeffersonian Jubilee

Torah Talk with Michael Carasik It's the section about the jubilee year, so naturally I'm thinking about Mark Twain and Thomas Jefferson. . . (Click here for source sheet.)  Download | Duration: 00:10:48Emor: More than Kin, and Less than Kind

Torah Talk with Michael Carasik Leviticus tells the priests they must avoid ritual contamination with death—unless the death is that of a close family member. But the text uses a standard Hebrew word in a very unusual way in order to issue this command. (Click here for source sheet.)  Download | Duration: 00:10:22Aharei Mot-K’doshim: Abide with Me

Torah Talk with Michael Carasik This week we are told that the Tent of Meeting "abides" in the midst of the Israelites—something that a tent ought not to be doing. (Click here for source sheet.)  Download | Duration: 00:11:28Tazria-M’tzora: Gone to Seed

Torah Talk with Michael Carasik Our text begins by discussing a woman who does the verb tazria before giving birth—but does it mean that she conceives, delivers the baby, or . . . ? (Click here for source sheet.)  Download | Duration: 00:11:54Sh’mini: One Offering Too Many?

Torah Talk with Michael Carasik This week, Aaron gets his first chance to offer a sacrifice—but there are too many people making too many offerings. What's going on? (Click here for source sheet.)  Download | Duration: 00:11:43Vayikra: Beginning in the Middle

Torah Talk with Michael Carasik Who reads what when? This week we're beginning to read the book of Leviticus.  But in the podcast we'll look at a rabbi who walked into a synagogue and found the reading beginning in a surprising place—and we'll see what light that sheds on the tradition of reading the Torah.  (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:10:38Vayakhel-Pekudei: Symbols and Sabbaths

The construction and inauguration of the mishkan (tabernacle) that we have been following for the past month comes to an end, along with the Book of Exodus, in this week's double portion. Curiously, it is enveloped by references and allusions to Shabbat at its outset and at its close.