Joyful Compassionate Abundance
“And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste–it is the LORD’S passover” (וְכָכָה, תֹּאכְלוּ אֹתוֹ–מָתְנֵיכֶם חֲגֻרִים, נַעֲלֵיכֶם בְּרַגְלֵיכֶם וּמַקֶּלְכֶם בְּיֶדְכֶם; וַאֲכַלְתֶּם אֹתוֹ
Tzav continues the story of love, betrayal, jealousy and restoration begun in Ki Tissa, the Golden Calf episode. Ki Tissa was a remarkable account of “the deep wound in G-d that results from Israelite infidelity, a statement of the profound interdependence of the Israelites not
WHAT CREATION HAS TO DO WITH LEVITICUS The first chapters of Genesis tell a story about the creation of the world. It’s easy to read the story as a fanciful tale of a world without death, a world in which all of nature
Sometimes it’s more about what’s not said than what is. That is the case in the coming week’s Torah portion, a double, Vayahkel-Pekudei. AARON’S FALL FROM GRACE If the first half of Tetzaveh represented the apex of Aaron’s power and authority as high priest,
Ki Tissa, “When you take a sum…,” is filled with things to contemplate! It fascinates me that these stories consistently reveal narrative structures, a scaffolding of sorts, that supports meaning. I’m not always sure what the meaning is — that might be
Tetzaveh (Ex 27:20-28:43) continues the narrative that began in Yitro describing the structure of a local community, Israel, and relationships within it and with other “domains,” transcendence and creation. As in Terumah, which describes construction of the Tabernacle and Tent of Meeting, Terumah
Terumah (Ex 25:1-27:19) relates G-d’s instructions to the Israelites for building the Tabernacle, the portable structure that serves as G-d’s “home” during the desert wandering. I’m going to include the rest of chapter 27 (Ex 27:20-21) in my discussion since it relates
This post was made to my personal Facebook page, but I decided to add it to my blog as part of my own record of progress. On January 1, 2016, I started a year-long project of taking pictures out my back door.
If the first three chapters of Genesis outline the relationships between G-d, creation and human beings, Yitro repeats that equation in the section on the 10 “Words” but with the significant additional element of a particular society (Israel, signified by “neighbor”). Mishpatim (Ex 21:1
Yitro (Ex 18:1-24:18) begins with a story of working out the relationship between Moses and the Israelites and ends with a story of working out the relationship between the Israelites, G-d and the natural world. Choreography mediates these negotiations, which seem to suggest