Rabbi Nevins comments on the concept of hereditary holiness – it conflicts with our egalitarian principles. Yet, the mystical ritual of the priestly blessing is something that continues to be highly valued. He continues to discuss the merits, or lack thereof, of the person who today holds the heritage of the kohanim; the Tanakh is clear about the requirement for the kohanim to be honorable in order to fulfill their office.
Rabbi Barenblat relates the census in this week’s parashah, which stipulates that each person matters. She ties the theme to the loss of life from recent anti-Semitic attacks, as well as the violence from the war in Gaza. She observes that, according to the Torah, the death of any human being is the destruction of an entire world.
The role of the Nazirite was to essentially renounce desire; the text is unclear as to why someone would make this choice. The Torah has mixed views on this, whether it is a positive or negative practice. Maimonides even contradicts himself. Rabbi Sacks states that according to Maimonides, there are actually 2 models of a virtuous life, instead of just 1. They result from 2 ways of understanding the meaning of a moral life.
Rabbi Cohen writes of finding meaning in every single life, especially during times of violence. Just as the absence of a single letter renders the Sefer Torah unfit for use, the absence of one single person due to violence prevents us from fulfilling our divine mission. The counting of individuals in the Torah is different from times when people were counted as commodities, or for other nefarious purposes, such as by the Nazis. In Bemidbar, it is a way that God expresses God’s love for Israel.
Rabbi Bouskila writes of Rev Karo and Rav Alkabetz, who heard the voice of the Shekhina on Erev Shavuot, and wrote the Maggid Mesharim. The Maggid Mesharim covered the Creation of the World, the Revelation on Mt. Sinai, and the account of Ezra Nehemia’s return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple: “from exile to redemption”.
The Torah reads like a narrative of events as they occurred, interspersed with commandments: this is what happened, these are the rules. But it is really about truths that emerge through time. Ancient Israel found truth in history, events, and what God told us to learn from them, unlike the ancient Greeks, who sought truth by contemplating nature and reason.
Rabbi Sacks comments on the nature of the economy: “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” This phenomenon is the object of the legislation in parashat Behar. The Sabbatical and Jubilee years have the specific purpose of redistributing assets among the population. At the heart of the Tanakh, and in the words of the prophets, each person should be able to establish a basis of economic independence.
Rabbi Sacks comments on the nature of the economy: “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” This phenomenon is the object of the legislation in parashat Behar. The Sabbatical and Jubilee years have the specific purpose of redistributing assets among the population. At the heart of the Tanakh, and in the words of the prophets, each person should be able to establish a basis of economic independence
Rabbi Gold questions the admonition in Leviticus: “If you follow all these commandments…you will be rewarded. If you do not, you will pay the price…”. This contrasts with a reality where good people suffer and others who act immorally do not suffer. She focuses on the spiritual challenge: it is our inner state of consciousness, rather than outer circumstances, that determines whether our life is Heaven or Hell.” Please follow the link below to read the full article:
Among the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust was one young woman named Hana Szenes. Already having emigrated from Hungary to the land of Israel, she volunteered to return as a parachutist and aid the British in a special operation to save her landsmen, Hungarian Jews, from deportation to death camps. Hana was caught, tortured, and executed by firing squad. She refused to give up any information to the Nazis. She was 23. This is her poem, A Walk in Caesarea, arranged and performed by The Shvesters and Omri Bar Giora.