Rabbi Daniel Bouskila: Sephardic Torah
Who will be left to pray
gratitude for the body
of our planet
if currents fail?
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: confluence of climate grief and raging anti-semitism
Who will be left to pray
gratitude for the body
of our planet
if currents fail?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z/l: Bechukotai The Rejection of Rejection
Rabbi Sacks describes the last parashah of Leviticus as a “rejection of rejection”. In this, he reminds us to the original basis for much of the anti-Semitic history of our civilization—that God rejected the Jews—Abraham’s physical descendants—for Christians—Abraham’s spiritual descendants. He quotes Lev. 26:44-45, which states that God will not cast away His people, nor break His covenant with them.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z/l: Parashat Behar Minority Rights
Rabbi Sacks observes that while the Torah commands us once to love our neighbor, it commands us 36 times to love the stranger. The obligation to the ger includes the right to live in the Holy Land and the right to share in its welfare provisions. This is an ancient law, way before the Talmudic principles of charity and care to non-Jews as well as Jews.
Rabbi Deena Cowans: Parashat Emor Parashat Emor and Disability Justice
Rabbi Cowans addresses the conflict over the different standards for people with “normative” bodies and people with “other” bodies, and how the text seems discriminatory and ableist. She raises the concept that sacrificial work in the Temple was physically challenging. However, she asks, ‘why shouldn’t the Torah be more inclusive?’ She continues to say that “the messianic future is not one without disability. It is one where inclusion is innate.”
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z/l: Parashat Emor The Duality of Jewish Time
Holiness of time is the key essence of Emor in its list of festivals and holy days. Rabbi Sacks reminds us that the first thing God declared holy was a day: Shabbat. The first mitzvah was the command to sanctify time. The Prophets were the first people in history to see time itself “as the arena of the Divine-human encounter”. Rabbi Sacks continues to address the myriad was in which the holiness of time forms an essential aspect of Judaism.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Place of Promise
Please follow the link below to read Rabbi Barenblat’s beautiful poem — a somewhat different perspective on the parashah
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z/l: Acharei Mot Holy People, HolyLand
Rabbi Sacks explores the theme of why Jews need their own land. On the one hand, the Torah is based on the theme of the promised land, and the journey there. On the other hand, cannot Judaism be practiced anywhere? The text of the parashah stipulates exile from the land for defiling the laws. Parashat Bechukotai also makes the same stipulation. He raises the issue that “Jews never relinquished the dream of return.”
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer: What Does it Mean to Say: ‘All Who are Hungry Come and Eat’?
We start our Seder with this phrase, but how practical is it, when taken literally? Literal interpretation changed to mean ‘feeding the poor in advance so they won’t have to beg on Passover’. So why do we still say it if it isn’t meant literally? Rabbi Kaunfer explores how to enact this line in other ways.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z/l: Metzora Is there such a thing as Lashon Tov?
Rabbi Sacks carries over the theme of speech in his drash on Metzora. Intriguingly, the Talmud doesn’t address the corollary, lashon tov. Shouldn’t it be a mitzvah to speak well of someone if it’s a sin to do the opposite? Please follow the link below to read his analysis of different Talmudic passages on the topic of speech, both good and bad, where the most common perspective is that both are not advisable: