Parasha of the Week

VAYECHI , And He Lived When some one great passes from this world it is insufficient to say they died. Their vitality and contributions to the richness of life is long-lasting. Their values, principles and teachings live on in generations yet to be born. That is why like Mother Sarah, Father Jacob’s passing begins with the words, “And he lived.” There is an anomaly in this week’s Torah portion. It is not separated from last week’s Torah portion. That is, there is no space between the end of last week’s parsha and the beginning of this week’s parsha. In the Amida and other prayers we invoke the names of the progenitors of our faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The fact that there is no separation between their lives the new beginning of the Israelite nation teaches that the chain of tradition remains unbroken from the patriarchs and matriarchs and the new chapter of Joseph and the subsequent enslavement in Egypt. So may it be said of us when we are...

Shmini means eight.  That so the name of this week’s Torah portion.   Why is a week seven days?  Because God created the world in seven days.  Is there any culture, anywhere on earth that does not observe a seven day week?  A more natural or obvious number would be five or ten.  Seven only makes sense coming from the Creation story.  And every place, religion, nationality, and ethnicity on earth observes the same week! Remember the tale from Genesis: God created a universe that was fully formed and then left mankind with a single task, “to till and tend it.”  In other words, our task began on the eighth day.  Seven are also the days of shivah.  When they are completed we rise up to begin life anew.  This too is the eighth day. In the mystic tradition it is said that we are now living in the eighth day.  This is humanity’s time and opportunity to perfect the worl...

There are legends that abound in our faith.  One of them is that whatever has been brought into existence can never be wiped away.  That which was, is, and will be.  It is interesting that the laws of physics state the same principle of “conservation of mass,” matter cannot be destroyed. In the parasha this week, Tzav, the Torah speaks of the fire in the altar that shall continually burn.  In the desert’s Mishkan and later in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem that same fire burned.  So what happened to that flame when the Temple was destroyed? Rabbi Morris Silverman noted that the word in the Torah used to describe the placement of the fire is  bo .   Bo indicates that the fire would burn in it (or him).  Just as matter does not disappear so our sages taught us that the fire was transferred into every Jew’s soul.  There the fire burns continually.  Each time we do a mitzvah the flames grow ...

This Shabbat is called Shabbat Zachor, so named because of the maftir reading we append to the regular Torah reading. The muftir reading commands, "Remember what Amalek did to you..." (Deuteronomy 25). Who was Amalek?  What did he do?  And why are we commanded to remember him? When the Jewish people were exiting Egypt there were suddenly attacked by an army of people under the leadership of Amalek. Ruthlessly, they cut down the weakest and most vulnerable, the aged and infirmed.  Moses, with God's intervention, stopped the attack but not before many were slain by Amalek's terror. This was the first time in Jewish history that an unprovoked attack upon our people was thrust on us.  We were bewildered. Why did he attack? What had we done to offend? What did we do to incur his wrath? The answer is nothing. We had the audacity to breathe.   The reason why we are commanded to remember this event and this man is because this was the first recorde...

The Torah reading reflects the building of the Mishkan, the Sanctuary in the desert.  Sometimes in Torah the Mishkan is also referred to as a Mishkan Edut , meaning a Sanctuary of Testimony.   The Midrash asks, to what kind of testimony did this Sanctuary attest?  They answer that it was forgiveness in the aftermath of the episode with the Goldn Calf.  It was assumed by all, that after the Israelites built this idol that they had become forever distant from God.  The Mishkan Edut was the indicator of forgiveness, moving forward in a renewed relationship.  The Israelites repented and grew. The same is true for our lives.  When something bad happens in a relationship there are tears, accusations and ultimately a letting go of the bitterness and anger.  At the same time, there must also be a change in the relation, something that will prevent that bad thing from recurring.  We grow and change from our missteps. The Sanctuary was...

A pivotal phrase in this week’s parasha is when the Torah describes the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle).  God makes no demands of the people to bring forward items to be used in its construction.  Rather, He says, “those whose hearts move them.”   When is your heart moved?  What things cause you to feel the rush of meaning and purpose? In  Orchot Tzaddkim , a book on learning to become more spiritual, we are taught that whenever you do something purposeful, not for self-interest but for the sake of the other, we approach this sense of fulfillment.  Further, when we reach even more deeply inward and act knowing we are doing what God wants us to do, we become spiritually expansive.  Our soul soars and we know what it means to be whole. We often look for spiritual highs by gratifying our self - gorging, drinking buying, scouting for new technologies to purchase - but these “highs” are ephemeral.  What g...

Moses ascends Mt. Sinai for the second time to receive the Torah from God.  The first tablets were smashed when Moses came down from the mountain to find that the Jewish people had crafted a golden calf. According to Talmud sage Reish Lakish congratulates Moses on the destruction of the first tablets of stone while receiving the second.  Why would Reish Lakish say such a thing?  Can you image someone saying that the breaking of the stones inscribed by the finger of God was a good thing? Perhaps what Reish Lakish meant was that for anything to be truly appreciated we must first earn it.  We need to become worthy of the gift received.  We need to feel like we deserve it.  The Jewish nation regretted its actions, did  teshuvah , and only then did Moses climb Sinai to meet God again and claim the Torah. Every day we are confronted with the question of self-worth, which is affirmed or denied by our actions.  E...