Encounters with sacred text — weekly parashah reflections, midrashic exploration, and close readings drawn from the Torah and tradition. These writings return to the scroll not as artifacts of the past, but as living sources of moral clarity, questioning, and renewal.
You shall be holy, for I the L’rd your G‑d am holy.—Leviticus 19:2 Parashat Kedoshim is among the densest portions in the weekly parashah cycle. In the span of a single chapter, Torah covers the corners of the field left for the poor, the prohibition on theft and lying, the fair treatment of workers, the […]
For on this day purgation will be effected for you, to purify you of all your sins; before YHVH you will become pure.—Leviticus 16:30 The rabbi has been standing at the functional center since morning. By the time neilah approaches—the closing prayer, the sealing of the gates—the exhaustion visible on him is not the tiredness of a
Parashat Acharei Mot Read More »
This shall be the law of the metzora on the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest.—Leviticus 14:2 The metzora has been standing at the edge of the camp for an unspecified period of time. He is not simply sick. The tradition is precise about this. He is the person whose corrupted speech—speech
Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be impure seven days; she shall be impure as at the time of her condition of menstrual separation. … She shall remain in a state of blood purification for thirty-three days… Leviticus 12:2, 4 There is a moment that
Parashat Tazria…Revisited Read More »
Parashat Tazria opens in territory that makes most modern readers uncomfortable. Leviticus 12 addresses the impurity of a woman after childbirth. Leviticus 13 turns to skin afflictions: inflammations, rashes, shiny spots, discolorations. The priest examines, pronounces, sends away or admits. Most commentators treat it as a historical curiosity—a diagnostic manual for conditions that no longer
Some things cannot be spoken. Not because the words are forbidden, not because the throat has closed from grief, but because the thing itself stands outside the reach of language. Words require edges—a beginning, an end, a container that can hold meaning. Some encounters dissolve those edges entirely. What remains, when the edges are gone,
You don’t notice a fire going out. Not at first. The room cools so gradually that by the time you feel it, the coals have been dark for hours. The wood is ash. The morning is already gone. This is not how fires die in stories. In stories, fires are extinguished—by wind, by water, by
The book of Leviticus opens with blood and fire and the smell of burning flesh. Most modern readers recoil—or skip it entirely. This is a mistake. What looks like primitive ritual is, on closer reading, a sophisticated theology of approach. It asks a question that has never stopped being relevant: how does a finite creature
The final parashah of Exodus opens not with drama but with a ledger. Eileh pekudei ha-Mishkan—these are the accountings of the Mishkan. What follows is precise: 29 talents and 730 shekels of gold. 100 talents and 1,775 shekels of silver. 70 talents and 2,400 shekels of bronze. Every ounce of material gathered from the willing
Parashat Vayakhel opens with an assembly. Moses gathers—va-yakhel—the entire community of Israel. Before a single board is cut or a thread spun, Moses does two things. He reaffirms the command to observe Shabbat—even the holy work of building G‑d’s dwelling must stop for it—and then he invites the people to bring the materials from which
