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.
Picture Moses before the rock. Not the strike—the moment before it. The rod is raised. The people are behind him, assembled as they have been assembled a hundred times before, with the same complaint they have lodged a hundred times before. Miriam is three days in the ground. Aaron stands beside his brother, the last […]
Og, King of Bashan, and the Tragedy of Seeing Without Perceiving The battle at Edrei takes three verses. Numbers 21:33–35 dispatches it with the economy of a ledger entry: Og came out, Israel fought, Og fell, his sons fell, his land was taken. No eulogy. No elaboration. The narrative moves on without looking back. But the Talmud
The catastrophe of Korach begins with one of the truest sentences spoken in the wilderness. This is what makes the story so difficult to read honestly. If Korach had lied, distorted revelation, or denied Sinai outright, the narrative would be simple. Instead, Torah presents something far more unsettling: a man speaking genuine truth while moving
דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם וְעָשׂוּ לָהֶם צִיצִת עַל־כַנְפֵי בִגְדֵיהֶם לְדֹרֹתָם וְנָתְנוּ עַל־צִיצִת הַכָּנָף פְּתִיל תְּכֵלֶת Daber el-b’nei Yisra’el v’amarta aleihem v’asu lahem tzitzit al-kanfei vigdeihem l’dorotam v’nat’nu al-tzitzit ha-kanaf p’til t’khelet Speak to the Israelites and say to them that they must make for themselves a tassel on the corners of their garments, throughout
Parashat Shelach Revisited Read More »
Speak to the Israelites and say to them that they must make for themselves a tassel on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and they must affix a wool thread dyed turquoise onto the tassel of each corner. This tassel will be for you. You must look at it and recall all the
The Mishkan has no windows. The menorah is not there to help anyone see. Inside a windowless tent, in perpetual shadow, stands a lamp that faces away from every human being who might need its light. Its seven flames are directed inward—toward the central shaft, toward the Parochet, the curtain that screens the Holy of Holies,
Parashat Beha’alotcha Read More »
Even though each of them presented an identical offering, they offered it regarding significant matters, and each and every one presented according to his perspective. —Bamidbar Rabbah 13:14 Numbers 7 is the longest chapter in the Torah. It is also, by almost any measure, the most repetitive. Twelve tribal princes bring offerings to dedicate the
Parashat Naso Revisited Read More »
On the first day, Naḥshon son of Amminadab of the tribe of Judah presented his offering: one silver bowl weighing 130 shekels and one silver basin of 70 shekels by the sanctuary weight, both filled with choice flour with oil mixed in, for a grain offering; one gold ladle of 10 shekels, filled with incense…
The forty-ninth day ends. For seven weeks the counting has moved through the lower sefirot—each day a rung, each week a deeper register of interiority, the soul examined in its capacity for love, for discipline, for endurance, for humility. The Omer is a descent with a purpose: to arrive somewhere ready. And then the fiftieth day
The Night We Stay Awake Read More »
Seu et rosh kol adat b’nei Yisrael—Lift the head of the entire congregation of Israel… — Numbers 1:2 Bamidbar has always been the portion the rabbis work hardest to redeem. Open it and you find numbers—a great many of them. Six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty men of fighting age, distributed across twelve tribes, each
