This week’s Parashat Chukat starts with a description of a ceremony called Para Aduma, the ritual of offering a red heifer. This ritual was supposed to enable people who touched a corpse or stayed with it in one room to purify themselves from ritual impurity. This purification took place through the use of ashes obtained […]

The rebellion that always fails. Thoughts on parashat Korach.

This week’s Torah portion includes one of those not entirely clear stories, which are typically difficult to translate into modern language and modern mentality – the story of Korach and his dissent:

Now Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, betook himself, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth — descendants of[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Sh’lach Our Torah portion for this week tells us a story of 12 spies sent by Moses to investigate the Promised land before conquering it. They return forty days later, carrying a huge cluster of grapes, a pomegranate and a fig, to report on a lush and bountiful land. But ten of […]

Thoughts on parashat Beha’alotcha

As the old joke goes, “Ask two Jews, you will get three opinions!”. Indeed, Judaism is a religion of intellectual pluralism and it itself resists monolithic interpretations in almost any area of human life and spirituality. Our religion is fundamentally a religion of action: we are bound by the same ethical and […]

Thoughts on parashat Nasso.

One of the fundamental philosophical and at the same time practical problems underlying all religions is how to control things that are beyond our control. Therefore, throughout history intoxicants received religious, and often legal attention. One of the ways in which our religion[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Bechukotai Our Torah portion for this week is called Bechukotai, which can be translated as “in my laws”. It starts with אם־בחקתי תלכו (im bechukotai telechu – lit. ‘if you walk in my laws’) and centers on a brief but eloquent promise of blessings for those who follow God’s ways and an […]