Beit Polska Blog

Thoughts on Parashat Bamidbar

We perform mitzvot and do many things to achieve certain goals. We do them because they are meaningful, because they improve our life and the life of others; we expect the desirable outcomes to happen; among positive outcomes of our actions there are things we perceive as ‘rewards’, ‘changes we want to happen’ etc. Some of those expected outcomes can be considered miracles, depending on their likelihood within the state of matters at the moment we wish something to[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Behar-Bechukotai

I was born in Poland, in a country where many fundamental human freedoms were taken away for 45 years; they were taken away by autocrats who believed that the historical progress of humanity gave them knowledge of the ultimate causes of all injustices in the human world. They believed that this awareness gave them a never ending mandate to rule the country. One of the reasons their reign lasted so long was that no one was able to question, or even to point out at their limited knowledge, narrow understanding of history, their arrogance and power-greed. But there were also other reasons why this system[…]

This week’s Torah portion, Emor, describes the requirements that the priests who served in the Temple were supposed to meet. These expectations stemmed from the role the priests played in serving the Eternal: [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God; […]