Thoughts on Parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim

Our parasha for this week talks about one puzzling feature of the ancient Yom Kippur ritual: the sending of the “scapegoat” to Azazel.

Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before יהוה at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for יהוה and the other marked for Azazel. Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for יהוה, which he is to offer as a sin offering; while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before יהוה, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel.[…]

[maxbutton id=”6″ url=”https://polishjewsreviving.org/szabat-tazria-mecora-szabat-haacmaut/” ] As a student rabbi, once a month I visited a small Jewish community in Germany. My responsibilities there included leading Sunday school activities for children. One day, a week before my next scheduled visit, the chair of the community sent me an email. She suggested that I could liven things up […]

Thoughts on Parashat Shemini

What is God? Who is God? One way to answer these questions is to try to draw the boundaries of the so-called divine reality, as something that goes beyond the reality perceived by our senses, as something whose existence we only intuitively sense and which explains and gives meaning to our experiences. We can start from there. We can also do a contextual analysis of the concept of God in the various scriptures in which it occurs and thus try to approximate who God is. Even though the second approach seems more ‘objective’ it is not:[…]