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Showing posts from December, 2007

Accept No Substitutes

Parashat Behar-Bechukotai (Revised May 8, 2026) This week's double parashah, Behar and Bechuotai, bring to a close the book of Vayikra, a book the all-consuming focus of which is, undoubtably, KEDUSHAH, holiness. The last chapter is concerned largely with the kind of vows people make in dedicating something to the service of Hashem in the Mikdash. There are many laws regulating this seemingly noble motivation and its accompanying action, but my attention was taken this time around by the following law: "If (the devoted thing) is an animal of the kind from which an offering is brought to Hashem, any one which is given to Hashem shall be kodesh . One shall not exchange it ( lo yachalifenu ) nor shall one substitute for it ( yamir oto ), good for bad or bad for good; now if one DOES substitute for it, it will be that it and its substitute will be kodesh ." Vayikra 27:10-11  This mitzvah turns out to be very curious, because one is lashed for its intentional violation...
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Miketz 5768

So Par'oh dreams, seven fat cows devoured by seven scrawny ones, and he suddenly wakes up; he sleeps again, dreams, seven substantial stalks of grain devoured by seven withered ones, he wakes up - it's a dream. Evidently, he fell asleep again, for the Torah goes on to say, "And when morning came, vatipa'em rucho , he sent for and called his wizards and wisemen and told them the dream, but none could interpret it to Par'oh's satisfaction. Then the cupbearer remembers Yosef . He tells of what happened in jail, how Yosef correctly interpreted the dreams, Par'oh sends for him, he is washed and made presentable, comes before Par'oh , gives Hashem the credit for the correct interpretation of the cupbearer's dream, and precedes to hear and interpret Par'oh's dreams to Par'oh's satisfaction. What is vatipa'em rucho ? Rashi quotes Onkelos , "his spirit was shaken" and goes on: "it was ringing inside him like a ...
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Vayigash 5768

"Oh, Abba, you're stopping right at the metach" - this is inevitably the claim of our kids when we've read them bedtime stories over the years - we stop right at the height of the action, the tension (the literal translation of metach). Never mind that ANYWHERE we'd stop our reading would be "right at the metach" for kids who don't want to go to bed - everyone know that a good storyteller knows how to leave his/her reader in the creative suspense of a moment, a dilemma that must be resolved in one of (usually) two ways, each one leading the characters on very different paths. That's what the Torah does when we come to the end of last week's Parashah, Miketz, when Yosef has planted his "divining" goblet in Binyamin's sack, and, after the brothers have departed, sends his chamberlain after them with accusations of theft. The brothers swear they didn't take anything, and vow the thief should be executed. When it's found in ...
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Vayechi 5768

The great thing about monotheism is that we all pray to the same G-d!! At least, that's what they tell you. "Why can't there be peace between the peoples of the world, it's all the same, just with different names". This is asserted as a truism regarding the (drum roll, please!) "Three Great Western Faiths". Additionally, Zoroastrianism, a world religion which has fallen upon the hardest of times for the last thousand years or so, and the paradigm of dualism in the eyes of the Sages, is really monotheistic, if you read the encyclopedia article. Buddhism may not be theistic, but at least it's mono. And even the carnival of gods that Hinduism sports, we are told, are merely manifestations of THE ONE. But, I assert, this is mere childishness. Just SAYING that one believes there is one god doesn't translate into a living relationship with Hashem - even where that assertion is expressed as profound theology. This is because the Oneness of Hashem is not...
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Shemot 5768

It's been remarked (at least by me, maybe by others) that the name Shemot is an ever-so-fitting title for this Chumash. The entire book is held together by revisiting the theme of names. Hashem's Name presented and represented in various settings, changing as the situation calls for, is only the most prominent of the name-themes woven throughout the text. We'll note a few others in this week's parashah: The names of Ya'acov and his sons are repeated at the opening of the chumash/parashah, though the same passage occurs with more detail only a few chapters back in Parshat Vayigash. The names of seemingly minor characters, the two midwives, Shif'rah and Pu'ah, (Rashi says they were Yidden; Ramban says they were Egyptian) are announced. The people in formation are named by Par'oh - AM B"NEI YISRAEL Moshe is named by Bat Par'oh when he is drawn from the Nile. Moshe names his son Gershom in a distant land. Moshe asks Hashem's name and Hashem tell...
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