By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant This week’s Torah parsha, Naso, begins with a continuation of last week’s parsha, Bamidbar, completing the census of the Children of Israel and assigning the intricate details of the tasks to be performed by each individual tribe in the transporting of the Tabernacle. With 176 verses, Naso is […]
Posts with the Torah tag
A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: BAMIDBAR (NUMBERS 1:1-4:20)
By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant Last week, we concluded the reading of the Book of Leviticus with the reading of parsha Bechukotai. This week, we begin the Book of Numbers with plans to dismantle the Tabernacle and to rebuild it further into the wilderness. In the second year of the Exodus, God spoke […]
A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: BECHUKOTAI (LEVITICUS 26:3-27:34)
By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant The final parsha in the book of Leviticus, Bechukotai, begins with stunning clarity of the terms of Jewish life under the covenant. In the first part, there is an idyllic picture of the blessing of Divine favor. If the Israelites follow God’s decrees and keep His commandments, there […]
A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: BEHAR (LEVITICUS 25:1-26:2)
By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah, Congregant This week, we read parsha Behar, the penultimate portion of Leviticus. The primary themes of Behar are laws and commandments pertaining to freedom, equality and charity with ‘dignity’. The Lord spoke to Moses and said: “Tell the Children of Israel, you may sow your field for six years, […]
A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: EMOR (LEVITICUS 21:1-24:3)
By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah, Congregant This week’s Torah parsha, Emor, begins with God saying to Moses: “Speak to the Kohanim, and say that none of them can become defiled, impure, or ceremonially unclean by touching a dead person, unless the one who died is a wife or a blood relative”(1). The requisite for […]