Parashat B'ha'alotacha

As is often the case with our weekly portions, this week’s is no different, and outside of the first section, from which it takes its name, there is so much to focus on. I am often struck, as I read the weekly portion, by the sheer breadth of topics that is covered within such […]

To become a Nazirite seems a holy choice: to dedicate yourself to God and abstain from intoxicants and hair-cutting.  Yet in Parashat Naso the ritual for ending a period of Nazirite living includes bringing a sin offering – so what was the sin in this period of ‘holy’ living? Drawing on Mishnah Nedarim 9:1, […]

Something missing
“Moses and Aaron took those men, who were designated by name, and on the first day of the second month they convoked the whole congregation, who were registered by the clans of their ancestral houses—the names of those aged twenty years and over being listed head by head. As God had commanded Moses, […]

A few weeks ago, my brother stayed with me and we visited the Victoria and Albert museum. At his suggestion we went to the architecture section. As he was absorbed and took great care to look at every maquette, my mind and I wandered off. At some point I found myself looking at the […]

Leviticus is law after law after law. With the exception of two stories. Both involve the death penalty: one carried out by the Divine, one carried out by humans in accordance with divine decree. In both cases, the punishment appears disproportionate to the crime. Both stories feature dead sons. In both cases, their parents […]

The by turns famous and infamous list of forbidden sexual unions in Leviticus 18 of parashat Acharei Mot stands in the middle of two texts that form a sort of introduction and conclusion. The introduction and conclusion share similar themes, telling the Israelites that they should not act like the ways of Egypt or […]

The opening verses of this week’s Torah portion, Tazria-Metzora, detail the instructions to the Israelites about postpartum impurity, which lasts for seven days after the birth of a male child, and double that for a female child. What interests me most about this sequence of verses is not, perhaps surprisingly, the gender disparity; rather, […]

When approaching the Passover story, it is prudent to engage with it in its context as a small part within a rich amalgam of the most diverse literary materials. The story begins, as we all know well, with the Israelites enslaved under Egyptian oppression, and ends with them having gained their freedom thanks to […]