Shavuot 5783 2023

SHAVUOT RUTH AS SEDUCTRESS “Boaz ate and drank, and in a cheerful mood went to lie down beside the grain pile. Then she went over stealthily and uncovered his feet and lay down.”  (Ruth 3:7)             On...

Parshat Bemidbar 5783 2023

PARSHAT BEMIDBAR NATURE AND NURTURE “On the first day of the second month they convoked the whole company [of fighters], who were registered by the clans of their ancestral houses—the names of those aged twenty years and over being listed head by head.”  ...

Parshat Behar Behukotai 5783 2023

PARSHAT BEHAR BEHUKOTAI MOUNTAINS “The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai.”  (Leviticus 25:1)             Whenever I conduct an unveiling (the dedication of a memorial stone), I begin with the Biblical...

Parshat Emor 5783 2023

PARSHAT EMOR COUNTING EACH EVENING “From the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete.”  (Leviticus 23:15)...

Parshat Tazria-Metzora 5783 2023

PARSHAT TAZRIA-METZORA JUDAISM’S SIX GENDERS “Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be ritually impure seven days.”  (Leviticus 12:2) “If she bears a female, she shall be impure two weeks as during her...