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		                                    Thinking Torah Blog		                                </span>

07/28/2022 05:00:00 PM

Jul28

Rabbi Josh Whinston

This week marks the end of the Book of Numbers and a significant shift in the Torah narrative. The Israelites have arrived at the doorstep of the Promised Land and Moses spends the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Masei, mentioning all the places the Israelites have encamped over the last 40 years. He is in a reflective mood, as he knows that his time with the people is also coming to end. When I was getting my MA in Jewish...Read more...

07/21/2022 05:00:00 PM

Jul21

Rabbi Josh Whinston

Reading through some sections of the Torah are harder than others. At the moment, we find ourselves in the latter half of Numbers, and the zealotry and genocidal tendencies in the text are beginning to show themselves. Last week, Pinchas was given a covenant of peace from God after he impaled an Israelite and non-Israelite woman while they were being intimate with each other. This week, Moses gets upset with his army commanders after they...Read more...

07/07/2022 05:00:00 PM

Jul7

Rabbi Josh Whinston

I write to you from Jerusalem, where I am in the midst of 10 days of learning at the Shalom Hartman Institute. The Hartman Institute is an incredible center of learning, deeply dedicated to pluralism, Zionism, and Jewish peoplehood. Every year, Hartman welcomes rabbis from across the spectrum of Judaism to learn together and grapple with some of the most challenging questions of Jewish peoplehood today. This year's theme is "Why Israel?," a...Read more...

06/16/2022 05:00:00 PM

Jun16

Rabbi Josh Whinston

In this week’s Torah portion, we encounter the most consequential moment the Israelites have in the desert. Moses sends spies to scout the land before they enter, and 10 of the 12 spies return, saying they cannot defeat the people living there. God punishes the Israelites for their lack of faith by ensuring they wander in the desert for 40 years until a new generation of Israelites can take the leadership of the community. When the scouts...Read more...

06/09/2022 05:00:00 PM

Jun9

Rabbi Josh Whinston

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about how we perceive time and divide time in our lives. What are the touchstones that help us define periods in our life? How do we relate to critical moments that have happened or are going to happen and imagine how they cause us to change? In what ways does shared time establish connection and identity between groups of people?

For our ancestors in the desert, there are several guideposts of...Read more...

05/26/2022 05:00:00 PM

May26

Rabbi Josh Whinston, Cantor Regina Hayut, Rabbi Daniel K. Alter

We are heartbroken by yet another senseless and cruel mass shooting of innocents, a shooting that took the precious souls of so many children and teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. This was the 27th school shooting, one of more than 200 mass shootings in the US just this year.
 
We also lament two more recent mass shootings: at the Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, NY, and at a Taiwanese church in southern California....Read more...

05/20/2022 05:00:00 PM

May20

Rabbi Josh Whinston

When we heard about the leaked draft decision from SCOTUS that will likely regress our country 50 years, we were all angered but not surprised. A few of us decided to head to Washington D.C. to share our outrage. The words below were written by Sagen Fuller, our Religious & Hebrew School Coordinator and member of our congregation:

On Tuesday, Rabbi Whinston, Rabbi Alter, Cantor Hayut, and over ten other representatives of TBE...Read more...

05/05/2022 05:00:00 PM

May5

Rabbi Josh Whinston

In quick order on Tuesday evening, we were able to organize a “teach-in” on reproductive rights in Judaism. Nearly 80 of us gathered in person and on zoom to learn together from Rabbis Nadav Caine, Daniel Alter, and me. We also were able to learn with Rabba Yael Keller, a new member of the Ann Arbor Orthodox community. Reverend Anne Clarke spoke from the Episcopal tradition and Cantor Hayut and Aly Halpert brought meaningful reflective...Read more...

04/28/2022 05:00:00 PM

Apr28

Rabbi Josh Whinston

Today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day for the Jewish community. In our congregation, we are blessed to have Generations After, a group of children of survivors who write about their parent’s experience in the Shoah and their own coping with survivor parents. As has been the case for many years, last night, Generations After led an extraordinary Yom Hashoah service. As I was sitting in the sanctuary, looking around at those in...Read more...

04/21/2022 05:00:00 PM

Apr21

Rabbi Josh Whinston

Jews worldwide read the same Torah portion each week for most of the year. However, this coming Shabbat, there is a divergence between what we read for a few weeks. What is going on? Reform Jews and Jews in Israel only observe seven days of Passover (Yes, you can eat bread on Friday night!), but the rest of world Jewry typically observes eight days. Because the eighth day of Passover falls on Shabbat, many Jews will be reading a...Read more...

04/14/2022 05:00:00 PM

Apr14

Rabbi Josh Whinston

When I was in my high school youth group, the songleaders with their acoustic guitars were often the center of energy around which others orbited. Those songleaders usually had bumper stickers plastered across their guitar cases. One sticker I remember distinctly read, "Straight But Not Narrow." Coming of age in the 90s, thank God, the world was beginning to change concerning the LGBTQ community, and in NFTY (the Reform Movement's youth...Read more...

04/07/2022 05:00:00 PM

Apr7

Rabbi Josh Whinston

There is always a lot to say about this week's Torah portion, Metzora, and its explanation of expiation for the person with scaly skin disease. The rituals involved are fascinating and mirror the priests' appointment rituals. As is often the case, expiation on behalf of the afflicted involves a sacrificial offering, and yet the Torah knows that now all people have the means to make an offering. The Torah acknowledges the different means...Read more...

03/31/2022 05:00:00 PM

Mar31

Rabbi Josh Whinston

With this week’s Torah portion, Tazria, we transition from the ordination of the priests and the bulk of the sacrificial system to skin diseases. In Hebrew, the skin disease in question, called tzara’at, is often translated as leprosy, but it was probably some type of psoriasis. It seems odd that the Torah would spend chapters discussing a skin infection that was not deadly and did not cause much harm to the infected person. For this...Read more...

03/17/2022 05:00:00 PM

Mar17

Rabbi Josh Whinston

While the whackiest holiday we have, Purim is also about a grave issue—saving the Jewish people. We may not be under threat from Haman (boo) today, but Jewish community and minor-holiday celebrations can sometimes struggle.

This week we did something fantastic together. We gathered a diverse group of Jews together to celebrate Purim. We started Sunday afternoon, a day I thought would completely fail when I saw the weather...Read more...

02/24/2022 05:00:00 PM

Feb24

Rabbi Josh Whinston

I’ve been thinking about the word “feeling” lately. I love that we use feeling or feel for both internal emotions and physical sensations. So often, we separate our inner state from the externality of our worlds, but the truth is worlds always play off each other. Things that we physically feel can impact us emotionally and vice versa. Maybe feelings are the only things that get us moving in this life. Over and over again, in this...Read more...

02/17/2022 08:00:00 PM

Feb17

Rabbi Josh Whinston

When Sarah and I went on our honeymoon to Italy some years ago, there were many places I wanted to visit, but I knew I had to see Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses at the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. If you are unfamiliar with the statue, I encourage you to google Michelangelo’s Moses and see for yourself what makes the sculpture so famous. You’ll notice when seeing it that Moses has two horns atop his head. The horns come...Read more...

Fri, June 2 2023 13 Sivan 5783