Thinking Torah Blog

The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: "Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved." - Exodus 25:1-2

TORAH, Exodus 25:1−27:19

SUMMARY

• God asks the Children of Israel to donate gifts (t'rumah) for the building...Read more...

In this week’s Torah portion, Yitro, we encounter the Ten Commandments, a cornerstone of Jewish ethics and law. These commandments are not just historical relics but continue to guide our moral compass and religious practice today. Interestingly, our sages cautioned against the notion of hierarchizing these divine directives. They believed that the entirety of Torah is God’s word, making no one commandment inherently more significant than...Read more...

In this week's Torah portion, Bo, before the final plague in Egypt, the Israelites marked their doorposts with lamb's blood. In the Torah, blood was typically considered ritually polluting, but here it becomes a symbol of protection, keeping the Israelites safe from the final plague. Today, our community faces a different kind of plague – one of division and disagreement.

Last night, the Ann Arbor Board of Education and the...Read more...

In our culture, we love to lionize the hero. We tend to focus on the successful individual as the pinnacle example of being rather than the efforts of a group. We focus on the JJ McCarthy’s of the world rather than the defensive lines (who obviously won the game for Michigan). We love our heroes. In real life, individual heroes don’t exist. Life is a group effort. This fact is true even when it comes to our relationship with...Read more...

Anyone who reads these weekly emails knows I rarely veer away from the weekly Torah portion or current holiday when writing. Today, I am going to do that. The last two months have been excruciatingly painful for many of us. The shocking atrocities on Oct. 7th left many of us frightened for the future of Israel, and the war that Hamas started has been horrible as well. Seeing the images of dead or wounded Palestinian children is no less...Read more...

There are moments in our lives when everything changes, when our perception of the world undergoes a profound transformation. In this week's Torah portion, our ancestor Jacob experiences such a paradigm shift. He has a dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder, and in this dream, he hears God speaking to him. Upon waking, Jacob exclaims, "God is in this place, and I, I did not even know it." Rabbinic Judaism echoes this line when it...Read more...

We often refer to them as collateral damage, the unintentional casualties of war, but the Torah describes them as innocents. In this week's Torah portion, Vayera, we encounter a profound interaction between God and Abraham. God informs Abraham about the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham pleads with God to spare the cities. Abraham's approach is to advocate for the potential innocents in these cities. He initially asks...Read more...

Our hearts remain torn apart today as we continue to learn of the horror that befell our people in the land of Israel on October 7th. We continue to cry out for the return of hostages, innocent babies, children, women, men, all people who are being held hostage in dark tunnels and bunkers fearing for their lives. Party goers who last saw daylight at a rave in the desert, now ravaged by the inhumanity humans inflict on each other. We pray for...Read more...

The response to the High Holy Days has been overwhelmingly positive. We were able to meet the spiritual needs of so many members within our congregation and the wider community, making it a truly gratifying experience. Personally, I had an amazing time sharing the bimah with Cantors Hayut and Rose, along with Rabbi Fuechs. The inclusion of different voices in singing and reading greatly enhanced the prayer experience for everyone, including...Read more...

On Rosh Hashanah, we say, "shanah tovah." While we often translate that as "Happy New Year," that isn't what shanah tovah means. Shanah tovah means have a "good year." Goodness may imply happiness, but not always. Happiness is transient. It is here one moment and gone the next; it can leave us in an instant when challenging moments arise, but goodness has more staying power. Goodness can exist even when we aren't happy at all. Goodness has...Read more...

This week's Torah portion, Parashat Ki Tavo, is a doozy! Moses, loquacious as ever, continues to advise the Israelites on how to behave when they enter the Promised Land. This part of his farewell speech begins nicely, with assurances of abundant harvests, a retelling of the Exodus story, and reminders about the importance of providing for the most vulnerable. But soon enough the mood shifts, as Moses outlines curses that will befall the...Read more...

This week we turn to Parashat Shoftim, which derives its name from the Hebrew word for judges. Unsurprisingly, a central focus of this Torah portion is how to build a fair society governed by the rule of law. We read many verses here that align with our modern sensibilities: judges may not take bribes, the king is not above the law, and even in the heat of war we must not destroy the environment. If only leaders at home and around the...Read more...

This week’s Torah portion is called Eikev, which means consequence or reward. Moses speaks quite a bit about the rewards that the Israelites will receive by way of a good life on the land, good harvests, increasing herds, etc. if they can only follow God’s commandments.

Much of what is alluded to is thanking God by remembering what was done for the Israelites through the wilderness in relative safety and...Read more...

I don’t know about you, but I can definitely do without reminders of my experiences that were less than positive. I can remember too many times in my younger life when my mother would ‘remind’ me of all the things that I’d really love to forget. It is not pleasant when someone brings up difficult memories of behaviors that could and should have gone differently and we could have done better. While harsh, it was her way of offering a...Read more...

I am sitting in front of the news, completely stunned that there were more than 20 mass shootings that were reported over the July 4th weekend alone. That brings the total to date to nearly the number of days in the whole year, and we are only half-way through it. We the people should know that this is absolutely not normal! There is nothing sensible or reasonable about the amount of carnage that ensues from the plethora of these random acts...Read more...