This week’s Torah Portion is a double portion Tazria-Metzora and it is portion we love to hate because it’s all about skin diseases, bodily emissions, and other health conditions. These physical conditions make a person temporarily unfit to be close to God.
Question: What are some ways that you restore yourself when you feel sick, not whole or not close to God?
Every year at Passover Jews retell the story of Israel's exodus from Egypt, and their escape from slavery and oppression. Our tradition reminds us that the Exodus narrative is not just any story, but one we must retell because we are asked to believe that we were present at that moment.
Episode 17: Tzav - King and the Eternal Flame Shine forever
The way God calls to us is very personal, and we have to listen to hear the call.
This week we read a double portion Vayakhel-Pekudei. Moses assembles the people and tells them about the sanctuary they are to build but before that happens Moses tells them that God commands them to work six days but on the seventh day they shall rest. The seventh day is a holy day. The commandment to rest precedes the command to work. This tells us just how important it is for us to rest. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.
For many Jews today, many Jews Shabbat seems like a day of restrictions rather than an awesome day intended for rejuvenation. Shabbat is intended to be vacation from your workday world. Use it to reconnect with your family, spend time with your partner and or invite friends over to share a meal. Shabbat is God’s gift to us, every week of the year you are guaranteed a day off.
Every week, we get to renew our covenant with God and we pause to notice the sacredness of creation.
Today in our modern times we as Jews don’t have one Mishkan we have synagogues and we worship God not just in the Tabernacle but wherever we might be. And where we are located can have a significant effect on the spirituality we feel in that moment. Designing a prayer space is a sacred task to be done with great care. And so too must we take care to use that sacred space to nurture our personal and communal connections with God.
Change is possible in human nature, but it takes time, maybe even a long time. We know now that slavery is morally wrong.
Part of our relationship with God is that God does not force us to change faster than we are able to do of our own free will. This week’s Torah does not abolish slavery, but it does set in motion a series of fundamental laws that will lead people, to abolish it of their own accord.
The Torah of one man, even a Moses, is not the Torah of a nation. Jethro’s plan is democratic, taking it out of the hands of any one individual and making it the property of the people.
Exodus 18:1–20:23.
This week’s Torah portion is Yitro and this is the Torah portion where we finally get the 10 commandments.
Let’s focus on number 10 Thou shall not covet..Anything that is your neighbor’s. In other words do not be envious of anything from your neighbor’s house.
This is my favorite commandment because I believe this commandment is the key to happiness
Exodus 18:1–20:23.
Envy is the desire to have something belonging to someone else. This is an emotion, that brings out jealousy, resentment, bitterness the old green-eyed monster and makes people unhappy.
Why should we want something just because others have it. The remedy for envy is gratitude. If we remember to define ourselves in our relationship to God and not define ourselves in relation to others we will be happy and grateful.
Every morning we have built into our practice the Jewish blessing Modah ani Lefaneka...Thank you God. The prayer goes on to say thank you god for restoring my soul in me, You God are awesome. Taking on this daily practices has reminded me to be grateful for all that I have in the world and for all that God has given me.
Israelites are finally free and they are moving fast to leave Egypt. Now they find themselves at the edge of the sea. There is no way out and Pharaoh's army is not far behind. They are trapped and scared.
This week we are in Parsha Bo (Exodus 10:1−13:16)and we are at the climax of Israel’s struggle for freedom. Plague after Plague has hurt Egypt and Pharoah is willing to let some of the Israelites go free. Moses insist that none of them will go unless all of the Israelites can go. Moses wants freedom for all. He says We will go with our young and our old, we will go with our sons and our daughters. In other words, we ain’t leavin' anybody behind.
Sometimes leaders succeed with ease and sometimes they fail. In this week's Torah portion Moses fails several times before he eventually becomes the man who leads the Israelites from to freedom. When we fail it's important to learn from our failure and then to keep going.
This week we are in the Torah portion of Vaera (Exodus 6:2 - 9:35).
God tell Moses I am here to free the Israelites from slavery
This week as we enter the book of Exodus. In hebrew we call this book Shemot the book of names. The Torah portion starts out with the names of the Israelites who came down to Egypt. Then later we learn the name of Moses and when Moses encounters God for the first time he says to God tell me your name.
As I write this I can't help but remember the gay anthem of my youth the Gloria Gaynor song I Am What I Am
This week we begin the book of exodus in the Torah Portion Shemot (Exodus 1:1–6:1). The Israelites are slaves and we follow them from slavery to freedom and then redemption.
As we begin this journey through Exodus, Let us consider the midwives Shifrah and Puah The process of redemption does not begin with divine intervention, but with the first recorded act of non-violent civil disobedience.
The Torah says that a King arose that did not know Joseph. This Pharoh did not like the increasing number of Israelites. He ordered the midwives, Shifrah and Puah to kill the Israelite male babies as they were born. Midwives did not comply. Their act of civil disobedience makes it possible for the next act and then another and then finally freedom and then redemption
Hello, and welcome to another Minute lessons from the Torah. This week we begin the book of Exodus with the Parsha Shemot (Exodus 1:1–6:1). The Israelites are now slaves in Egypt. Our hero Moses is now a criminal and living as a shepherd. One day he takes his sheep into the wilderness and he sees a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed. Mose turned to investigate this amazing site and when God saw that Moses turned to look, God said. Dude!! Take your shoes off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.
One of my teachers told me that we have a Midrash, an ancient story, that tells us that the bush was burning for a long time and it was well known to the local people and many came to see this cool attraction. But what set Moses apart from everyone else was that the bush didn’t merely catch his eye, it was something he realized must be investigated. He was inspired by what he saw, and he left the path he was on, to investigate.
Moses was willing to step out of his comfort zone, to look into something that could provide him with more meaning. Only after God saw that Moses turned off his regular path to investigate, did God call out to him, and Moses replies hineni, here I am.
How many times have we missed out on the extraordinary awe of God because we thought it was an ordinary burning bush
Vayechi (Genesis 47:28–50:26): Be Strong and Let Us Be Strengthened
When we finish a book of the Torah we close we close that book words with ‘chazak, chazak v’nitchazek’ (be strong, be strong and let us be strengthened!). We are excited to finish a book of Torah and excited for the book ahead.
Today's lesson comes from the Torah Portion Vayechi - Genesis 47:28 - 50:26. This is the last Torah portion in the book of Genesis and today's lesson focuses on the importance of forgiving family.
