Parashat B’huqqotai
Leviticus 26:3-27:34

This Torah portion includes one version of the horrible section called “ha-tokhehah – the Admonition” (translated in our Etz Hayim volume as ‘The Execration’). (Lev. 26:14-45) Another version is included in Moses’ own review of the Torah, in Deuteronomy (28:15-68). Twice the Torah seeks to frighten us into obeying God’s commandments by threatening that terrible and gruesome tragedies and sufferings will befall us if we do not heed God’s word. Yet, these repeated threats have been to no avail. We have endured these predicted catastrophes again and again and seem to never learn our lesson. (more…)

Parashat B’har
Leviticus 25:1-26:2

Our Torah portion sets forth much of the instruction regarding observance of the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee Year, which follows after seven Sabbatical Year cycles have been counted. This year is a Sabbatical Year and its advent was duly recognized in Israel. But we have long ago lost the practice of keeping track of the Jubilee Year. The Rabbis explained that the Jubilee Year disappeared with the disappearance of the Ten Lost Tribes, almost a thousand years before their time.
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Parashat Emor
Leviticus 21:1-24:23

Our Torah portion, Emor – Speak, is the third in a series of portions whose names, strung together, form a classic Jewish joke – “Aharei mot (- After the death), Q’doshim (- Holy Ones) , Emor (- Speak)- After death, ‘Holy’, is what we should say about them.” In other words, no matter what kind of life a person lived, after they die, we strive to make them into saints. This observation is usually spoken with a sardonic tone and a kind of wink of the eye. (more…)

Parashat Q’doshim 
Leviticus 19:1-20:27 

This year we read this Torah portion right after we have heard that the Supreme Court of the United States is seriously considering overturning the established right of women to decide for themselves whether they should have an abortion. Should that happen, the results for the health of many women, as well as the health of our society, will be catastrophic. A gigantic step forward will have been reversed.
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Parashat Aharei Mot 
Leviticus 16:1-18:30

Philosophers have wondered about the necessity for a scriptural component to a religion. If what the Torah, for instance, tells us comports with our own moral judgments, then those human conceptions of morality should be sufficient without a redundant expression in a text. What is added by the Torah telling us not to steal when we know this is wrong already? Indeed, wherever the Torah deviates from our moral convictions we feel compelled to find a way to get the Torah to align with our values. Our own reason seems to be the authority, not the Torah’s revelation.
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