Holy Chutzpah: When Moses Pushes Back
Moses in Numbers 14 doesn’t just beg; he practices what we might call holy chutzpah—a bold, risky way of speaking to God that almost looks like forcing God’s hand […]
Opening the Door, Guarding the Core: Non‑Jews at the Seder
On Pesach night, we sit at a table without a Temple, without a lamb on the fire, but with a Haggadah in our hands and an open door in […]
Birkat Kohanim: The Bridge to Holiness
Parashat Nasso is famously long and, at first glance, a little disjointed. We move from the census of the Levites, to laws of interpersonal wrongs and restitution, to the […]
God’s Calendar, Our Lives: Why the Torah Repeats the Holidays Again and Again
Many of us secretly wish the Torah were a little more concise. Why repeat the same lists over and over? Yet when it comes to the holidays, the Torah […]
From Isolation to Return: Tazria & Metzora and the Path Home
Tazria–Metzora is one of the hardest portions in the Torah to relate to our lives. It deals with strange skin afflictions, bodily processes, and a complex system of purity […]
Holy Eating: What ‘Kadosh’ Really Means
This week’s Parasha, Shmini, describes one of the most intimate ways God shapes a people: not only through revelation at the entrance to the Mishkan, but also through the […]
From Exodus to Altar: The Journey of Matza
On Pesach, matza is the bread of being taken out of Egypt; in Leviticus, matza is the bread of coming close to God. The same simple, unleavened bread quietly […]
Who Are the Four Sons at Your Seder Table?
On Pesach, matza is the bread of being taken out of Egypt; in Vayikra, matza is the bread of coming close to God. The same simple, unleavened bread quietly holds […]
The Fragrance of Avodah: Re-aḥ Niḥoaḥ La‑Adonai
I have always been fascinated by the phrase רֵיחַ נִיחוֹחַ לַיהוָה , “a pleasing odor to God” which appears for the first time in our parasha (Leviticus 1:9). The phrase […]
From Golden Calf to Golden Miskan
Just a few chapters before Vayakhel–Pekudei, the Israelites commit one of the most shocking sins in the Torah: the Golden Calf. Fresh from hearing “You shall have no other gods […]