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Leadership - DT Korah
This week's parasha is Korah. It takes it's name from that of Moses' fellow from the tribe of Levi, Korah, who attempted to lead a rebellion against Moses. Korah led the rebellion because he believed that Moses and Aaron were claiming to be holier than the rest of the community. Korah believed that all of the people were holy and that they should share in the special relationship with God. In short, he wanted to be a priest as well.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/leadership
Posted on: 2016/06/15 - 3:32pm
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On Being A Paradox Jew
Some three and a half months ago we read in Parashat Ki Tisa about the two tablets containing the Aseret HaDibrot (Ten Commandments) that were smashed by Moshe Rabbenu on the bare rock of Har Sinai. That incident still echoes with us as we look this week at Parshat Hukat and the Para Adumah - the Red Heifer.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/being-paradox-jew
Posted on: 2016/06/15 - 3:10pm
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Balaam Recognizes the One God - Balak DT
This week's portion is called Balak, after the name of the Moabite monarch who sought to bring doom on the Israelites as they approached the end of their forty-year journey from Egypt to Israel.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/balaam-recognizes-one-god
Posted on: 2016/06/15 - 2:36pm
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Transitioning Leadership - Pinhas DT
One of the most difficult tasks faced by a community is the orderly transition of power from one leader to the next. Every nation, religious group, society, organization, and family inevitably faces the challenge of how to transfer allegiance and authority from the accepted leader to the appointed successor.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/transitioning-leadership
Posted on: 2016/06/15 - 2:31pm
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Pinhas DT on egal
Towards the beginning of Parashat Pinhas, we read the story of the daughters of Zelophehad. After Moses instructs the people on the division of the Promised Land once they enter it he also informs them that the land will pass from father to son so that it will remain within the tribes. Upon hearing this the five daughters of Zelophehad confront Moses with the fact that their father died in the desert leaving behind only daughters. Given the new laws their land would be lost from their family.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/equal-god
Posted on: 2016/06/15 - 2:25pm
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Who Has The Authority To Change Judaism?
In his well-known 1936 commentary on the Torah, popularly referred to as the “Hertz Humash”, Dr. J. H. Hertz refers to this week's Torah portion, “Korach”, as “The Great Mutiny”. Rabbi Gunther Plaut, writing in the Reform movement's recent commentary on the Torah, calls these chapters “The Rebellion of Korach, Dathan, and Abiram”. Dr. Jacob Milgrom, in the new commentary on the Book of Numbers published by the Jewish Publication Society, refers to this portion as the “Encroachment on the Tabernacle”.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/who-has-authority-change-judaism
Posted on: 2016/06/15 - 3:36pm
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The Modern Meaning of Tisha b'Av
The Jewish Memorial Day, The Fast of the Ninth of the Jewish month of Av, Tisha b'Av, marks the end of a three week period of mourning during which our people remember the series of events that led to the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of our people's first Temple on that date in the year 586 BCE.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/modern-meaning-tisha-bav
Posted on: 2016/05/06 - 10:25am
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Our Akeidah, Our Binding
There is a thread running through all the Rosh haShanah portions, except one: that thread is fathers and children, mothers and children.
The Akedah is the sole exception.
Where are the mothers today?
This is an impressionistic reading of the Akedah.
It does not explain the text.
This is not the comfortable reading that, in praising our ancestor Abraham, gains credit for ourselves.
This is not the reading that shows we are a people who have long put aside idolatry and child sacrifice.
I have no comfort today, only questions.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/our-akeidah-our-binding
Posted on: 2016/05/06 - 10:13am
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Eleh Ezakara - Sacrifice and Martyrdom
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is never an easy day. Fasting, however, is not the real problem. Rather, the day's challenge comes from its demand that we confront deep spiritual, theological, and philosophical issues we would often wish to avoid. We are asked to consider, for example: the tension between sin and forgiveness, the relationship between suffering and redemption, and the emergence of hope out of tragedy. The prayers and readings of Yom Kippur demand that we meditate on these themes as personal challenges, but present them to us in grand images on a mythic scale.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/eleh-ezakara-sacrifice-and-martyrdom
Posted on: 2016/05/06 - 10:10am
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DT Tetzaveh Schein
What does the well-dressed Cohen Gadol (High Priest) look like? Quite resplendent, according to this week's Torah portion, Tetzaveh. Bearing on his chest the hoshen mishpat (breastplate of judgment) with twelve different minerals, each representing a different one of the tribes of Israel, the high priest is the living embodiment of the commandment of hidur mitzvah, beautifying the mitzvot that connect us to God.
Halachic Clarification
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/holding-high-jewish-office-do-clothes-make-man
Posted on: 2016/02/17 - 10:52am
