Author Archive | Hazon

“Land is imbued with holiness, which means that like God, it is beyond human measures of usefulness or control” As we prepare to close the Book of Leviticus, the Torah’s pinnacle, we are left with a message of responsibility, consequences, and possibilities. God presents us with the benefits of making wise choices and the consequences of choosing poorly. Then the Torah provides for the funding of the sanctuary and its staff: our participation with monetary support, pledges of animals or homes. But when it pivots to pledges of land, the Torah shifts gears entirely. Land, you see, is ours to borrow and to use. But humans presume they can own land. In reality, the land makes its claim on us, and we can either open ourselves to its ground rules, or we risk a rootlessness that leaves us clinging when the next sandstorm swirls. We are, as the book reminds us, “resident strangers (Leviticus 25:23)” on earth. The Land precedes us and the land will bury us when we no longer need our bodies. We are dust, and we return to dust (Genesis 3:19). On some deeper level of reality, it is all just dust, earth, soil.  Judaism directs our […]

״אין לך פרשה שאין בה תחיית המתים אלא שאין בנו כח לדרוש״  (ספרי האזינו ש״ו) There is no portion in the Torah that cannot be brought back to life, if only we had the strength to interpret!” (Sifrei, Ha’azinu 306:35) 1 וידבר יהו״ה אל משה בהר סיני לאמור…ושבתה הארץ שבת ליהו״ה  “Y-H-W-H spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying…the land shall rest in a godly Sabbath (25:1-2). Rashi famously opens by asking: “What does the Sabbatical have to do with Sinai?” Why, among all the many commandments, should this be specifically designated as spoken at the Mountain? The Talmud (b. Sanh. 39a) explains the commandment this way:  “Plant for six years and rest in the seventh, so that you will know that the land belongs to Y-H-W-H.”  But, in the broadest sense, that is the purpose of all the other commandments as well! The earth is filled with God’s presence since its creation. That did not begin at Sinai. Torah was given to provide us with a way to discover that presence, and a path of living in response to it. “The world was created by ten divine utterances,” says the Mishnah (Avot 5:1). These ma’amarot are the ten times […]

“Counting the Omer – like the shemitah cycle – invites us to believe that each day, week and year is count-worthy, valuable and unique.” One after the other, the days proceed. The slog continues on, with no progress or forward movement in sight. Familiar mistakes are made again. Regrettable habits deepen, and the hours between getting up and lying down start to look all alike. The only thing passing is time itself. This “Groundhog Day” experience of ennui is familiar now to so many. On those gray days and listless years, many of us find ourselves asking: Does this all add up to anything? Do my days, weeks, and years count?  The Torah indicates that, indeed, they do. Literally.  Parshat Emor consists of two major components: first, laws relevant to the priest (mourning, eating sacred foodstuff) and second, an elaborate discussion of the yearly festival cycle. This includes discussion of the Omer period, bridging Pesach and what we call Shavuot (the feast of weeks), in which we find ourselves today.  The Torah commands (Lev. 23:21) that, at the time of the wheat harvest, on the day following the “Shabbat” (i.e. the beginning of the Pesach holiday, according to rabbinic tradition), […]

“Taking a step back to envision a holy, caring society – especially in light of the oppression perpetuated by this very parasha.” Parashat Kedoshim begins with what one might call a “greatest hits” compilation of mitzvot. Here God lists the ways in which we are to become holy: honor our parents, keep shabbat, treat our employees fairly, give away parts of our crops to those less fortunate than us, and many other obligations which often align with our modern values. Famously, we are commanded to love others as ourselves. Kedoshim offers a glimpse of what holiness might be: creating a society of caring for others.  However, amidst these beautiful mitzvot which offer structures of justice, we find prohibitions of certain sex acts. One of these prohibitions in particular has been appropriated to oppress LGBTQ+ people for millennia. Among verses which call for care, our parasha has verses which historically have caused physical, emotional, and spiritual harm — harm which continues to be perpetuated today. It is not clear how to reconcile these challenging prohibitions with the parasha’s call for loving others as ourselves. However, the parasha presents us with the mission to be holy. If holiness is aligned with care, […]

“What you see as your own private grounds is actually a base from which to serve the world.” It makes sense that Aaron’s sons would bring a strange fire to God in the Mishkan (Tabernacle). Aaron their father is the high priest. They are priests themselves. The building and inauguration of the Mishkan, and the sewing of the uniforms and the inauguration of the priests—they all come together. And at their inauguration, Aaron’s sons are to stay in the Mishkan—not stepping out once—for a whole week. Why not, then, see the Mishkan as their home? Why not see it as their own private grounds for their own private flame? After He strikes Aaron’s sons down, God offers a new set of laws. These laws take Aaron and his remaining family far afield from the Mishkan and the pristine sacrifice. Now the priests are to teach the people the difference between pure and impure, are to help the people navigate the animal kingdom, bodies of water, bodily fluids. The priests are to serve new mothers who come bearing offerings. The priests are to visit lepers’ homes. After commanding these laws, God teaches Aaron of Yom Kippur. On that day Aaron—and whichever […]

“Though the Exodus tells the story of one nation’s birth, the legal and religious system to which it gives rise is open to outsiders.” On Passover our Torah reading is taken from one of the most dramatic moments of the Book of Exodus (12:21-51): the Israelites mark the doors of their homes with lamb’s blood to protect against the plague which strikes down the firstborn of Egypt. In wake of the terrible destruction wrought against the Egyptians, they march out of the chaos that has overtaken the land of their long bondage.  Jewish tradition distinguishes between the ‘Passover of Egypt’ — the unique observance detailed here — and the ‘Passover of the Generations,’ which is instituted as a way for the Israelites to commemorate the Exodus once they have entered the land of Canaan, the first laws of which conclude our Passover Torah reading. In this final section, we read that should a male sojourner wish to partake in the Passover sacrifice, he must first undergo circumcision — the first instance in our tradition of something resembling conversion to Judaism as we know it today. Though the Exodus tells the story of one nation’s birth, the legal and religious system […]

Just as the Torah provides an opportunity for recovery regardless of poverty level – different recovery pathways dependent on means – so too should our health system. Parshat Metzora marks the end of the instructions that detail what a person afflicted with tzaraat, “scaly disease”, has to do to become pure again.  The processes include various rituals that are laid out in very deliberate ways, with specific instructions for the order in which they should be performed. The text outlines special instructions for those who are poor. Commentators suggest that the word דל, dal, “poor,” could refer either to someone who is without means (as the text explicates) or someone who is severely ill. In a world where COVID is still a reality, and there are procedures for returning to normality after testing positive for COVID, the parallels are undeniable.  We know that our healthcare system favors those with greater resources. In a 2020 study done at the Center for Health Policy at the University of Virginia, doctors found that, “Lower education levels and greater percentages of black residents are strongly associated with higher rates of both COVID-19 cases and fatalities.” This study tells us that our current system doesn’t […]

The parasha for this week is Parashat Tazria, but it also Shabbat Ha’Chodesh, the week of the new moon of Nisan, the month of Pesach. The haftarah is from Ezekiel 45:16 – 46:18.  “By whatever gateway we enter the shmitah year, we must not go out again by the same gate. We must become a new people. Together with our respect for all the planetary life-forms, we must affirm a new respect for all people.” This coming Shabbat is Shabbat Ha’Chodesh, the Sabbath of The Month, the renewing of the moon that Torah sees as the first “moonth” of the year. The rabbis who worked out the liturgical calendar wanted to choose a haftarah — a prophetic passage — to signal the coming of a week they called Pesach and Chag HaMatzot. They found a passage by the Prophet Ezekiel that celebrated not only the New Moon but also the Festival of its fullness – a week focused on food when we would make a shepherds’ Pesach  offering of a newborn lamb and eat Matzot, the farmers’ celebratory meal of just-sprouted, barley that we quickly baked into Unleavened Bread. A time of livelihoods renewed. Notice that Ezekiel was following the […]

“When we focus on the purposes of Shmita  we facilitate the flow of spiritual power from earth to heaven and back again.” So many adjectives can be used to describe the act of eating: necessary, enjoyable, challenging, fraught, social, and on and on.  We might be inclined to add “earthly” to the list; inhabitants of this world eat for a variety of reasons.  Several references to eating in Parashat Shemini reinforce this perspective.  We read in Leviticus 10:12-14 about priestly eating, the physical consumption of holy food by the sons of Aaron.  And the end of the parasha identifies the sorts of meat we may eat.   But Shemini refers not only to human eating but also to divine consumption.  Verse 24 of chapter 9 tells us about the godly fire that consumed the sacrificial meat on the altar.  And the beginning of the following chapter provides another example of divine consumption, telling of the celestial fire that consumed two of Aaron’s sons because of some sort of excess fervor on their part in the way they approached service in the Tabernacle.  What does it mean for something in this world to be consumed by its creator?  If, as physicists would […]

“When we release our usual patterns and tools, we open a sacred space for contemplation, and for re-imagining ourselves and our world.” Our parsha of Vayikra (“And He called”) begins the third book of the Torah, to which it also gives its name. It contains many intricate laws of various kinds of sacrifices made in the Mishkan (Tabernacle), including Elevation Offerings, Meal Offerings, Peace Offerings, Sin Offerings and Guilt Offerings. The root of the word for sacrifice used here, Korban (קרבן), is קרב, k-r-b, meaning “close” or “near”; sacrifices were one of the ways through which our ancestors came closer to the Divine. The Zohar (III 5a) teaches that the word denotes “compassion” (rachamim). Our parsha is the first time that the Torah uses this particular word to describe a sacrifice, and this is not the only hint that the intended mood of the parsha is tender intimacy. Rashi, the great French medieval commentator, begins his commentary on our parsha by noting that the very first word, “Vayikra” (“And He called”) signifies affection. This first word, “Vayikra,” is describing the Infinite One calling to Moses. Rashi writes that each utterance from the Divine to Moses is preceded by an affectionate […]

“Like the mishkan that was built of laws and gifts, the paradoxes of the shmita system allow kindness to re-enter our economic lives.” This week’s parasha concludes the construction of the Mishkan – the portable center of ritual life as the Israelites traveled through the desert. Several chapters dealt with God instructing Moses in how to build the Mishkan, followed by several chapters describing Moses telling the Israelites what to do. Now, in our parasha, they actually do it – everything is put together and completed. The Mishkan is constructed using two types of funds: taxes and donations. Everyone, rich and poor, was required to give half a silver shekel towards the running of the Mishkan. In addition, everyone was invited to give whatever materials and however much they wanted. This combination of law and generosity is a theme that comes up in the shmita year too. While shmita is primarily concerned with ecological and social concerns around letting the land rest, there is one aspect that applies throughout the Jewish world today: shmittat kesafim, the remittance of debts. The basic law is simple – at the end of the shmita year, all open debts are supposed to be canceled […]

Just as the weekly Shabbat starkly reminds us who is the Creator and who is the Creature, shmita achieves a similar goal Parashat Vayakhel, although primarily devoted to the fabrication of the Tabernacle and its vessels, begins (Exodus 35:1-3) with a brief reprise of the commandment to observe the sabbath, already discussed in the Ten Commandments. While the sabbath applies to Jews wherever on earth they may find themselves, there is a “special” sabbath that pertains only to the land of Israel, “Shabbat Ha-aretz” (the sabbath of the land) or shmita.  We see how the term “sabbath” is used interchangeably between the seventh day of the week, and the seventh year of the Sabbatical cycle, in Parashat BeHar (Leviticus 25:2-6) and particularly in the rebuke of Leviticus (ibid. 26:34-5): Then shall the land make up for its sabbath years throughout the time that it is desolate and you are in the land of your enemies; then shall the land rest and make up for its sabbath years. Throughout the time that it is desolate, it shall observe the rest that it did not observe in your sabbath years while you were dwelling upon it. Although the “human” sabbath entails a […]