Torah Thoughts: Parashat Bamidbar 5780

Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

Last Monday I delivered a D’var Torah during the Board of Directors meeting. I would like to share that message with everybody. 

This week we begin the reading of the fourth book of the Torah, Numbers, or Bamidbar in Hebrew. Our parasha receives the same name as the entire book, as it happens with the first parasha of each book of the Torah. 

The first verse says, “And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness” (Numbers 1:1). Why does the Torah need to explain that God’s words were said in the Sinai Wilderness? A Midrash (Bamidbar Rabah 1:7) explains that, “from here the sages taught that the Torah was given through three things: fire, water, and wilderness … How do we know it was given through wilderness?

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Acquiring the Virtue of Savlanut, patience
B”H

Rabbi Daniela Szuster

Many times, in the Torah and in the Tanach (Hebrew Bible), God expresses frustration, disappointment, and anger over Israel’s persistent disobedience. Despite God’s anguish, we can find many examples which show us that God will not abandon the people of Israel.

This week’s parashah contains an extensive list of conditional blessings and curses. This list expresses that if the people obey God’s commandments, they will be rewarded and if not, they will be punished.

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Sanctifying God’s Name
By Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

This week’s Torah portion begins with a detailed description of the laws that the kohanim, the priests, had to follow, and ends with specific instructions regarding the cycle of the Biblical festivals. Between these two sections, we find the following verse,

“וְלֹ֤א תְחַלְּלוּ֙ אֶת־שֵׁ֣ם קָדְשִׁ֔י וְנִ֨קְדַּשְׁתִּ֔י בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל

אֲנִ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה מְקַדִּשְׁכֶֽם”

“You shall not desecrate My Holy Name. I shall be sanctified amidst the children of Israel. I am the Lord Who sanctifies you” (Leviticus 22:32).

From this verse, we learn the commandment of sanctifying God’s name, known in Hebrew as Kidush Hashem, as well as the commandment of not desecrating God’s name, known in Hebrew as Chilul Hashem. Although these two precepts seem to be complicated and hard to follow, in fact, their practical implementation is much simpler than might appear.

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The Jewish Duty of Taking Good Care of our Bodies

B”H

Rabbi Daniela Szuster

This week we are going to read two parashot, Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. The second parasha, Kedoshim, starts with these words: “Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them: You shall be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.” (Vayikra 19:1).

How can we be holy? The Torah enumerates a long list of laws that enable us to become holy people. There are laws related to different aspects of daily life. They deal with ritual, with business ethics, with proper behavior toward needy and afflicted people, and with family and social relations. They are very meaningful and important laws.

In this opportunity, I would like to focus on one of these laws: “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.” (Vayikra 19:28) It means that we shouldn’t injure or damage our body.

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Judaism is a Combination of Ethics and Ritual
B”H

Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

Last week’s parasha, Shemini, ended with many of the laws of kashrut. Specifically, it contained a long list of animals that are permitted or forbidden to eat. The first parasha we read this week, Tazria (this week we read two parashot, Tazria and Metzora), deals with the laws of negayim, different health conditions that could affect people. Most notably, the disease called tzaraat (sometimes understood as leprosy), is described. 

As usual, the rabbis try to learn a lesson from the fact that one topic in the Torah comes right after a very different one. In our case, why would the Torah set the rules for eating kosher right before the rules about the Biblical diseases called negayim? I would like to share with you an explanation provided by Rabbi Israel Lipkin from Salant (also known as Israel Salanter, 1809, Zhagory – 1883, Königsberg; he was the father of the Musar movement).

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“The Counting of the Omer, the plague which hit Rabbi Akiva’s students and the hope for the upcoming Lag BaOmer in our time”

B”H

Rabbi Daniela

From the second night of Passover until the eve of Shavuot we count the Omer for forty-nine days. Every night we stand, we recite the blessing and we count one more day.

It is written in the Torah: “And you shall count from the day following the holiday: from the day that you brought the Omer for rocking it, seven full weeks, will be. Until the day after the seventh week, you shall count fifty days and then offer a new offering to Adonai ” (Vayikra 23: 15-16).

In the Biblical time, this period marked the beginning of the barley harvest when Jews would bring the first sheaves to the Temple as a means of thanking God for the harvest. The word Omer literally means “sheaf” and refers to these early offerings.

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Torah Thoughts Pesach 5780

By Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

The Passover Seder, the greatest gathering of the Jewish year, is nearly upon us, and this year it will be celebrated like no other. One of the most well-known texts we read (and sing!) during the Seder is Mah nishtanah ha-leila ha-zeh, “How different is this night from all other nights.” Indeed, in this year of the Coronavirus crisis, there is no question our Seder, and Passover in general, will be different.

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Taking care of our Souls as well as our Bodies
B”H

Rabbi Daniela Szuster

It is written in the beginning of this week’s parashah: “The fire on the altar shall be kept burning, not to go out: every morning the priest shall feed wood to it, lay out the burnt offering on it, and turn into smoke the fat parts of the offerings of well-being. A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, not to go out.” (Vayikra 6:5-6)

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The Virtue of Humility

B”H

Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

When you read from a Scroll (a Sefer Torah) you notice that it has many secrets and details. There are letters that are bigger than others, smaller than others, longer than others, etc. There are letters that are upside down, cut off, or that have dots above them. It is not always clear the reason for these non-regular letters, but the sages tried to give a reason for every little dot they found in the Torah.

One of these non-regular letters of the Torah appears in our parashah. More precisely, it is the first word of the parashah, and also the first word of the Book of Leviticus. 

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Shabbat Hachodesh: A Time to Adjust Ourselves to a Different Reality

B”H

Rabbi Daniela Szuster

This Shabbat is called “Shabbat Hachodesh.” It is the last of four special Shabbatot before Pesach. It falls on the Shabbat before the month of Nisan or on Rosh Chodesh itself.

The special maftir reading is Exodus 12:1-20, which describes the night of the first Pesach before the children of Israel were liberated from Egypt. These verses describe the eating of the Pesach lamb sacrifice with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Besides this, this paragraph describes the order to paint the doorposts of Israelite houses with the blood of the sacrificed lamb. In addition, we find in these verses various laws of Pesach.

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Being Together in Times of Isolation

By Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

This week we have a special Shabbat named Parah, literally the Sabbath of the Red Heifer. It occurs on the Shabbat after Purim or, similarly, the Shabbat prior to Shabbat Mevarchim of the month of Nisan. This is the Shabbat in which we announce that the beginning of the Hebrew month of Nissan will occur that coming week. In addition to the regular parasha for the week (Ki Tisa, this year), we read a maftir reading from a second Torah scroll, Numbers 19:1-22. This text deals with the red heifer whose ashes were combined with water to ritually purify anyone who had been in contact with a dead person. In ancient times, when sacrifices were still observed at the Temple of Jerusalem, only people who were pure could eat from the Passover sacrifice. A corpse was considered to be the maximum source of ritual impurity. Through the ritual of the “red heifer” people were able to purify themselves in order to be ritually apt to eat from the Passover sacrifice. Shabbat Parah was like a public announcement right before Pesach was approaching, to remind anyone who may have become impure to purify themselves before making the Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

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The Importance of Remembering

By Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

Judaism is a religious tradition built on the base of memory.  In his great work on the subject, Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, the historian Yosef Haim Yerushalmi notes that the Hebrew word for remember, zachor, is repeated nearly 200 times in the Hebrew Bible! Israel is commanded to remember the Shabbat, the covenant with God, the exodus from Egypt, etc. We have constant exhortations in the Torah to remember different historical events. As Yerushalmi suggests, we can say that that the ability to remember has been central to the survival of the Jews in the diaspora over thousands of years. How else can we explain the continuity of the Jewish people through times of migration, persecution, destruction, renewal, and adaptation to new social, economic and religious realities?

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“Remembering our sufferings should lead us to be sensitive, compassionate, and kind with the ‘ger’, stranger, who lives in our societies”

B”H

Rabbi Daniela Szuster

This week’s parashah deals with different kinds of laws: civil, moral, and religious. Among these laws, there is one related to strangers. This law appears twice in this week’s portion of the Torah:

“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Sh’mot 22:20)

“You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Sh’mot 23:9)

This law does not appear only in this portion of the Torah but it appears, according to the Talmud, thirtysix times in the Torah! (Talmud Babli Baba Metzia 59b).

Why do we have this law so many times in the Torah? Maybe to highlight the importance of this law. It is important and essential to not oppress the stranger who lives in our societies.

What is the reason for that? You may say that because the stranger is a human being, it is created in God’s image.  Therefore, he deserves respect and be treated with dignity as every person does. These are rational reasons.  However, it is interesting to note that the Torah does not appeal to a rational argument but to an empathetic one.

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Torah Thoughts: Parashat Yitro 5780

B”H

Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

The parasha for this week, Yitro, includes the reading of the Ten Commandments. The first word of the Ten Commandments is Anochi, “I” in Hebrew. The Hebrew word anochi starts with the Hebrew letter aleph, which is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It seems natural to have such an important text as the Ten Commandments start with the first letter of the alphabet.

However, there is another very important text in the Torah that starts with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, bet. I am referring to the creation of the world (and you could say, to the Torah in general), which starts with the word Bereshit, “In the beginning.”

There is a charming Midrash that describes how the letter aleph was so upset with God, and angrily complained to Him that He should have created the world with her (starting the story of the Creation of the world with the letter aleph). After all, she was the first letter! Why had God started his creation with the second letter of the alphabet?

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The Dropping of the Manna as a Way to Rebuild the Israelite’s Trust in God

B”H

Rabbi Daniela Szuster

After the Israelites were liberated from the tyranny of Pharaoh, after six weeks of the Exodus, the people started to complain. First, because they were thirsty and then, because they were starving. God, immediately, provided them with water and food. Regarding the food, God said to Moses:

“I will rain down bread for you from the sky, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day’s portion—that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not.” (Sh’mot 16:4)

The Israelites were starving, and God assured them food giving them bread from the sky. At the end of this verse it is written, “that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not.” What does it mean? Did God give them manna to feed them or to test them? How did God test the people providing them manna?

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“Come with Me”

B”H

By Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

This week’s parasha is titled Bo, which literally means “come.” On this parasha we are told about the last three of the ten plagues. Many commandments appear on the last part of the parasha.

The first verse of this Torah section read, “The Lord said to Moses: “Come to Pharaoh…” The meaning of this order seems to be “Go to Pharaoh,” but, as I already wrote, the literal meaning is, “come to Pharaoh.” Why is this and what can we learn from this?

According to the famous Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (better known as the Kotzker Rebbe, Poland, 1787-1859, he was a Hasidic rabbi and leader), this verse hints to God’s omnipresence. Since God is everywhere all the time, you cannot really walk away from God. As it is written in Isaiah (6:3), “the whole earth is full of His glory.” Therefore, God tells Moses, “come, let us go to Pharaoh.” Moses cannot go alone, because God is always with him.

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The Diversity of God’s Names

B”H

Rabbi Daniela Szuster

“God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the Lord, I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name YHVH.’” (Sh’mot 6:2-3)

This is the beginning of this week’s parashah. Several questions arise from these words, concerning the names of God. God affirms that he appeared before the patriarchs in a particular way, as El Shaddai, while He reveals Himself before Moses with the name of Adonai (YHVH).

What does this difference in God’s revelations mean? Why did God choose to appear as El Shaddai before the patriarchs and as Adonai before Moses? What do each of these names represent? Is one of them more important than the other? These words hold a large spectrum of mysteries as regards to God’s names.

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Preserving Human Life

B”H

By Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

This week we begin the book of Shemot, Exodus. It begins by telling us that a new king arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph. This new king saw that the Israelites were very numerous and, in fact, could threaten his kingdom. This Pharaoh taxed the Hebrews and forced them to work for him, but despite these hardships the Hebrew people continued to increase in number.

Pharaoh then decided to make harsher rules against the Israelites. He decreed that

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Reuben’s Fears and the Consequences of not Acting with Determination

B”H

Rabbi Daniela Szuster

This week’s parashah, Parashat Vayeshev, starts telling the story of Joseph and his brothers which lasts the four last parashiyyot of the Book of Berehsit.  The Torah tells us that Jacob favored Joseph among his children and gave him a special garment. Joseph loved to tell his dreams to his father and brothers. Joseph had grandiloquent dreams where he appears as the star and the rest of the family are like his servants. Besides this, the Torah tells us that Joseph brought bad reports of their brothers to his father. In sum, Joseph had very bad relationships with his brothers. They hated him and could not stand him anymore. Joseph’s brothers hated him so much at the point that they wanted to kill him.  What evil plans did they have?

It is written in the Torah: “They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer! Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we can say, ‘A savage beast devoured him.’ We shall see what comes of his dreams!” (Bereshit 37: 19-20).

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