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Practices on the Way to Sinai

Pekudei Exodus 38:21 – 40:38 With parashat P’kudei, the Book of Exodus comes to a close. On the surface, these past weeks have told the story of our liberation from Egypt (Mitzrayim) and our experience at Sinai; yet at a deeper level, the text speaks of a...

Our Spiritual Attitude Toward Work

Vayak’heil Exodus 35:1 – 38:20   The construction of the Tabernacle is about to begin in earnest, and the people are eager to start, but first Moses calls them together to issue a strict command from the Eternal: even during the construction of...

What if Moses Never Came Back?

Ki Tissa Exodus 30:11 – 34:35   When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him: Arise, make us a god who will go before us, for that fellow Moses—the man who brought us from the...

The Transformative Power of Mitzvot

T’tzaveh Exodus 27:20 – 30:10 The title of this Torah portion, T’tzaveh, is usually translated as “Instruct!” or “Command!” The word t’tzaveh has the same root as mitzvah, which also is usually translated as “commandment.” But a mitzvah is more than a...

At The Edge of The Wilderness

B’Shalach Exodus 13:17 – 17:16 When we approach biblical stories as myth, we no longer read the text literally but see it, instead, as the expression of a universal spiritual unfolding. Thus, the opening phrase of this parashah, “Now when Pharaoh let the...

The Chutzpah of the Separate Self

HaAzinu Deuteronomy 32:1 – 52 Chutzpah. Whether Jewish or not, almost everyone knows this Hebrew/Yiddish word. The dictionary defines it as “unmitigated effrontery or impudence, gall, nerve, courage bordering on arrogance.” But there is a much deeper...