Torah Reflections
Each week, Rabbi Olivier prepares a written reflection on the weekly Torah portion. These provide yet another way to discover the texts sacred to Judaism and to prepare for Shabbat each week.
Major Step in Evolving World Consciousness
VaYikra Leviticus 1:1 - 5:26 The opening of the Book of Leviticus showcases a momentous event in Western history, yet it goes mostly unremarked. In it, we witness a major step forward in the evolution of Western consciousness brought about by the Hebrews’...
When You Lift up the People
Ki Tissa Exodus 30:11 - 34:35 It often happens that the reading of Ki Tissa, this week’s Torah portion, and the festival of Purim fall in the same week, and there is a remarkable congruence in their themes. An important part of Purim festivities is the custom...
The Olive Oil Paradigm
T'tzaveh Exodus 27:20 - 30:10 You shall further instruct the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light, to kindle an eternal light. Aaron and his sons shall set it up in the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is over [the Ark of]...
The Kabblah of our Lives
T'rumah Exodus 25:1 - 27:19 Jewish Mysticism holds as fundamental truth that every being—all of us—is but a container for, a manifestation of the Divine Presence. As such, we are asked to make ourselves—as best we can—selfless, compassionate servants of the...
Why Did They Have to Drown?
B'Shalach Exodus 13:17 - 17:16 The Song at The Sea with its archaic Hebrew style—when compared with the rest of Torah—is probably the most ancient text in the entire Jewish canon. It describes Moses and the Israelites, having crossed the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds...
God Acts in Wondrous Ways
Bo Exodus 10:1 - 13:16 The opening verse of this parashah recalls that “The Eternal One said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart… so that I may display My signs among them, and that you may recount… how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and...
Know Thyself to be Enslaved
VaEira Exodus 6:2 - 9:35 Every year, as I meet the text narrating the plagues of Egypt, I am confronted with the same paradox. God commands Moses to ask Pharaoh to free the Israelites. Pharaoh refuses. God brings down a plague, and Pharaoh yields to Moses’ demands....
Beyond Fear and Morality
Shemot Exodus 1:1 - 6:1 The Book of Exodus opens with an accounting of the sons of Jacob—the brothers of Joseph—who have been living in Egypt at the invitation of Joseph and with permission from the pharaoh. After that first generation died out, we are told,...
Joseph: Accountability & Free Will
Vayigash Genesis 44:18 - 47:27 Chapter 45 is pivotal in the Book of Genesis. Here, Joseph reveals himself to the brothers who had sold him into slavery some twenty-two years earlier. His brothers recoil in fear, but Joseph, in a tearful embrace, forgives them...
Honoring Our Fears
Vayish'lach Genesis 32:4-36:43 In the previous Torah portion, we read about Jacob’s vision of the ladder that came to him in a dream. At the end of that vision God appears to him to say: “And here I am, with you. I will guard you wherever you go, and I will...
God Was in This Place
Vayeitzei Genesis 28:10-32:3 One verse above all others in this Torah portion encompasses the entirety of Kabbalistic thought: “Waking from his sleep, Jacob said, ‘Truly, the Eternal is in this place, and I did not know it!’” (Gen. 28:16). The verse includes a...
Where Life Hangs by a Fragile Thread
Chayei Sarah Genesis 23:1-25:18 “The cry of the shofar is the tears of Sarah.” Thus says a midrash describing the moment when Sarah was told that Abraham had taken her son Isaac and had slaughtered him on an altar as a sacrifice. “Sarah began to cry and moan...