This week’s reading is the most significant in all the Torah for those who want to see Judaism as an ethical system. Here are some of the ethical laws we will read Don’t steal, deceive or lie. Don’t oppress or rob your neighbor. Don’t delay paying your worker’s wages. Consider the needs of the poor. Don’t curse a deaf person…
Author: Jeremy Rosen
Parents
The fifth of the Ten Commandments is “Honor your father and your mother” Exodus 20. In this week’s reading, Leviticus 19, we have a variation. “A person should fear his mother and his father.” Notice how the order of the parents is inverted. The Rabbis say that since one’s natural tendency is to honor one’s mother more than one’s father.…
Scapegoats
This Parsha describes the complex and ornate procedure that took place on Yom Kipur to atone for the Jewish people. There were two goats. One was sacrificed in the Tabernacle or after it was built, in the Temple. The other was sent out into the wilderness to wander or meet its end. That goat was what the Christian Bible called…
Atonement
It is part of our tradition that we may atone for sins all the time. Whether they are sins against human beings or against God. Teshuva, repentance, is open to us constantly. So why do we need one special day of the year, Yom Kipur? One answer is that Yom Kipur is for the really serious sins, whereas the rest…
Imitation
“Do not imitate the behavior of the Egyptians amongst who you lived and do not behave in the same way as the Canaanites do, in whose land you are going to live” (18.3). For more than three thousand years this has been the major challenge that has faced the Jewish people. However, many of us have been killed by those…
Sexual Sins
All forbidden sex falls under the general rubric of “Erva.” Literally nakedness, revealing, uncovering what should be covered. There are no subdivisions, like incest, everything, from adultery to homosexuality comes under this term. And yet there are a lot of other words used in the Torah to express disapproval. In this chapter alone you have in addition to Ervah, Zima,…