Shabbat Pinhas Our reading this week starts with God praising Pinhas for his dramatic action in killing Zimri and his mistress the Midianite princess Cozbi, as they defied Moses and the rest of the community. Normally the act of killing disbarred a priest from serving. But Pinhas was given special dispensation to serve within the Tabernacle because he acted out of…
Weekly Parsha Message
False Prophets
Shabbat Balak Friday June 25th Numbers Chapters 22-24. It seems strange that the whole Parsha we read this week should be named after a Midianite/Moabite King, Balak, and be devoted to a non-Jewish magician Bilam. Not only, but there was a suggestion (Talmud Brachot 12b) that the poem should have been recited with the Shema every single day. The only reason…
Magic or Mysticism
Shabbat Chukat Friday, June 18th Numbers/Bamidbar 19-22 The idea of purity in the Torah is a very complex one. In Western society, we associate purity with physical purity. Impurity means dirty or unclean. But this is not how the Torah sees the idea. The Hebrew words are Tahor and Tamey are spiritual and mental states, not physical ones. Appropriate would be a better translation for the word Tahor, or…
Shabbat Korah
Parshat Korah ( Numbers 16-19). Shabbat in New York starts at 8.08 pm. Playing Politics When Korah and his group protested against Moses, they threw back at him the words he had used when confronted by Eldad and Medad who were prophesying outside the Tabernacle )Numbers Chapter 11). He said, “If only God would give everyone the gift of prophecy and His…