…Mishkan, where korbanot were offered, seems more aligned with Vayikra, the book of priestly matters. Why is it here? The transition from Bereishit to Shemot marks Bnei Yisrael’s evolution from a family to a nation. In Mitzrayim, they were a single extended family; when they left, they were a sizeable people united by shared fate and memory. But they struggled…
I had been engaged in dialogue for two years with an Imam from the Middle East, a gentle and seemingly moderate man. One day, in the middle of our conversation, he turned to me and asked, “Why do you Jews need a land? After all, Judaism is a religion, not a country or a nation.” I decided at that point…
…The guest then rose up and seized Rabbi Yannai demanding, “Where is my inheritance that you have and are keeping from me?” “What inheritance of yours do I have?” He replied, “The children recite, ‘Moses commanded us the Torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob’ (Deuteronomy 33:5). It is not written, ‘congregation of Yannai,’ but ‘congregation of Jacob.’” Vayikra…
…say to him, “I have heard that an inheritance has come your way in a city across the sea. So here is an article of some value. Sell it and use the proceeds. When you are more affluent, you will repay me.” As soon as the man took it, Rabbi Jonah would say, “It’s yours as a gift.” (Vayikra Rabbah…
…one else to attend to his funeral. Here the basic requirement of human dignity overrides the priestly imperative of purity. These laws, together with many others in Vayikra and Bamidbar – especially the rite of the Red Heifer, used to cleanse those who had come into contact with the dead – are hard for us to understand nowadays. They already…
The book of Vayikra ends with one of the most terrifying passages in literature. It describes what will happen to the Israelites if, having made their covenant with God, they break its terms: “If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile…
…(It appears a fourth time in Vayikra 8:23, where its significance is less apparent). In each case it signifies an existential crisis. The agent is called on to make a choice, one on which his whole future will depend, but he finds that he cannot. He is torn between two alternatives, both of which exercise a powerful sway on him….
…was commanded to “read aloud [tikra] this Torah before them in their hearing [be-aznehem].” In the historic gathering of those who had returned from Babylon, Ezra “read [the Torah] aloud [vayikra] from daybreak till noon, in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand, and all the people listened attentively [literally, the ears of all the people…
I have argued before, in the case of Vayikra and Bamidbar, that the Hebrew names of the Mosaic books, even though they seem uninformative, in fact convey important insights into the nature of the book. The same is true about the book of Devarim. The book of Devarim is known in English as Deuteronomy from the Greek deuteros nomos, or…
The sedra of Ki Tavo contains one of the most terrifying passages in the Hebrew Bible, rivalled only by the parallel text in Vayikra/Leviticus 26. Both are known to tradition as tochachah, “reprimand” or “rebuke.” Essentially they are warnings of the terrible fate that will overtake Jews if they neglect or abandon their covenant with God. Reading them in the…