…of Vayikra, the Torah says, “Don’t hate your brother (or sister) in your heart”. Don’t take vengeance. Don’t bear a grudge. Those who forgive travel more lightly through life, freed of the burden of feelings that do no one any good. (6) Don’t Talk Lashon Hara The Talmudic Sages define lashon hara, ‘evil speech’, as saying negative things about other…
…household fulfill it. Yet you transgress your father’s decree!’” (Sotah 12b) [2] On the adoption of a foundling in the ancient world, see Nahum Sarna, Exploring Exodus (New York: Schocken, 1986), 31–32 [3] Shemot Rabbah 1:26 [4] Vayikra Rabbah 1:3 [5] Derekh Eretz Zuta 1 Is the decision Pharaoh’s daughter took a heroic act or the least we could expect of any human…
…bones/but words will never harm me.” It is certainly upsetting to hear bad things said about you, but is it really that terrible? There is no direct mitzvah against evil speech in the Torah but there is a prohibition against gossip: “Do not go around as a gossiper among your people” (Vayikra 19:16). Lashon hara is an example of this…
…justice, freedom, and human dignity. At its core is the idea of the Jubilee (the 50th year). One aspect of the Jubilee is the release of slaves (Vayikra 25:39-42). The Torah’s message there is clear. Slavery is wrong. To be “in the image of God” means to have the right to a life of freedom. The very idea of the…
…eventually erodes and loses its fertility. The Israelites were therefore commanded to conserve the soil by giving it periodic fallow years, not pursuing short-term gain at the cost of long-term desolation. The second, no less significant, is theological: “The land,” says God, “is Mine; you are but strangers and temporary residents with Me” (Vayikra 25:23). We are guests on earth. …
…And here we have to understand, where is that from? Does anyone know? That’s from a halachic Midrash on the Book of Vayikra known as the Sifra, the Torat Kohanim, but you have to have a look. Have you got it there [page 18 in the source sheet]. Do you have this? Maimonides, Laws of Torah Study [1:11], where, he…
…moment, described in our parsha, when Moses stood in prayer before God and achieved forgiveness for the people: the first time the whole people was forgiven despite the gravity of their sin. During Musaf on Yom Kippur we describe in detail the second Yom Kippur: the service of the High Priest, Aharon, as described in Vayikra 16. But on Kol…
…when we most want and need community, we are being deprived of it by social distancing, by self-isolation, by quarantine. And it feels not so much like the parshiyot of Vayakhel-Pekudei as the parshiyot of Tazria and Metzora, where we read, badad yeisheiv mi’chutz lamachaneh moshavo, “He shall dwell alone in self-imposed isolation outside the camp.” (Vayikra 13:46) In New…
…לְהִתְאַחֵד בַּפֵּרוּד הַזֶּה And can we unite from this separation? עַד שֶׁנִּתֵּן לְךָ כֶּתֶר מְלוּכָה Until we give You a crown of sovereignty בֵּין פְּקוּדֵי לְוַיִּקְרָא Between Pekudei and Vayikra כֻּלָּנוּ בְּאוֹתָהּ סִירָה We all are in the same boat אָבִיב הִגִּיעַ פֶּסַח בָּא “Spring has arrived, Pesach is coming,” וְאִתּוֹ תִּקְוָה רַבָּה And with it, much hope…
…today. [1] Shemot Rabbah 1:13. [2] There is, of course, a Midrashic tradition that Shifra and Puah were other names for Yocheved and Miriam (Sotah 11b). In seeing them as separate women, I am following the interpretation given by Abarbanel and Luzzatto. [3] Vayikra Rabbah 1:3. [4] Derech Eretz Zuta 1 [5] Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, Responsa Binyan Av, 2nd edn.,…