Something extraordinary happens between the previous parsha and this one. It is almost as if the pause of a week between them were itself part of the story. Recall last week’s parsha about the childhood of Joseph, focusing not on what happened but on who made it happen. Throughout the entire rollercoaster ride of Joseph’s early life he is described…
…to have many of the rights of citizenship. You simply have to be moral. One biblical vignette portrays this with enormous power. King David has fallen in love and had an adulterous relationship with Batsheva, wife of a ger toshav, Uriah the Hittite. She becomes pregnant. Uriah meanwhile has been away from home as a soldier in Israel’s army. David,…
…the difference between holidays and holy days (or as he puts it, between vacations and Shabbat).[2] The idea of a vacation as a private holiday is relatively recent. Walzer dates it to the 1870s. Its essence is its individualist (or familial) character. “Everyone plans his own vacation, goes where he wants to go, does what he wants to do.” Shabbat,…
…by Gad Elbaz, words by Moran Elbaz) Hopes and Disappointments (Narration by Rabbi Sacks) Vehi She’amda, The Promise (Performed by Shimon Craimer, music and arrangement by Stephen Levey) A people sustained by faith (Narration by Rabbi Sacks) Arim Roshi: I’ll Raise My Head (Performed by Shay Gabso, music by Ahuva Ozeri and Moshe Da’abol) Remembering Jerusalem (Narration by Rabbi Sacks) Jerusalem (Performed by Matisyahu, written by Matisyahu…
…out of tohu va-vohu, chaos, creating a world in which each object and life form has its place. Peace exists where each element in the system is valued as a vital part of the system as a whole and where there is no discord between them. The various provisions of parshat Naso are all about bringing peace in this sense….
…is what the Torah means when it says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Enslaving others, Pharaoh himself became enslaved. He became a prisoner of the values he himself had espoused. Freedom in the deepest sense, the freedom to do the right and the good, is not a given. We acquire it, or lose it, gradually. In the end tyrants bring…
Near the end of the book of Bamidbar, we encounter the law of the cities of refuge: three cities to the east of the Jordan and, later, three more within the land of Israel itself. There, people who had committed homicide could flee and find protection until their case was heard by a court of law. If they were found…
QUOTES Chiefly Quotes: A collection of quotes from Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt”l The Rabbi Sacks Legacy is delighted to share ‘Chiefly Quotes’, an inspirational PDF collection of 1600 quotes collated by Rabbi Johnny Solomon through his research of Rabbi Sacks’ canon of written work, and then arranged by theme. You can also find our growing bank of Rabbi Sacks…
…needed, said Moses, to experience not the greatness of God but the closeness of God, not God heard in thunder and lightning at the top of the mountain, but as a perpetual presence in the valley below. That is why Moses removed his tent and pitched it outside the camp, as if to say to God: It is not my…
It was one of the great moments of personal transformation, and it changed not only Moses but our very conception of leadership itself. By the end of the book of Bamidbar, Moses’ career as a leader would seem to be ending. He had appointed his successor, Joshua, and it would be Joshua, not Moses, who would lead the people across…