Rabbi of Ohr HaTorah Synagogue, mostly online synagogue in Los Angeles
While studying this Torah portion several years ago, I enjoyed one of those peculiar delights vouchsafed to those who learn to study great Jewish texts in the Hebrew original — the discovery a great mistranslation. The concept is \”ein mukdam u\’m\’uchar ba\’Torah\” — usually mistranslated as \”the Torah [often] is not written in chronological order,\” or more literally, \”there is no before and after in the Torah.\”
In this week\’s Torah portion, Vayechi, we have the most intimate description of a deathbed scene and the most elaborate description of a le\’vayah (funeral) contained in the Torah.
If your life could change in a moment, what would you want it to be?
The first Torah portion in Exodus is Shemot, Hebrew for \”names.\” \”These are the names of the Israelites coming to Egypt…\” (Exodus 1:1). That might be where we got the name of the parsha, but that is not where the parsha takes us. Namings take place throughout Shemot.
Last week\’s portion ends with a ferocious battle; this week\’s begins with the after action report and the distributing of medals. We learn the names of those killed
and those rewarded and then all the troops are mustered and counted, to see who remains alive from the fighting.
Each of us lives a spiritual journey. One of greatest tasks in life is to know our journey, to understand its contours and what it demands of us. The Torah teaches us these journeys, these paths into our center.
This Shabbat is Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat in which we remember tribe of Amalek, the nemesis of Jewish people. Amalek is described in Bible as attacking the people of Israel at weak places and at weak moments.
For many, perhaps most, American Jews today, the words that open this week\’s Torah portion stand at the center of the their understanding of Judaism.
How does one prepare for freedom? One Jewish answer is found in the reading of the four special portions read along with the regular Torah portions in the weeks before
In this week\’s Torah portion, Vayechi, we have the most intimate description of a deathbed scene and the most elaborate description of a le\’vayah (funeral) contained in the Torah.
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