Then Moses decided to separate three cities on the side of the Jordan towards the sunrise, so that a murderer might flee there, he...

You Gotta Serve Somebody

Do not be broken or afraid of them -Deuteronomy 1:29 I recently crossed my own river or, that’s a metaphor really – it was a mountain. It landed...

The Sweet Pain of Lamentations

Shall your brethren go to war while you stay here? Numbers 32:6 I used my twenty-first century sensibility and technological skills, to determine the feminine equivalent of the...

Conquering the enemy within.

You shall apportion the Land among these as an inheritance, in accordance with the number of names. -Numbers 26:53 My twelve-year-old takes a census of items on the...

Did God's reward for Pinchas contain a reprimand as well?

The she-donkey saw the angel… -Numbers 22:25 Animals sometimes see things we don’t or don’t yet. They’re the best earthquake predictors. My cat alone sees things in dimensions I...

May All Our Enemies Become Our Advocates!

Now listen, you rebels, can we draw water for you from this rock? -Numbers 20:10 with apologies to Billy Idol Last night a thirsty Israelite, came kvetching to...

The Most Mysterious Law In The Torah

...the censers of these who sinned…and they shall make them into flattened out plates as an overlay for the altar…and they shall be as a reminder...

Am I Fighting For Justice Or Am I Lashing Out Like Korach?

and you will not fear the people of that land for they are our bread. -Numbers 14:9 Let’s talk about bread. Bread keeps you alive. Four ingredients plus...

Why Would We Yearn For A Place We Hated?

We are ritually unclean…why should we be excluded so as not to bring the offering -Numbers 9:7 I check my son’s homework on the internet machine every day....

The Song of the Levites

Command the children of Israel to banish from the camp all those afflicted… -Numbers 5:2 No one understands a quarantine better than everyone alive today But it’s a sensitive...

A Torah Lesson in Personal Pronouns

Just as they camp, so shall they travel, each man in his place, by their divisions. -Numbers 2:17 I don’t like to use cliché in poems. I figure,...

It’s no accident that a convert to Judaism mothered the dynasty of King David and Moshiach.

And when a man sells a residential house in a walled city, its redemption may take place 
until the completion of the year of its sale -Leviticus...

A 3300-year-old law that could not have been written by humans.

An ox or sheep you shall not slaughter it and its offspring in one day. -Leviticus 22:28 When I was a boy I used to go fishing...

Compassionate eating is not just a virtue, it’s a commandment.

Therefore, I said to the children of Israel: None of you shall eat blood Leviticus 17:12 Rest assured, God, Adonai, Holy One Unseen Savior, Invisible to the point...

All Good Things Need Boundaries

What can we learn from an ancient disease that was actually a physical manifestation of a spiritual malady?

When the Tabernacle was complete, the wedding between God and Israel could finally proceed!