Naso

Numbers 4:21−7:89

The Torah on Women: Think Again!

D'var Torah By Rabbi Laurie Rice for ReformJudaism.org

Our ancient sages were obsessed with organization. As such, they categorized most everything, which is best reflected in the Talmud’s 63 tractates, which address a variety of subjects including Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, lore, and much more. Nearly every topic has its place and order, with the exception of women. Women must have perplexed our dear Rabbis. We can imagine the discussion: Are they women or are they chattel? They bleed, but do not die, yet they must be impure, but they create new life, something we certainly cannot do. And while there is indeed a tractate attributed to women, Nashim, we find the ambiguity of women’s roles in the Bible and within ancient Israelite society reflected in this inability to “categorize” women as one might the Jubilee year or the subject of ketubot.

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B'midbar

Numbers 1:1−4:20

D'var Torah By: Steven Kushner for ReformJudaism.org

Becoming Midbar

There are only three places in Torah: Mitzrayim or Egypt, which means "the narrow place" in Hebrew; eretz zavat chalav u' d'vash, "land that flows with milk and honey" at the opposite end of the continuum; and in the middle, midbar, the unknown empty space of wilderness. It is midbar, this in-between place, that is at the center of our attention this week (and, for that matter, the next eight weeks). It is the overriding theme of the entirety of the Book of Numbers in Hebrew, B'midbar, "In Wilderness."

While often translated as "In the Wilderness," let me note that the name of this week's parashah and the book it commences can be read as "In Wilderness," at least if we are translating just the word B'midbar by itself. The vocalization of B'midbar has a sh'va beneath the first letter bet, which sounds like b' or beh, indicating the word "in." There is no patach under the bet (ba) to indicate a definite article, "the." Reading the word in isolation, therefore, one can find a hint that midbar is a larger, more generic notion than a specific place. Wilderness is more than a construct of geography: it is a state of being.

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B'har/B'chukotai

Leviticus 25:1-26:2 / 26:3-27:34

D'var Torah By: Richard N. Levy for ReformJudaism.org

In Which the People and the Land Are Redeemed

As we have made our way through the Book of Leviticus, we have often noted how boundaries have been crossed—between the inside and outside of the body in issues of tzaraat ("leprosy"); between the clothing of the priest and the furniture of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle; between proper offerings of fire and dangerous ones. Now, as the Book draws to a close, in the first of this week's two portions B'har, we have another boundary crossing, between human beings and their land, as the model of the seventh day of rest, Shabbat, determines the manner in which the land is cultivated and sold. As human beings need a day to rest and refresh, so does the earth—a suggestion that when God promised uncountable progeny to Abraham along with an eternal claim to the land, the two promises were really one: human beings and land deriving sustenance and refreshment from each other, as the first "human being," adam, did from the adamah, the "earth."

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Emor

Leviticus 21:1−24:23

D'var Torah By: Richard N. Levy for ReformJudaism.org

Emor: Words for the Next Generation

When the Rabbis divided the Torah into its 54 parashiyot (portions), they generally arranged for each portion to begin with a unique or otherwise significant word that would in some way summarize major themes of the entire section. Such is the case for most of the portions we have studied in Leviticus—until we come to this week's portion, Emor, which means "Say." Say? How many times is that word used in the Torah? What is unique about that word—what could the Rabbis have been thinking?

When we look at the whole first verse of the portion (Leviticus 21:1), however, we see something curious: the word occurs three times in this first sentence: "And Adonai said to Moses: Say to the "priests," kohanim, the sons of Aaron, and you shall say to them." It occurs once in the third person, twice in the second person; once in past tense, once in the imperative, and once in the future. It would appear, then, that one of the reasons the Rabbis began the portion with emor, "say," was to emphasize that this was a portion about speaking.

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