Shabbat HaHodesh; Vayikra

Leviticus 1:1−5:26; Maftir: Exodus 12:1-20

D'var Torah By: Robert Tornberg for ReformJudaism.org

Looking through the Smoke: A Transparent Message

Reading much of the Book of Leviticus (Vayikra, the third Book of the Torah), and its first parashah – also called Vayikra – can feel like searching for meaning through smoke as thick as that produced by the very sacrifices the book and our parashah describe. It is dense, repetitious, and seemingly relates little to our lives.

In this portion we learn about the various laws pertaining to the five types of sacrifices offered by Jewish worshippers for over a thousand years. These sacrifices took place in the portable sanctuary – the Tabernacle or "Tent of Meeting" in the wilderness – and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. They included:

•     The olah, "burnt offering" (Leviticus 1:1-17): This voluntary korban ("sacrifice," coming from the root "to bring close") was the most common offering, bringing the donor closer to God. Always an animal, it was slaughtered and fully burned, that is, sent up to God. Hence the name olah, which means "goes up."

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Shabbat Parah; Vayak'heil/P'kudei

Exodus 35:1–40:38

D'var Torah By Rabbi Peter S. Knobel for ReformJudaism.org


At the beginning of Parashat Vayak'heil Moses convokes the entire community and reiterates the commandment on Shabbat observance:

These are the things that the Eternal has commanded you to do: On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you have a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Eternal, whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire throughout your settlements on the sabbath day." (Exodus 35:1-3)

Then Moses instructs them regarding the building of the Mishkan (the Tabernacle or portable sanctuary), which would accompany them through the wilderness and which presaged the building of the Temple. The Creation of the world and the building of the Mishkan are parallel activities. Through them we see how time and space are both the locus of potential sanctification.
In The Sabbath¹, Abraham Joshua Heschel writes:

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Ki Tisa

Exodus 30:11 - 34:35

Shabbat: Positives and Negatives

D'var Torah By: Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus for ReformJudaism.org

The last instruction that Moses receives on Mount Sinai, before God gives him the inscribed tablets, before the incident of the Golden Calf, is the reminder about the importance of the sabbath. Like the story of Creation, which culminates in the day of rest, so the blueprint for the creation of the Tabernacle, with all its equipment and personnel and procedures, culminates in the instruction that no work should be done on the sabbath day. The Tabernacle is to be a mini-universe, so its creation, too, must cease on the seventh day.

Just in case someone might think that the sacred work of creating the Tabernacle, a place for God to dwell, would override the prohibition of work on Shabbat, this passage is very clear, and placed in context to dispel such a misconception. We read:

    And the Eternal One said to Moses: Speak to the Israelite people and say: Nevertheless, you must keep My sabbaths, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout the ages, that you may know that I the Eternal have consecrated you. You shall keep the sabbath, for it is holy for you. One who profanes it shall be put to death: whoever does work on it, that person shall be cut off from among kin. Six days may work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Eternal; whoever does work on the sabbath day shall be put to death. (Exodus 31:12-15)

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Shabbat Zachor; T'tzaveh

Exodus 27:20−30:10

D'var Torah By Rabbi Peter S. Knobel for ReformJudaism.org

Finding Satisfaction in Others’ Success

Parashat T'tzaveh opens with the following words. "You shall further instruct (V'atah t'tzaveh) the Israelites to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly" (Exodus 27:20). Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, in her commentary, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus, points out the unusual use of the pronoun V'atah, which she translates as, "And as for you," as we read in this excerpt:

With unusual emphasis, God turns to Moses: Ve-atta tetzaveh – "And as for you, you shall instruct . . . " The redundant pronoun in ve-atta, "and as for you," substitutes for the more usual imperative form, tzav – "Instruct . . ." or the simple future form, tetzaveh – "You shall instruct . . . " Such an insistent, abrupt focus on Moses has aroused much discussion among the traditional commentators on the Torah. . . . What shift in focus requires the sudden use of ve-atta, in a context where Moses is everywhere the subject of God's address?1

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Terumah

Exodus 25:1−27:19

D'var Torah By Rabbi Peter S. Knobel for ReformJudaism.org

Sacred Space Is Where God Dwells and Hearts Are Moved

Parashat T'rumah begins, "The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved. . . . And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them" (Exodus 25:1-8). And eleven chapters later we read, " 'The people are bringing more than is needed for the tasks entailed in the work that the Eternal has commanded to be done.' Moses thereupon had this proclamation made throughout the camp: 'Let no man or woman make further effort toward gifts for the sanctuary!' So the people stopped bringing: their efforts had been more than enough for all the tasks to be done" (36:5-7). The standard joke is that this was the first and last Jewish building project that was oversubscribed.

Two themes are central to this Torah portion:

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Shabbat Shekalim, Mishpatim

Exodus 21:1−24:18

D'var Torah By Rabbi Peter S. Knobel for ReformJudaism.org

Halachah and Aggadah: The Interplay between Law and Narrative to Determine God’s Will for Us

In Parashat Yitro, we are overwhelmed by the power of the encounter of God and the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. The people respond to God's Presence saying, "All that the Eternal has spoken we will do!" (Exodus 19:8). The thunder, lightning, smoke, and horn blasts that accompany the giving of Aseret HaDib'rot, the Ten Commandments, are the most perceptible aspects of that moment. It is likely that few people who were there remembered anything but the smoking mountain and the Divine Presence. This week's parashah, Mishpatim (meaning "rules"), translates the experience into concrete legislation. In The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut divides this portion into three parts: laws on worship, serfdom, and injuries (21:1-36); laws on property and moral behavior (21:37-23:9); and cultic ordinances and affirmation of the covenant (23:10-24:18).1

This law (halachah) is embedded in the story (aggadah) that the Israelites experienced. As the modern Jewish literary figure Haim Nahman Bialik wrote in his famous essay Halachah and Aggadah, "Halachah is the crystallization the ultimate and inevitable quintessence of Aggadah; Aggadah is the content of Halachah."2 Robert Cover, a twentieth century Yale Law School professor, furthered this idea in his groundbreaking essay "Nomos and Narrative," where he wrote, "No set of legal institutions or prescriptions exists apart from the narratives that locate it and give it meaning."3

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Yitro

Exodus 18:1–20:23

D'var Torah By Rabbi Peter S. Knobel for ReformJudaism.org

On Rosh HaShanah night we read the following in Gates of Repentance:

    Remember
    The words You spoke in stone and thunder
    The mountain smoked
    And the dismayed multitude
    Stood off, hearing the first time
    The words they could not refuse,
    Fearing the burden and the God that set
    Them in history.
    And there are mountains still. We are the Jews.
    We cannot forget

In my mind's eye I picture the scene at Mount Sinai. I imagine that I am standing at the bottom of the smoking mountain with more than six hundred thousand former slaves hearing the blast of the shofar and experiencing the Presence of God and responding, Naaseh v'nishma, "All that the Eternal has spoken we will faithfully do!" (Exodus 24:7; see also 19:8, 24:3). In the midst of my reverie, I look out at the congregation and I wonder: What is my congregation thinking? Do they feel the awesome power of the moment? Does the ancient experience draw them into the covenantal promise?

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