One of the challenges to learning Chumash is the style of the text. Events are mentioned in a terse way. Often time is condensed leaving us with the impression that the recorded events happened one right after the other. This week’s Torah portion, Chukat, contains this kind of structure. The event is the death of Miriam, Aharon and Moshe’s older sister.
In this week’s Torah reading, Parashat Beha’alotcha, we come across an oddity in the actual Torah script. Two verses are bracketed by an inverted and backward Hebrew letter נ, “nun.” (Bamidbar 10:35-36). The Oral Law, Talmud Shabbat, 116a discusses this issue. “These brackets indicate that this section is in the wrong (contextual) place. Where does it belong?
The only blessing that uses the expression “with love,” באהבה is used is recited by the Kohanim right before they bestow God’s threefold blessing on the congregation. “Blessed are You, Hashem, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with the holiness of Aaron and has commanded us to bless His people Israel with love.” What’s love got to do with it and why does Aharon merit a special mention?
What is it, exactly, that we are celebrating on Shavuot? All of our Yomim Tovim celebrate ideas. What, then, is the central concept that we should take away from our commemoration of “the time of giving our Torah, זמן מתן תורתנו?”
Following along the weekly Torah reading, we periodically encounter a passage that is audacious. We wonder how Moshe could say such a thing or make such a bold prediction. This week’s Torah portion, Bechukotai, contains two such passages. Verses like these teach us fundamental principles of Judaism.
Many Jews think that the Torah contains not only knowledge of how to live but knowledge in all areas of science as well. This mistake occurs out of a naïve admiration for the Torah. People want to think that since the Torah is “from heaven,” God revealed all knowledge in its pages. This week’s Torah portion, Behar, informs us of a couple of mitzvot that apply specifically to farmers in the Land of Israel. Are they the conception of an agricultural Einstein?
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