Author: Rachel Farbiarz

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Rachel Farbiarz

Rachel Farbiarz is an artist who works in drawing, collage and installation. Prior to working as an artist, Rachel practiced law focusing on the civil rights and humane treatment of prisoners. Rachel lives with her family in Washington, D.C., where she is represented by the gallery G Fine Art. Rachel can be reached through her website www.rachelfarbiarz.com.

August 15, 2016 | 5776

Va’etchanan

As the Israelites are poised to enter Canaan in Parashat Va’etchanan, Moses finally finds his tongue and speaks at length with his people, instructing them on his legacy. Central to Moses’s oration is the insistence that the events of his life have unfurled before the people’s “own eyes.” As Moses retells it, his audience’s presence was essential to the covenant at Sinai: “The Lord your God sealed a covenant with us at Horeb. Not with our ancestors did the Lord seal this covenant but with us—we who are here today, all of us alive.” And with reference to the miracles of the Exodus, Moses declaims: “You yourself were shown to know that the Lord is God.

July 25, 2016 | 5776

Pinchas

After decades of the Israelites’ wanderings, God’s decree upon the willful generation of the Exodus—“In this very wilderness shall your carcasses drop”—is nearly fulfilled. To take stock of the new generation born in the desert, a census is ordered. Lineages are recorded; tribes’ sums inscribed; fresh tallies of the war-ready men collected. And from among these men, God charges, “shall the land be apportioned as shares, according to the listed names.”

April 12, 2016 | 5776

Metzora

In this week’s double portion of Tazria-Metzora we read of the purification ritual for the metzora, the unfortunate person struck with tzara’at—a preternatural skin disease that resulted in a status of ritual uncleanliness and temporary banishment from Israel’s encampment. The surprising intimacy of the purification ritual underscores the importance of restoring dignity and community to those living with stigmatic disease.

February 29, 2016 | 5776

Vayakhel

In Parashat Vayakhel the Children of Israel built the Tabernacle. The project demanded of Israel formidable helpings of both creative energy and generosity. In the punishing desert, the people were expected to furnish a marvelous array of gold, silver, bronze, linens, indigo, hides, oils, incense and precious stones. And from these gifts, they were to carve, spin, cut, rivet, embroider, weave and fashion the Sanctuary’s sacral architecture and furnishings.

December 14, 2015 | 5776

Vayigash

Parashat Vayigash details one of the Torah’s most dramatic episodes: After Judah delivers an anguished monologue, the vizier Joseph reveals his identity as the boy whom, 22 years earlier, his brothers had sold into slavery. Judah’s words, which have prompted this revelation, are a response to the threat of Benjamin’s imprisonment, the final turn in the screw of manipulations to which Joseph has submitted his brothers.

August 18, 2014 | 5774

Re’eh

In Parashat Re’eh, the Israelites are given intimation of the shape of their future society across the Jordan River. The portrait of the Israelites’ world-to-come generally radiates an exuberant sense of well-being—reflecting a society contentedly organized and functioning smoothly.

June 16, 2014 | 5774

Korach

Parashat Korach tells of the mayhem and violence that often accompany political strife. After Korach the Levite challenged Moses’s leadership and Aaron’s priestly authority, a test was devised: God’s choice for priestly service would become known after Korach and Aaron each offered sacrificial incense. The divine response was unmistakable. The earth “opened her mouth and swallowed” alive Korach and his household. The rebel’s followers, in turn, were immolated in a fire “sent forth from God.”

April 28, 2014 | 5774

Emor

Parashat Emor’s many directives on ritual sacrifice include one that applies to all animal slaughter—be it for human or Divine consumption. “[A] bull or sheep,” the parashah instructs, “you shall not sacrifice it [oto] with its young [v’et b’no] on the same day.” As elsewhere, it is not only this commandment’s substance that preoccupies the rabbinic tradition. It is also its textual casing—the timbre and pitch of its words, its grammatical quirks and peculiar phrasings—that begs for the sages’ interpretation.

December 23, 2013 | 5774

Vaera

Parashat Vaera continues the conversation between God and Moses following Moses’s first encounter with Pharaoh. God persists in his alternately tender and impatient wooing of the reluctant emissary, while Moses insists that he is unfit for the task. As before, Moses’s feelings of inadequacy center on his difficulty with speech, now captured, ironically, by his poetic lament: “I am uncircumcised of lips.”

October 14, 2013 | 5774

Vayera

The landscape of global hunger can be efficiently surveyed through its statistical contours. Every day, hunger-related causes kill 25,000 people around the world. In 2007, the number of undernourished people increased by 75 million and in 2008 by 40 million—pushing today’s global tally past the one billion mark.