This week’s parshah opens in a panic. Marking with dread the refugee nation swelling along his border, Balak, king of Moab, seeks counsel from the elders of Midian. The Midianites, Rashi reminds us, have privileged information about Israel’s unlikely success. Moses had fled to Midian after killing an Egyptian; his wife was a Midianiate and …
Read MoreIn Parshat Beha’alotcha, the desert Israelites are hungry again. This time, they are ravenous for the savory leek, onion and garlic; the refreshing cucumber and melon; and, above all, for the flesh that they remember from Egypt. Consumed by their famishment, the people cry out to Moses: “Now our soul is dried away; there is …
Read MoreParshat 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 parshah instructs, “you shall not sacrifice it [oto] with its young [v’et b’no] on the same day.”[1] As elsewhere, it is not only this commandment’s substance that preoccupies the …
Read MoreParshat Vayikra catalogues the slicing, pinching, quartering, flaying, scooping, sprinkling and burning that comprised ancient Israel’s practice of korbanot—sacrifices offered in expiation, celebration or thanksgiving to God. Ritual sacrifice was a thoroughly hands-on affair, with both offeror and priest physically participating in the labor. Such gritty involvement in the process must have channeled primal drives …
Read MoreThis week’s portion opens with a friendly, wizened face. Yitro—priest of Midian, father-in-law of Moses—emerges from the wilderness, daughter and grandsons in tow. After hearing of Israel’s liberation, the priest has come to reunite Moses with the family he had previously sent away. Moses’s delight in seeing Yitro is palpable. The text is suffused with …
Read MoreAs if in mockery of Pharaoh’s decree—“every son that is born you shall cast into the river, but every daughter you shall save alive”[1]—Parshat Shmot opens with a cast of extraordinary women. Among these alternately cunning and curious, steadfast and stubborn women, a cabal of three—Yocheved, Miriam and Batya—stands out for its impromptu conspiracy of …
Read MoreParshat Vayeshev recounts the cover-up of Joseph’s sale into slavery. The brothers present their father with Joseph’s coat and Jacob dutifully reads their script: “It is the coat of my son. An evil beast has devoured him; Joseph is without a doubt torn in pieces.”[1] There is, however, another more discerning witness to the brothers’ …
Read MoreThe 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.[1] Obscured in this numerical vista, however, is …
Read More“It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” ~William Carlos Williams (from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”) The Pentateuch’s penultimate portion, Parshat Ha’azinu, memorializes the “Song of Moses,” canted by the great leader on the day of his death. An epic poem …
Read MoreParshat Ki Tetze opens with a chilling portrait of the inevitability of man’s brutality. When—not if—you go to war against your enemies and take as captives those whom you do not slay: Then, you will see among the conquered “a woman of beautiful form” whom you will desire and take for your “wife.”[1] That is …
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