Moses, as a leader, is a successful failure. His highlights reel is pretty impressive—liberator, warrior, logistics coordinator, judge and prophet. And yet many things that Moses seeks to accomplish are utter failures. He fails to reshape the liberated slaves into a dignified and free people; he fails to deliver them to the promised land; he…
Category: 2 Exodus שמות
Show Me Your Glory: Ki Tisa 5777
What is Moses asking when he demands that God show him the glory? The Torah already had reported in Ex. 33: 11 that in the Tent of Meeting, the Lord spoke to Moses “face to face, like a man to his friend.” That sounds pretty direct—shockingly so—and yet somehow, Moses isn’t satisfied. A few verses…
On the Road with Amalek: Zakhor 5777
This Shabbat is both Titzaveh and Shabbat Zakhor—in addition to all the normal reasons to go to shul and hear the Torah, there is a special commandment to listen to the Zakhor passage and think about the continued danger of genocidal hatred in the world. The Torah states in Deuteronomy 25:17-19 that Amalek did something…
A Gift from Titus: Terumah 5777
The Arch of Titus in Rome is simultaneously one of the saddest and most exciting places for a Jew to stand. It is but a short distance from the Colosseum, the stadium made famous by its cruel sports, built with money plundered from the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. Titus’s Arch celebrates the destruction of…
Head Home Little Bird! Mishpatim 5777
A little gosling is all alone in a field, hopping mad. Perhaps it is cheeping at every stranger who passes, “Are you my mother?” But according to the Talmud, each stranger is asking, “Are you my gosling?” In Bavli Bava Batra 23b, the Mishnah states that if a gosling is found within fifty cubits of…
Getting Married to God: Yitro 5777
The liturgy of Shabbat is suffused with wedding imagery. This theme is most pronounced in the prayer Lekha Dodi, which depicts the marriage of God and Israel, and also the union of two aspects of God, the sefirot of Tifereth and Malkhut (which is associated with Israel). However, we may detect the marital motif also…
Memory Cards for the Mind; Power Packs for the Arm–For Women and for Men: Bo 5777:
Chapter 12 of Exodus introduces Israel to the rituals (setting their sacred calendar and the Pesah rite) that will attend their exodus from Egypt. Chapter 13 shifts perspective to the future reenactment of this formative event, declaring that firstborn sons and also animals owned by Israelites will forever be associated with the sparing of Israel…
On Being A Jewish Installation–Pekudei 5776
One of the hardest adjustments for me as a young rabbi in a large suburban synagogue in Michigan was learning how to sit on the raised bimah of our enormous sanctuary, which sat 1,500 on the holidays, and frequently held 500-800 people on Shabbat. I learned the costume—dark suit, black shoes, white shirt and tie—and even a black…
Hold Your Hands Up! VaYakheil-Shekalim 5776
Sometimes it is not ornament but infrastructure which is the most interesting and enduring feature of a building. The tabernacle was a beautiful building with bronze, silver, gold as well as luxurious and colorful fabrics. Underneath all that was the acacia wood, atzei shittim, with upright planks that were held together by staves—also made of acacia and…
Scent of the Divine: Titzaveh 5776
What does God smell like? The question seems to be absurd—as much as asking what God looks like or sounds like. Even more so, perhaps, since the Bible brims with accounts of the divine voice and appearance, ineffable though they may have been, but says nothing about God’s scent. Any physical quality of God is…
Becoming Cherubic: Shabbat Terumah 5776
What is the function of cherubs? Not the love-struck angel babies of Valentine’s day, but the winged ark ornaments that we read of this week in Parashat Terumah. Their wings were spread upwards, and their faces were towards one another, and also down toward the kapporet—the golden lid of the ark upon which they were…
The Significance of Strange Visions: Mishpatim 5776
One my strangest experiences came during my last visit with my grandmother Belle Nevins, z”l. She was dying, and although conscious it was not clear that she was aware of us. Suddenly she looked to the empty chair in the corner of the room and addressed her husband, my Papa Sam, who had died many years before. “Wait…
Rabbi Danny Nevins 