Category Judentum

What Makes Us Whole?

In Parashat Emor, we find one of the Torah’s more difficult passages — a section that limits which kohanim, which priests, can serve at the altar. A priest with a visible difference — blind, lame, injured, or with a disfigurement — is instructed not to offer the sacred sacrifices.

To modern ears, this can feel jarring. It brushes up against our values of equality, inclusion, and dignity. But maybe we can approach this not as a closed door but as a doorway into deeper conversation.

In the Shadow of Beauty

Shabbat Ki Tissa brings us face to face with a rare figure in our tradition—Bezalel, an artist whose name itself means “in the shadow of God.” Bezalel’s job was special: crafting the Tabernacle, creating beauty as an act of holiness.…