Category: Torah
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Parashat Chukat: For a future with new hopes and dreams
This Torah portion records Miriam’s death in one simple verse, “Miriam died there and was buried there.” Unlike the 30-day mourning period for her brother Aaron, who dies later in the same Torah portion, neither her brothers nor the community formally observe Miriam’s death; even though the Torah declares Miriam a “prophet,” a designation never…
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Parashat Korach: It is not about what we are, but what we can become
The revolt in the Israelite camp reached its climax at a mass meeting of the rebels. The majority of the speakers were from the tribe of Reuben. In their so-far sharpest attack, the rebels questioned Moses and Aaron and held them guilty for unlawful appropriation of power and severe mismanagement. They called for an immediate…
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Big Ideas of our Parasha „Sh‘lach Lecha“
God needs us to discover things on our own. This is why the portion begins with the words shelah lecha-literally, send them to spy on the land “for your own sake.” It would not have been enough for God to simply describe the Promised Land to Moses. God needed Moses and the people to directly…
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Parashat Beha’alotecha: Mind your words
Wherever we go in today’s society, we are bombarded by ads about what we should and should not be putting in our mouths. The ads tells us to eat this so that we can lose weight; to not eat that because it could raise our cholesterol; and we constantly hear promises of how ingesting a…
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Parashat Naso: May God bless you and keep you
Our Torah portion for this week is the source of the so-called “Birkat Kohanim” – the priestly blessing: “May God bless you and keep you, may God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you, may God lift up God’s face to you and give you peace.” It’s a beautiful blessing that God gave to the…
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Shavuot: Reaffirm the covenant
It is a mitzvah to reaffirm the covenant on Shavuot. Through the reading of the Ten Commandments at services, which recalls the establishment of the covenant and the contemplation of the importance of Torah and its lifelong study, (talmud-Torah), we renew our commitment to being part of the covenant people,(’am b’rit). As part of our celebration…
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Parashat Bechukotai – I will look with favour upon you
Chaverim, friendsIt has taken the orthodox community in Johannesburg almost 3 ½ years to realise that Bet David has an openly gay rabbi. To be honest, I am not so sure if this news went around earlier, but to me it looks like that this became a topic in the wider – not progressive community…
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Walking with God
Since Abraham, Israelites and Jews have been on physical, spiritual and moral journeys. This week’s Sidra, Bechukotai, contains in its first ten verses three applications of the Hebrew root HaLaCH (to go) which contain a beautiful insight into how Jews can encounter God from different angles.The first appearance of the root is in the beginning…
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Yashar kochechem
In the past few weeks we have achieved several milestones in our congregation and celebrated wonderful happy moments in the lives of many of you. Often, we use the Hebrew expression “Yasher Koach“ to congratulate one another when a person does well or has achieved something in their lives (and I include an Aliyah to…
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Parashat Emor: How can we make God Holy?
The point of being Jewish is to have a relationship with God. Yet, a relationship implies a certain give and take. In biblical times it seems that the different kinds of sacrifices were our (human) contribution in this reciprocal partnership. With the destruction of the Temple one could think that our relationship with God broke…
