Naso - Reconstructionist

Numbers 4:21−7:89

Rabbi Howard Cohen for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Holy Isolation

In this week's Torah portion, Naso, we learn about the Nazir, the person whose chooses a life style even more disciplined than that of the Kohanim (high priests). "God to spoke to Moshe: Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When anyone, man or woman, makes the express resolve to take the vow of Nazir ...[so that] all the days of his nazirship he is holy to God" (Numbers 6:1-2, 8). What is the Nazir and what relevance does this have to us today?

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B'midbar - Reconstructionist

Numbers 1:1−4:20

Rabbi Howard Cohen for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Marriage

This Shabbat immediately precedes Shavuot, the day designated as the anniversary of the revelation of Torah at Mt. Sinai. During Shavuot we read the Book of Ruth. According to a midrash Shavuot is like the wedding anniversary of God and the Jewish people. In Exodus as the revelation unfolds the position of the Israelites is described with a word that figuratively means "at the base of the mountain" but literally means "under the mountain". To explain this the rabbis said that Mount Sinai was held over the Israelites like a wedding huppah. Hence, revelation was like a wedding, a binding, covenantal moment between God and Israel.

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B’chukotai - Reconstructionist

Leviticus 26:3-27:34

Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Walking in God's Ways

This week's parashah, Behukotay, is the final parashah in the book of Vayikra. In this parashah God tells Moses to inform the people if they "walk with my statutes and observe my mitzvot (commandments) all will go well for them. However, if they do not, the heavens will dry up and all sorts of tragedy will befall them. The parashah then describes in great detail what will happen if the people continue to ignore God's will.

Though I don't take this type of "reward and punishment theology" literally I believe that there is an important spiritual lesson to be found in the problematic narrative of the parashah. At the start of the parashah we find another phrase connected to the idea of walking. Moses is told that if the people walk with God, hithalkhti b'toch'chem,"I (God) will walk about in your midst."

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Behar - Reconstructionist

Leviticus 25:1-26:2

Rabbi Howard Cohen for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Poverty

In the middle of Parshat Behar we read about our obligations towards our fellow Jews when they are reduced to poverty. The Torah uses the term "Collapsed" or "Clowered" (mem, vav, chaf). It also describes the person as having lost the means to deal with his obligations (u-matah yado Cimmakh). When this happens we are not supposed to protect the person from experiencing the logical consequences of poverty, nor are we to force him out of the community. In fact, we have an obligation to maintain this person within the community. In later text, Mishnah, Talmud, and Mishnah Torah, for example, it is explained in greater detail what it means specifically to "let him live by your side" (Leviticus 25:35).

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Emor - Reconstructionist

Leviticus 21:1−24:23

From the Velveteen Rabbi

Making our offerings count (Radical Torah repost)

 In this week's Torah portion, Emor, we read a series of instructions pertaining to grain-offerings. When the Israelites enter the land, they are instructed to bring the first sheaf of harvest to the priest, to be elevated before Adonai. Then begins a period of counting:

    And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering — the day after the sabbath — you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete: you must count until the day after the seventh week — fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the Lord.

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Kedoshim - Reconstructionist

Leviticus 19:1-20:27

Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Wholiness

Parashat Kedoshim begins with Leviticus 19:1 and is referred to as the "holiness code." It begins with the verse "God spoke to Moses, saying: speak to the entire community of the Children of Israel, and say to them: you are to be holy, for I am holy. I am YHWH your God!"

The portion then continues with commandments to be in awe of your parents, keep Shabbat, and stay away from idolatry. Then the people are told when they offer a "shalom" offering it must be eaten within the next day. If it remains until the third day, it is to be consumed in fire or you will become profaned and be cut off from the community.

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Ahare Mot - Reconstructionist

Leviticus 16:1-18:30

Rabbi Ellen Dannin for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Blood

References to blood appear at least sixty-five times in the Torah, and more, depending on how you do the counting and excluding references to menses. In this parashah, it appears primarily in connection with sacrifices (Lev.16:14-15, 16:18-19, 16:27, 17:3-6).

But the more intriguing reference is in Lev. 17:10-14, where we are told:

"And any man from the house of Israel and from the aliens who will reside among them who will eat any blood: then I shall set my face against the person who eats the blood, and I shall cut him off from among his people. Because the flesh's life is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives, because it is the blood that makes atonement for life. On account of this I have said to the children of Israel: every person among you shall not eat blood, and the alien who resides among you shall not eat blood. And any man from the children of Israel and from the aliens who reside among them who will hunt game, animal or bird, that may be eaten: he shall spill out its blood and cover it with dust. Because all flesh's life: its blood is one with its life. So I say to the children of Israel: you shall not eat the blood of all flesh - because all flesh's life: it is its blood. Everyone of those who eat it will be cut off."

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