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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