Bemidbar

Numbers 1:1−4:20

By Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Nachshon ben Aminadav

At first glance this week's parashah, Bemidbar, seems rather tedious. After all, it consists mainly of the names of the heads of all the tribes and how the counting of the first census in the desert took place about a year after the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. However, one name in the census jumped out at me when I was reading through the parashah. That name was Nachshon ben Aminadav, the head of the tribe of Judah. Nachshon is a very famous character in the Midrash even though he is barely mentioned in the Torah.

According to midrash when the Israelites were trapped between the Sea of Reeds and Pharaoh's army, and while Moses was praying to God for help, Nachshon decided to take matters into his own hands and leaped into the sea. Then God said to Moses (my translation) "Stop praying already! Turn around and look at what your friend Nachshon has done. While you stand here praying he is taking some action!" Only then does God part the sea so that the Israelites can cross.

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B'har/B'chukotai

Leviticus 25:1-26:2 / 26:3-27:34

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

Leviticus 21:1−24:23

Covenantal Joy: What Sukkot Can Teach Us

Rabbi Shai Held, Mechon Hadar, Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas
The Torah insistently connects the festival of Sukkot with the obligation to rejoice, and later Jewish tradition calls Sukkot
z’man simhateinu, the time of our joy.  Why is Sukkot of all holidays singled out as the time of happiness and delight?  Understanding the joy associated with Sukkot helps us gain crucial insight into the nature and dynamics of God’s covenant with the Jewish people.  (That is why it is useful to explore the meaning of Sukkot so soon after Pesah has passed:  Having just re
-enacted the Exodus from Egypt, we now learn about the nature of the covenantal journey that follows.)

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Acharei Mot / K’doshim

 Leviticus 16:1-20:27

Ethical Mitzvot

Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Kedoshim is one of a series of three parashiot whose focus is the development of societal norms and the creation of what has come to be called the Holiness Code. The name of the parasha Kedoshim comes from the imperative with which it opens "You shall be holy people (kedoshim ti'hyu) for I the Eternal your God am holy." As beings created in the image of the Divine we are meant to be holy. The parasha explains what this means by listing numerous rules focusing on holy behavior within the framework of creating a new society. The central mitzvah of this parasha, indeed of the entire Torah, is "v'ahavta l'rayakha kamocha" - "you shall love your fellow human being as yourself." All of the mitzvot, as arcane and absurd as some of them may seem to us today, are meant to teach us how to treat others with love as fellow human beings created in the image of God.

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Tazria/Metzora

Leviticus 12:1-15:33

By Aaron Seidman for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Does Historical Accuracy of Religious Texts Matter?

This week's Sedra is Metzora, from the opening lines of the second verse: "tihyeh torat metzora" - "This shall be the teaching about the metzora."

The metzora was someone afflicted with a skin problem. Although 'metzora' has been translated as leprosy, it is clear from the symptoms described in the text that it was a variety of ailments other than Hansen's disease -- "true" leprosy. This instruction, according to the text, takes place in the wilderness, where the Israelites are camped, after leaving Mitzraim and experiencing revelation at Sinai. In fact, it is likely that this is something that was added to the text after the core of the Exodus story was recorded.

Most biblical scholars, except Jewish Orthodox and Christian Fundamentalists, have recognized for a long time that the bible is composed of multiple sources, written and edited over many centuries. The text we have was put into final form at Yavneh, late in the first century of the common era. It was long assumed that it was based on older manuscripts and oral traditions that went far back into antiquity.

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Shemini

Leviticus 9:1-11:47

Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Strange Fire ... a Midrashic Reconstruction on Nadav and Avihu

The parashah this week is Shemini. Instead of a traditional d'var Torah I am sharing with all of you an original midrash I wrote about Nadav and Avihu. These two sons of Aaron, the High Priest, after seeing Divine fire come down from heaven and devour the first sacrifice made in the newly-dedicated Mishkan (Sanctuary), decide to take matters into their own hands. They bring a "strange fire" before God, that God had not commanded them, and their punishment was that they were then devoured by Divine fire. The rabbis have commented on this for years, questioning whether Nadav and Avihu were simply brash, arrogant upstarts, or if perhaps there was another reason.

I like to think of Nadav and Avihu as the first Reconstructionists.

Unfortunately, they were a little ahead of their time and so they suffered the consequences. Once you read my midrash you'll understand why I say this.

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A New Twist on the Omer

By Elliot Skiddell, Rabbi of Beth Emeth Reconstructionist Synagogue of Rockville Centre, NY [The Voice Inside My Head]

On the second night of Pesach [Passover] it is a tradition to begin the countdown of 49 days until the holiday of Shavuot.  This tradition is known as Counting the Omer since, in ancient times, this was the period of the Spring grain harvest and an Omer is a measure of grain.  Our agricultural ancestors were filled with anxiety during this period of seven weeks from Pesach to Shavuot, uncertain how the harvest would be.  In the Land of Israel – as in North America – the weather during this period is unstable, it is a time of transition and each day’s weather is unpredictable. Most of us, living in suburbs and cities, are not attuned to the agricultural cycles, but we sill pay attention to the weather reports so we know how to dress in the morning and can make our weekend plans.  Our fellow Americans in the Midwest, the South, the West and all areas where farming is a more prevalent way of life than here in the commercialized Northeast are more cognizant of meteorological phenomena such as drought or Spring floods. Maybe we should pay more attention, though, because the weather “out there” has a direct impact on our tables and our pocketbooks.  Drought in California means higher prices for fruit and vegetables, floods in the Midwest mean an increase in the price of bread and frost in Florida means our morning OJ will cost more.  How can we transform the ancient ritual of the Omer, the ceremonial grain offering brought to the Temple, to have meaning for our modern world?  I want to suggest that we take time to think about where our food comes from and offer prayers of thanks to those who provide our daily bread.  I also want to ask us all to think of those who are deeply affected when food prices rise.  Most of us don’t feel the impact of the cost of bread or our morning cereal going up, but there are too many among us who will face hard choices when a box of cornflakes costs more than it did a week ago.  We can bring our grain offerings, just as our ancestors did, by bringing boxes of cereal, bags of rice, barley and other grain based foods for the food pantry.  Let that be our Counting of the Omer!

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