Every month corresponds to a bodily function. The month of Tamuz is about seeing. Even the Parashiot normally associated with the month deal with seeing. Because these are harrowing Parashiot, they are mostly about failures in seeing. But from the failures one can learn what the proper sense of seeing is supposed to be. This is part of the preparation for the Three...Read more...
I’ve pointed out many times that there is no date stamp in this Parasha. The Midrash connects its timing to the Mitzva of Tzitzit at the end of last week’s Parasha. That would suggest that this is part of the sequence of dissolution which began two weeks ago and hits its nadir this week. Next week, we will skip 37+ years forward to the last year in the desert. If the Midrash is right about the sequencing,...Read more...
We learn from declarative sentences in the Torah and we learn from oddities too. Here’s one: We have a principle that Devarim She’bekedusha, matters of holiness, are in the hands of no less than a quorum of 10. Kaddish, Kedusha, and reading the Torah in public -- they all require a Minyan. From where do we learn this? From the spies of all people. The Mitzva to consecrate Hashem’s name is learned...Read more...
We altered the fifth Aliya this morning to have it end in the paragraph before the inverted letter Nuns. This is the suggestion of a commentator from a few hundred years ago. The general principle is that Aliyot are supposed to end on a positive note. The normal place we end that Aliya does not seem like a terrible moment but it does fall in a space where the commentators say things have already started to go...Read more...
