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This weeks Torah portion is packed with so much information, drama and intrigue that reading many of the commentaries makes for a feast of insight and speculation. This week International Artist Phillip Ratner chose to focus on Moses (Moshe) receiving the Ten words (commandments). And so this part of the portion will be emphasized. However, reading Nehama Leibowitz’s commentary on this weeks Torah portion she quotes from Rabbi Kook’s introduction to his guide to Sabbatical laws entitled: Shabbat Ha-aretz ( The Sabbath of the Land) It touched me deeply and so I am putting his insights up along with the Torah portion referring to Moshe and the Tablets. Enjoy. Continue Reading »

In the Midrash: “One who recites the Shema is obligated to mention the splitting of the sea…
Why does the splitting of the sea have to be mentioned? Because that is when they came to [have] faith in God, as the verse says: ” They believed in God and in His servant Moses” [Ex. 14:31] By the power of this faith they were able to sing, with the Shekhinah (spirit : my definition) dwelling upon them…And just as they purified their hearts [by faith] and then sang…so too does any person coming to pray first have to purify the heart, and then begin to pray.
…The point is that Israel was created to bear witness to the blessed Creator: “This folk I have formed [that] they tell My praise” [Is. 43:21]

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The quote from the Torah/bible refers to the illustration appearing on Israelseen courtesy of international artist Phillip Ratner ratnermuseum.com

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I am using the Everett Fox translation into English because it is the most faithful to the original Hebrew. While every Hebrew word can have many meanings this English translation has been adapted well to the essence of the meaning in Hebrew. This is a very powerful weekly reading of the beginning of the next book: Exodus. While we are highlighting only a mere fraction of the entire reading I strongly encourage you to read the entire portion as it contains such a rich diet of insight and understanding.

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Thanks to NGO Monitor for their tireless effort in getting it right.

January 05, 2010
NGO Monitor today released its annual review of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Obsession and Scandals: HRW in 2009.  (Click here for NGO Monitor’s reviews from previous years.) Continue Reading »

We enter into the Yosef period where the actions by the brothers alter the fate of the entire tribe.

“Initially the tale is one of family emotions, and it is in fact extreme emotions which give it a distinctive flavor….For this story of how “ill” – with all its connotations of fate, evil, and disaster-is changed to good. Despite the constant threat of death to Yosef, to the Egyptians, and to Binyamin, the hidden, optimistic thrust of the story is ‘life”, a word that appears in various guises throughout…A major subtheme of the plot is the struggle for power between Re’uven and Yrhuda. Its resolution has implications that are as much tribal as personal, for the tribe of Yehuda later became the historical force in ancient Israel as the seat of the monarchy..

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