I’m not a rabbi, but every week I look at our Torah portion and I try to put it in conversation with the world around me.
Judaism is a rich and open ended tradition, and each of us deserves the chance to find our own meaning in the text.
Just remember, there’s nothing new under the sun. Now, let’s learn together.
It took me a while, these past few weeks, overseas, In Israel, and here at home. It took a while to figure out what was going on and why I felt so strongly, feelings that seem to move, strangely, in too many directions at once.
It wasn’t until President Biden’s speech in Israel, and his warnings about the mistakes our country made earlier this century, that it clicked for me. Because we’ve been here before, certainly. But more specifically I’ve been here before.
We're still on leprosy this week in the Torah portion. There's beauty in things that peel, as we see in nature. I ordered some trees this week that shed their bark in beautiful curls of golden and orange, because I want to bring that beauty into my yard, even if it looks to some like the trees have been struck by disease.
It's a critical question that the rabbis debate, partially in response to last Tazria, and partially in response to Achrei Mot. "Is emerging backwards still emerging?"