Avraham Norin

Weekly Bible Chapter: The One-Man Show The leader who doesn’t lead, and the people who don’t follow As we delve further and further into the story of Samson, one cannot help but notice that something seems amiss. The narrative closely details Samson’s mission from his own perspective but the presence of the nation seems to […]

Joseph, Jacob, And Abimelech: Intertextual Connections: He comes to quite a different end From the moment Abimelech “went to Shechem unto his mother’s brethren,” his actions kept alluding to stories from the past. Like Joseph before him, Abimelech traveled to Shechem with his father’s other sons in mind. But while Joseph went to see if

Weekly Bible Chapter: Consequences of Commitmen by Bradley Shavit Artson The Book of Joshua follows the contours of Moses’s career, showing Joshuaas a second Moses, completing the task of his master: delivering the childrenof Israel to its land, and cementing our loyalty to the God who delivered usfrom Egyptian slavery and settled us in our

Weekly Bible Chapter: A River Runs Through It by Esther Jilovsky  Like a river, an inheritance is a source of nourishment flowing from one generation to another. A river is a sign of life. Whether a glossy trail snaking through a rusty desert landscape, a deep blue stream cutting through a rainforest, or a crisp

Weekly Bible Chapter: Promises Made, Promises Fulfilled by Bradley Shavit Artson Justice promised isn’t justice at all – justice enacted is the only justice there is. Remember all the way back to the Book of Numbers (chapters 27 and 36)? In the midst of a theoretical discussion of how the Land of Israel would be

Weekly Bible Chapter: A Stern Warning, Not A Triumphalist Boast by Michael Hattin Israel’s deed to the land is no more secure than the Canaanites, and depends on adherence to morality.One cannot overlook the fact that nearly every encounter with the enemy Canaanite forces resulted not only in their unqualified defeat, but in the annihilation

Images: George W Bush, 2005, White House photo by Eric Draper / Wikimedia Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper, 1656 / wikimedia Weekly Bible Chapter: Achan’s Teaching Moment by Chesky Kopel A lesson for the ages, from 17th-century England to the 20th-century US and Israel. Achan sinned in a moment of weakness. Apparently acting alone, he

Image: Moses, by Carol Highsmith, photographer – Library of Congress Exhibits A Man of Vigor to The End by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Despite disappointments, Moses was as passionate at the end as he was at the beginning. Moses did not fade. That is the accolade the Torah gives him at the end of his long

image: from Moses Looks upon the Promised Land, 1928, by Lesser Ury. Moses Begins His Farewell by Tali Adler Do not think that when I die, the Torah dies with me. “It is not in the heavens that you should say, ‘Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us

image: image: ‘Am I not a man and a brother’? Society for the Abolition of Slavery in England in the 1780s. This woodcut accompanied John Greenleaf Whittier’s anti-slavery poem, ‘Our Countrymen in Chains’ of 1837. Shutterstock: 242290558 Weeky Bible Chapter: The Bible’s Fugitive Slave Act by Josh Blechner A lot more compassionate than the American

Image by: Michal Ben Hamu Weekly Bible Chapter: The Hebrew Priest Was Landless by Marc Gitler The Levitical priests’ powLandlesser was greatly limited In the previous chapter the Torah lists numerous restrictions to curtail the power of a king. In our chapter, it aims to restrain the power of the priests. “The Levitical priests, the

Image: New York Public Library Main Building: McGraw Rotunda – The Story of the Recorded Word – Moses with the Tablets of Law, by Edward Laning, c. 1940, WPA project. Photo: Wally Gobetz, 2007 Weekly Bible Chapter: The Beginning of Wisdom is The Breaking of The Tablets by Shai Secunda Knowledge isn’t of a piece,

image: courtesy of the author/artist Weekly Bible Chapter: A Call for Attentiveness by Gabriel Wollfe The letters stretch upwards, connecting heaven and earth, divine and mundane. There are always new layers of meaning and emotion waiting to be discovered in the Shema – the centerpiece of Jewish prayer. Beyond the obvious religious importance of this

The Law Becomes Paramount by Josh Blecher It takes the place of the cloud and the fire to guide and protect. The book of Numbers ends in a seemingly very odd way with the continuation of the very personal story of the ‘Zelophehad sisters.’ The rest of the tribe comes to Moses to complain about

Weekly Bible Chapter: Are We Too Reuben and Gad? by Rabbi Shai Held When desire for goods keep us from the good As the Israelites inch closer to the Promised Land, the tribes of Reuben and Gad approach Moses with a request. “‘If we have found favor in your eyes,’ they say, ‘let this land

Blessed When We Bless; Cursed When We Curse by Dr Bradley Shavit Artson How we treat the outcast, the marginalized, the despised will come back to us. As the pagan prophet winds down his whirlwind tour, hired by Balak to survey and curse the Children of Israel, he offers a few final observations on his

image: by Rembrandt – Mbzt, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23551459 Weekly Bible Chapter: The Irony of Balaam’s Blindness by Erica Brown Donkeys who can speak are less of a surprise than a Seer who cannot see. Balaam’s donkey not only refused to cross the angel’s path, she began to speak, protesting Balaam’s harsh treatment. Balaam retorts that

Weekly Bible Chapter: Deceptive Demagoguery and The Politics Of False Nostalgia by Gil Troy Motivated by petty Levite tribal jealousy, Korach was a dangerous political hack. Korach is Jewish history’s Disreputable Rebel. But for a tradition proud of producing mavericks like Abraham and Baruch Spinoza, Theodor Herzl and Menachem Begin, Betty Friedan and Natan Sharansky,

image: Sarajevo haggadah Weekly Bible Chapter: Bitter Herbs Together with Matzah!? by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks The genius of the Hillel sandwich: in the bitterness of slavery, there was also the hope and promise of freedom. There was a difference of opinion between Hillel and his contemporaries as to whether the matzah and maror should be

Weekly Bible Chapter: Deep Math: The Indivisible One by Michal Kohane Kabbalistic insights into the structure of the Menorah and the Torah The Menorah was made of 7 branches, 9 flowers, 11 knobs, and 22 cups, as described in Exodus 25:31-29. The Kabbalists say that the Menorah is like the whole Torah because it constantly

Weekly Bible Chapter: The Torah’s Centerpiece by Avraham Norin The centrality of the two covenant When reading a book, we usually assume the events are written in chronological order.  However, Leviticus chapters 25-27 seem out of place: the first line of 25 informs us that it was originally taught to Moses at Mt. Sinai, and

image: Anna Lo/shutterstock Weekly Bible Chapter: What Ought to be Beautiful in the Eye of the Beholder? by Avidan Freedman God’s acceptance of the “blemished” is conditional on our being accepting. Rabbi Abba bar Yudan said: Everything that God disqualified in animals, he endorsed in people. For animals, he disqualified the blind or broken or

Week Bible Chapter: Is Giving Birth a Dirty Sin? A surprising-even humorous-rabbinic answer by Avidan Freedman It’s a hard chapter to read. Almost every one of chapter 12’s eight short verses says something that evokes reactions from puzzlement to discomfort to outrage. To grapple with these challenges, we need to listen most carefully to something

image: Mascha Tace / shutterstock Week Bible Chapter: A How-To Guide for Holiness by David Wallach With at least 21 different topic areas, it covers all of life “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them: You shall be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am

Weekly Bible Chapter: We Didn’t Light The Fire But it’s up to us to keep it burning by Josh Blechner The fire on the altar shall be kept burning, not to go out: every morning the priest shall feed wood to it, lay out the burnt offering on it, and turn into smoke the fat

Weekly Bible Chapter: Words, Words, Words by Bradley Shavit Artson Enter the Torah’s most core book… The words seem so simple, “The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of meeting, saying: Speak to the Israelite people, and say to them:” How many times can one sentence say “speak?” God “calls”

image: Sketch by Benno Elkan prepared for the Knesset Menorah, 1950s / wikipedia Weekly Bible Chapter: A Light for All by Avidan Freedman “Not everyone is born a king or a priest, but all share the shining light of the Menorah.” No symbol of the Mishkan is more present in current Israeli consciousness than the