Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on August 19, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
there’s not so much new here in parshat ekev. moshe continues to reiteritate the people’s indebtedness to God and the importance of upholding “ומצותיו ,משפטיו ,חוקותיו: His commandments, laws, and rules” (devarim 8:11). but buried within moshe’s retelling of חטא העגל (sin of the golden calf), an interesting discrepancy arises. here’s the scene: moshe’s just Continue Reading »
Posted on August 18, 2011 by Barer
This week’s parsha continues with a lot of the same themes as the preceding two, including the second paragraph of the Shma which talks about the agricultural importance of keeping the commandments, as if the Israelites fail to do so, the land that they have come to rely on (which is explicitly differentiated from Egypt Continue Reading »
Posted on August 14, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
in this week’s parshat va’etchanan, moshe attempts to perform the greatest magic trick of all time: to convince an entire nation, to truly make them believe, that they were all somewhere where they were not. the ideas of forgetting and remembering dominate this parsha in which once again moshe details all the laws and decrees Continue Reading »
Posted on August 5, 2011 by Barer
From my blog This week we begin the final book of the Torah, Dvarim, which consists mostly of Moshe’s final speech to the Israelites. In this week’s parsha Moshe recounts the sin of the spies. Curiously, though, it has a number of inconsistencies with the original telling: Moshe says this week that the people approached Continue Reading »
Posted on August 4, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
in this week’s parshat devarim, moshe becomes a master of words. his new-found verbosity is notable given how lacking he was in the words department forty years back. but, a lot has changed both with the jewish people and with moshe. and now, as the people are finally about to enter the promised land, moshe Continue Reading »
Posted on August 2, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
this parsha is aptly titled mase’ei meaning the travels of bnei yisrael. and the Torah spares no expense to list every place from which they set out and made camp along the way. in fact, the word ויסעו, meaning “they set out,” is written 42 times. each time, this word is shortly followed by the Continue Reading »
Posted on July 28, 2011 by Barer
This week we wrap up the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), chronicling the journeys the Israelites undertook in the desert. The final verses bring us back to an episode first encountered a few weeks ago, the daughters of Tzelophchad. This time, spokesmen approach Moshe and the elders on their behalf. They worry is that, once the Continue Reading »
Posted on July 23, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
moshe has come a long way from his days of “כבד פה וכבד לשון, slow of speech, slow of tongue” (shmot 4:10). he has not only transformed bnei yisrael from a stiff-necked, fickle bunch of wanderers into a God-loving, jewish people, but he himself has undergone a tremendous transformation. in the course of his adventures Continue Reading »
Posted on July 14, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
in this week’s parsha, after yet another plague in which an empassioned God wipes out large numbers of israelities, 24,000 to be exact, God tells moshe to take another census of the jewish people. the last census was back in the beginning of parshat bamidbar, where we reached a grand total of 603,550 israelites. and Continue Reading »
Posted on July 14, 2011 by Barer
[From my blog] After taking another census of the nation, the first claim for equal rights for women in Jewish history is documented in this week’s parsha when the five daughters of Tzlophchad, a man who left Egypt with the Israelites but has since been killed for sinning, petition Moshe and the entire congregation to Continue Reading »
