“The purpose of the Tabernacle was to promote the high and noble ideal of God,” says Rabbi Ammi Hirsch. But the Torah focuses on the minute details of its construction. Yet one of history’s leading rabbis claimed that this week’s Torah portion contains Judaism’s central verse…
Israeli archaeologists recently made a remarkable find: textile scraps containing the brilliant color of purple mentioned in this week’s parashah. “Imagine being invited to Solomon’s court and peeking into his wardrobe,” says Rabbi Ammi Hirsch. “You would have seen dozens of garments and robes streaked with the same royal purple discovered at Timna.”
As artificial intelligence tools become more widely available, Rabbi Sam Natov thinks about the new technology from a Jewish perspective. “This is hardly the first time the ways we learn and communicate have changed, yet we still read Torah each week from the scroll,” she says. “What is lost when we look for the easy way?”
Have you been frustrated in a crowded supermarket? How did you choose to react? “We have the freedom to take the high road,” says Rabbi Sam Natov. “But freedom without responsibility means slavery to our basest impulses… Torah is our master code for living moral and ethical lives.”
The crossing at the Red Sea was the moment everything changed. “Every Jew must consider themselves as if they were slaves in Egypt,” says Rabbi Ammi Hirsch, recalling our synagogue’s humanitarian work. “We must consider the dispossessed — the refugee fleeing war, who shows up on our doorstep with nothing but the clothes on his back and the scars in her heart — as worthy as we are and equal in the sight of God.”
The darkness that descended upon Egypt “was no ordinary darkness, created by the absence of light,” says Rabbi Dalia Samansky. “Meanwhile the Israelites had light.” Where did it come from?
