A Taste of Torah - Shoftim

This week's Torah portion, Shoftim, includes laws regarding the conduct of the Israelite army when it is attacking a city. These laws include a commandment that when the Israelite army attacked a city, it was prohibited from destroying the fruit-bearing trees in or around that city. While other trees could be destroyed, the ones that sustain the people could not, even if it was the army's goal to wipe out the city.

From this commandment, the rabbis developed the Jewish value of bal tashchit - a prohibition against destruction. The text asks, rhetorically, if the trees are human beings who can flee from the army. Of course, they are not, and they cannot. We are reminded that God created the world and has placed it under our care. But we do not own the world; God does. God has lent it to us. If we destroy the world, there will be no one left to repair it after us. Consider the ways in which you purposefully make use of the world around you and changes you can make in your behavior to protect it for others.

A Taste of Torah - Re'eh

Our Torah portion this week, Re'eh, reminds us of our obligation to those among us and around us who are in need. In Deuteronomy 15:7, God tells us that if there are people among us who are needy, we can not close our hands nor harden our hearts to them. Rashi, the 12th century commentator and scholar, tells us that when God instructs us not to harden our hearts, God understands that when we see someone in need, we often deliberate whether or not we should help that person. Will he buy food with the money I give him, or is he going to buy liquor? Does she really need the money for the bus home, or is she going to buy drugs? This debate sometimes leads us to close our hand, to decide not to help, rather than taking care of those less fortunate than ourselves.

As with many texts about caring for others, God reminds us a few verses later that we have an obligation to take care of others because we were among those in need when we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. We repay God for our freedom by helping others get what they need. The text tells us that we have to take care of whatever need others have. Sometimes it can be hard to know what another person's real need is. When we find ourselves faced with helping others less fortunate that we are, we should at least treat them with dignity and respect, making eye contact, smiling, and perhaps greeting them with a kind word expressing our regret if we choose not to help. God understands that we struggle with how to best help others, but doesn't let us off the hook just because the decision might be difficult.

A Taste of Torah - Ekev

In this week's Torah portion, Ekev, Moses reminds the Israelites of the incident with the Golden Calf, when Moses came down from the mountain and found the people dancing around the golden, which made him so upset that he threw down the tablets of the Ten Commandments, shattering them at the foot of the mountain. At first, God is prepared to wipe out the people, but Moses challenges God and asks, "What will the Egyptians think of You if You only took the Israelites into the wilderness to kill them?" Then, Moses reminds God of the promises God made to the matriarchs and patriarchs, asking if God would break those vows. In the end, God follows Moses' advice and has Moses create a new set of tablets.

There are times when we are so angry with what others have done that we don't know how we can forgive them. Even God feels this way. But it's important to have people around us - like Moses' presence for God - who remind us to offer second chances.

A Taste of Torah - D'varim

In the first portion of the book of Deuteronomy, D'varim, Moses reminds the Israelites of God's vow not to let any of the Israelites of the generation that left Egypt into the Promised Land because of their complaining and asking to go back to Egypt, except for one of them, Caleb. Caleb was one of the 12 scouts who checked out the Land of Israel. Instead of coming back with a report like 10 of the others talking about how they'd never be able to succeed, Caleb - along with Joshua who would succeed Moses - said the people had God on their side and they would be successful.

The Talmud (Sotah 34b) tells us that when Caleb scouted out the land, he saw things that the spies did not see, that he prayed at the graves of our ancestors, and drew strength from our collective past to get him through the difficulties of the moment. When you find yourself in a tight spot, to what do you look back to find strength to move forward?

A Taste of Torah - Matot-Masei

This week we finish the Book of Numbers, the fourth book in the Torah, with a double portion, Matot-Masei. In the latter portion, Masei, God asks us to establish what are called 'cities of refuge,' places to where someone who unintentionally causes the death of another person can run in order not to be killed by someone seeking revenge. As long as the person who has caused the death remains in the city, the people of that city are required to protect him or her. Of course, the way we in modern society handle manslaughter - causing the death of another person by accident - is different. Nonetheless, these cities of refuge create an important model for us. What are the places where you seek refuge? To where can you run to be safe and seek sanctuary? Who are the people who protect you when you need to be safe?

(And since this is the last portion of the Book of Numbers, we say, "Chazak, chazak v'nitchazeik - Be strong, be strong and let us strengthen one another!")

A Taste of Torah - Pinchas

This week's Torah portion, Parashat Pinchas, includes the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, who are Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah. When their father dies, the five of them bring their case before Moses to see if in spite of the fact that they don't have brothers, that they should be able to inherit their father's land. Up until this point, only men could inherit from their families when others died. Moses, not sure of what to do, brings their case before God. God sides with Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah and says that they should be able to inherit.

Because of the daughters of Zelophehad, there is a step in the right direction towards equality among men and women in Jewish tradition. Since them, more has been done, but there's still a lot to do. There are still ways in which we need to ensure equality among men and women, even in Reform Judaism.

A Taste of Torah - Chukat-Balak

This week we have a double portion, Chukat-Balak, and Parashat Balak has one of the best stories in the Torah, in my opinion. King Balak, after whom the portion is named, sends Balaam to curse the Israelites, but God intervenes and places an angel in the path of Balaam's donkey, an angel that initially only the donkey can see. When Balaam gets angry with the donkey, the donkey asks Balaam (Yes! The donkey talks!) if she has ever disobeyed him before. Only when the donkey helps him realize that there's something special going on does the angel appear to Balaam. Instead of cursing the Israelites, Balaam says the words that become part of our morning worship: How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel - Mah tovu ohalecha Ya'akov, mishkenotecha Yisrael. This week's Torah portion reminds us to pay attention; when something isn't the way it usually is, look for miracles and blessings.