I want, in this study, to look at one of Judaism’s most distinctive and least understood characteristics – the chronological imagination. The modern world was shaped by four revolutions: the English, the American, the French and the Russian. Two – the English and American – were inspired by the Hebrew Bible which in the [...]
The festival of Shavuot is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Here is how this week’s sedra describes and defines it: From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, [...]
On this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins” (Lev. 16: 30). On the holiest day of the year, the Day of Atonement, the holiest of people, the High Priest, entered the holiest of places, the Holy of Holies, [...]
Advances in medical technology such as in vitro fertilisation have raised complex ethical and legal questions. In the case of surrogacy for example – where the ovum comes from one woman, but the fertilised embryo is carried to term by another – who is the mother? On the one hand, the donor mother from [...]
The second half of Exodus and the first part of Leviticus form a carefully structured narrative. The Israelites are commanded to construct a sanctuary. They carry out the command. This is followed by an account of sacrifices to be offered there. Then, in the first part of today’s sedra, the cohanim, the priests, are [...]
Among the sacrifices detailed in this week’s sedra is the korban todah, the thanksgiving offering: “If he offers it [the sacrifice] as a thanksgiving offering, then along with this thanksgiving offering he is to offer unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and loaves of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil.” [...]
The laws of sacrifices that dominate the early chapters of the book of Vayikra / Leviticus, are among the hardest in the Torah to relate to – for it has been almost 2000 years since the Temple was destroyed and the sacrificial system came to an end. But Jewish thinkers, especially the more mystical [...]