by Sarah Gazitt | Mar 3, 2024 | Torah Reflections
Ki Tissa Exodus 30:11 – 34:35 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him: Arise, make us a god who will go before us, for that fellow Moses—the man who brought us from the...
by Sarah Gazitt | Feb 25, 2024 | Torah Reflections
T’tzaveh Exodus 27:20 – 30:10 The title of this Torah portion, T’tzaveh, is usually translated as “Instruct!” or “Command!” The word t’tzaveh has the same root as mitzvah, which also is usually translated as “commandment.” But a mitzvah is more than a...
by Sarah Gazitt | Jan 26, 2024 | Torah Reflections
B’Shalach Exodus 13:17 – 17:16 When we approach biblical stories as myth, we no longer read the text literally but see it, instead, as the expression of a universal spiritual unfolding. Thus, the opening phrase of this parashah, “Now when Pharaoh let the...
by Sarah Gazitt | Sep 22, 2023 | Torah Reflections
HaAzinu Deuteronomy 32:1 – 52 Chutzpah. Whether Jewish or not, almost everyone knows this Hebrew/Yiddish word. The dictionary defines it as “unmitigated effrontery or impudence, gall, nerve, courage bordering on arrogance.” But there is a much deeper...
by Sarah Gazitt | Sep 8, 2023 | Torah Reflections
Nitzavim-Vayeilech Deuteronomy 29:1 – 31:30 One of the fascinating things about Semitic languages is the way words grow from a root (usually three letters) so that additional letters qualify, illustrate, and expand the meaning of the basic root. Take for example...
by Sarah Gazitt | Sep 1, 2023 | Torah Reflections
Ki Tavo Deuteronomy 26:1 – 29:8 Sometimes it seems that the fast-approaching High Holy Days come way too early. The waning days of summer are still warm and inviting, kids are just starting back to school, gardens still need tending and harvesting—who has time...
