In memory of our late father Meshulam Zishe Langerman, who died on the seventh day of Passover, 1973

And Fire came forth from God and consumed them and they died at the instance of God
And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what God meant when He said: through those near to Me I show Myself holy and gain glory before all the people.”
And Aaron was silent (Leviticus 10:2-3).

On the eighth day, at the height of the ceremony of sanctifying the Mishkan, a mishap happened and it was followed by tragedy. Aaron’s two sons, the priests Nadab and Abihu, transgressed when they brought forth “before God an alien fire which God did not enjoin upon them”—and the outcome was, “a fire came forth from God and consumed them and they died at the instance of God.” The two priests who brought “an alien fire” died by fire. Measure for measure, they brought (the wrong) fire and died by consuming fire. Torah does not specify the meaning of “alien fire;” there are numerous commentaries on the words “alien fire” “esh zarah” in Hebrew, but the text is quite clear that it was not holy fire, and not in accordance with God’s instructions. read more

Chapter four in Parshat VaYikra (Leviticus 1-5) picks up a specific sacrifice, the one that is offered when a person (in Hebrew: nefesh) inadvertently transgresses. The chapter begins with the words, “When a person unwittingly incurs guilt”—to speak to what is involved when any person falters without an intention to do so. Interestingly, what follows is not a set of instructions for what any individual should do; instead the text offers a detailed category of people in leadership who offend unintentionally. It focuses on three kinds of leaders, the spiritual (the anointed priest), the judicial court system (known as the Sanhedrin) and the political leader (Nasii, in Hebrew, or king). Only at the end of the chapter does the text come back to discuss the person, in the singular, anyone (in Hebrew: nefesh ahat). read more

I can’t quite find a prooftext in this week’s parasha, Va-Yakhel, to make the point that I want to make, but I guess this will have to do: “Thus the Israelites, all the men and women whose hearts moved them to bring anything for the work of the LORD [the building of the mishkan], through Moses, had commanded to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD. (Exodus 35:29) I suppose this is as close to an election that the Israelites had under Moses, a voluntary but crucial participation in building their communal institutions, unusually (and perhaps uniquely) both by men and women. read more

Coming out of Egypt for the Israelites was a social/religious transformational journey to become a unified, covenantal, ethical community. Beyond the physical/geographic details of the move, the book of Exodus pays close attention to the Israelites’ social journey away from an unformed crowd of former slaves toward becoming a people. No one act sealed the deal of peoplehood, not the dramatic exodus from Egypt, nor the miraculous parting of the sea, not even receiving the Ten Commandments; yet each act constituted and provided a rich layer in the process of becoming one people. This was a tough road for the Israelites, a massive social change that required constant and steadfast commitment that was guarded by God and guided by Moses. read more

“And they will make me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them. ” This remarkable instruction at the opening of this Shabbat Torah reading (Exodus 25-28) raises the question whether it implies the contraction of God of the Universe to a dwelling in a specific construction/space.

Indeed one midrash recognizes this possible dilemma and recounts that Moses upon hearing God’s instruction stepped back saying: God of the Universe, the heaven is your seat the earth is the place of your feet, how can one space contain your presence?” The answer, however, is enfolded in second part of the verse above: “and I will dwell among them.” Since the first part of the verse deals with building of the Tabernacle the expectation is that second part of the verse would say “And I will dwell in it.” Yet, surprisingly this is not what the verse declares; instead it says “and I will dwell among them,” among the people of Israel, and not in this or that space. From the words of the verse we learn that God ordered the building of the Tabernacle not for the sake of having a place to dwell in but so that He could dwell among his people who will follow Him and keep his covenant. And God in return will dwell among them. read more

On a brutally snowy day in February, a day when roads and parking lots are dangerously slippery, some forty women come to a book signing for a local writer. They come to honor the author and hear her read selection from her memoire.  Some of the passages are heartbreakingly moving and she chooses to close her reading with a narrative of God’s presence: “I sat near the lakeshore to pray the Shabbat service… ‘Such a serene spot,’ I said aloud to my congregation of rocks, water, trees and a passing gull…I glanced down at my prayer book and resumed my private service…I heard Julian stage-whisper, ‘B.J.’ I wondered why he was calling me when he could see what I was doing. I uttered the final words, then looked up to see him in a canoe bracketed by two loons. We love the gorgeous black and white water birds with their haunting cry…And he managed to usher two to my chapel. As if in answer to my unspoken prayer. As if to emphasize God’s wondrous presence.” read more

A father-in-law makes the difficult decision to tell his married daughter and his grandsons who live in his household that they should reunite with their father who is encamped at the Mountain of God. This is not an ordinary family since the son-in-law happens to be a political leader of a nation-in-the-making, an overburdened very public man and not exactly marriage material with very little time for family responsibilities. The father-in-law knows about the prominence and fame of the leader yet his compassion for his son in-law is so remarkable that this week’s Parsha (Exodus 18:1-20:23) takes its name Yitro from this father-in-law a Midianite priest the father of Moses’ wife. read more

The experience of exodus from Egypt has been a founding event / an indispensable foundation in the shaping of Jewish identity, religion and values, and is inscribed in the first of the Ten Commandments, “I the Lord am your God who brought you out of Egypt, the house of bondage.”[1]

The narrative of slavery and the exodus to freedom is the foundation for numerous mitzvot, commandments in Torah, among them the sanctity of the Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost and Feast of the Tabernacles, and mitzvot such as laying of phylacteries and social justice commandments of treating with compassion the marginalized, the poor, the needy, the widow, the orphan and the Ger, the stranger. The moral ethical call to treat the stranger with compassion has for generations been embedded in the sign, “because you have been strangers in the land of Egypt.” read more