Naso

Numbers 4:21−7:89

By Rabbi Bradley Artson, provided by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, for MyJewishLearning.com

Situational Ethics And God

The importance of preserving the relationship between a husband and wife provides an example of the Torah's use of relative morality.

Often, we define the moral position as the one that adheres to objective standards of right and wrong.  Consequently, someone who evaluates an action in the light of eternal, immutable values demonstrates a higher level of moral development than a person who uses other, more situational standards.  The roots of this perspective lie in ancient Greek thought, which associated the true with the eternal–what was perfect never changed.  Similarly, the highest level of morality would be immutable.

The Greek mind sought out "laws of nature" which functioned in the realm of human morality no less than in the realm of astronomy.  Modern psychologists of moral development–primarily students of the late Lawrence Kohlberg–looked to those Greek suppositions and found confirmation in the moral development of boys and men.  Apparently, the highest level of moral development among males involves recourse to external rules of ethical standards that are always true and always definitive.

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Bemidbar

Numbers 1:1−4:20

By Rabbi Mychal Springer, Director of the Center for Pastoral Education, JTS

Keeping A Sound Relationship With God

The midrash teaches us that God destroyed the world several times before creating our world (Bereishit Rabbah 3:7 and 9:2). Famously, after the flood, God establishes a covenant with Noah, Noah’s sons, and all living things. God says: “I will maintain My covenant (briti) with you: never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth” (Gen. 9:11). When we read this verse in light of the midrash, we understand that God came very close to destroying the world again, but managed to enact a symbolic destruction, providing some people and some of the living creatures with a way to survive. This covenant is the vehicle for keeping humanity and all of creation connected with the divine even when rupture looms as a possibility.

In this week’s Torah and haftarah portions, the specter of rupture looms repeatedly. First, we are reminded of the deaths of Aaron’s two older sons, Nadav and Avihu. Though they had entered into a sacred pact to serve God in the intimacy of God’s holiest places, they got it wrong—they “offered alien fire before the Lord” (Num. 3:4)—and died as a result. Their missing the mark led to their deaths and a transfer of the sacred role from the older to the younger sons. Similarly, our parashah recounts the undoing of the sacred place held by the firstborn sons, chosen to be dedicated to God when they were saved from the 10th plague, the plague of the slaying of the firstborns. While God simply asserts that Moses should substitute the Levites for the firstborns (Num. 3:41), we must notice that, once again, a special relationship of service has been abrogated and a new group has replaced the original one.

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B'har/B'chukotai

Leviticus 25:1-26:2 / 26:3-27:34

Raising The King's Sons

By Rabbi David Levy, Director of Admissions for the Rabbinical School and the H.L. Miller Cantorial School and College of Jewish Music for JTSA

ויקרא רבה (וילנא) פרשה לו
ולמה הוא מזכיר זכות אבות ומזכיר זכות הארץ עמהם אמר ר"ל משל למלך שהיה לו שלשה בנים ושפחה אחת משלו מגדלתן כל זמן שהיה המלך שואל שלום בניו היה אומר שאלו לי בשלום המגדלת כך כל זמן שהקב"ה מזכיר אבות מזכיר הארץ עמהם הה"ד וזכרתי את בריתי יעקב וגו' והארץ אזכור  Leviticus Rabbah Chapter 36

And why did God make mention of the merits of our ancestors and the merit of the land alongside them? Reish Lakish shared a parable, (he said) [i]t is like a king that had three sons, and one of his handmaidens raised them. Every time that the king asked after the welfare of his sons he would say also ask about the welfare of she who is raising them. So too, each time God remembers our ancestors, he recalls the land alongside them. That is why it is written "And I will remember my covenant with Jacob . . . and I will recall the earth." (Leviticus 26:42)

In Parashat Behukkotai, God spells out a list of blessings that will come if the Israelites will follow God's rules. This is followed by a harrowing list of curses that will ensue if the Israelites fail in this task. Finally, at the end of chapter 26, God foretells that even after the curses, when the Israelites repent, He will remember the covenants He made with our ancestors, and will remember the land. We might assume that the land is mentioned here because it is a part of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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Emor

 Leviticus 21:1−24:23

By Rabbi Joel Alter, Director of Admissions, The Rabbinical School and H. L. Miller Cantorial School and College of Jewish Music, JTS

Call Them By Their Names

When I’m at a hotel over Shabbat, I have a set Friday afternoon ritual. I present myself to the restaurant’s maître d’ and explain that I’d like to preorder and prepay my Saturday breakfast as my religious practice bars me from spending money on the Jewish Sabbath. Despite consternation over working around normal procedure, my request is invariably treated with no-questions-asked respect once I characterize my need as “religious.” While the maître d’ might not know Yom Tov from Yuletide, “religious” is a category that—in certain contexts anyway—gets categorical deference. The particulars of religious practice are not subject to question, except inasmuch as Americans want to know how to respectfully accommodate one another’s religion. In the religiously diverse United States, everyone’s religion occupies a generic space called holy, making it easy to practice according to our tradition.

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