WUPJ Library

Like the four new years of the Hebrew calendar, July 1 marks a significant moment in modern Jewish life. Our Torah portion, Chukat, comes to us just days after this point of transition and offers a timely reminder of what it means to be a leader in the Jewish community. 

“The ground under them burst asunder, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all Korach’s people and all their possessions.” (Numbers 16:31-32) Rebellion sure does get a bad rap in the Torah.

God instructs Moses to send leaders from each of the 12 ancestral tribes to scout out the land of Canaan, embarking from the wilderness of Paran and engaging in a fact finding mission from the bottom of the Negev up into the northern hill country.

Moses had supportive siblings who stood by him throughout his many challenges. Miriam, his big sister, watched baby Moses in the basket as Pharaoh’s daughter saved him.

This week’s parsha, Naso, gets its name from the Hebrew root “to carry.” The text begins by outlining the responsibilities of the different Levitical families in transporting and maintaining the portable mishkan (portable sanctuary) through the wilderness.

Since May 24, our national attention in the United States has been trained on the latest mass shooting in Uvalde, TX. Wherever we may live, those of us on Facebook and similar social media sites most probably have seen a variety of lists that have made the rounds of these sites.

What a trying period we are passing through! The COVID pandemic has sickened and killed millions ‘round the world, provoking isolation and fear in communities just when we need one another’s concern and encouragement the most.

What does it mean that the earth is God’s? How does that affect our understanding of our responsibility to the earth? And how are we supposed to treat each other if all of the world’s inhabitants also belong to God?

While this week’s Torah portion may engender only modest excitement, even for those who cherish biblical narrative, Emor has a special resonance for me.

For many Jews that must be one of the most recognizable phrases in the Torah. But what does it actually mean? Convention has it that this is an imitatio Dei instruction; having been created in the image of God human beings have to follow God’s example and replicate it in their own society. So far so clear, sort of; but what does ‘being holy’ actually mean?

Why does the Haggadah enjoin us not just to remember but to put ourselves in that place, in that moment in time, and believe ourselves to have been part of it? Doing so can connect us across dimensions of time and space, tying Jewish peoplehood together in this foundational narrative.

Why does the Haggadah enjoin us not just to remember but to put ourselves in that place, in that moment in time, and believe ourselves to have been part of it? Doing so can connect us across dimensions of time and space, tying Jewish peoplehood together in this foundational narrative.