Reawakening Shabbat: Parashat Beshalach/Shabbat Shirah/Tu BiSh’vat

Parashat B’shalah/Shabbat Shirah/Tu BiSh’vat
Exodus 13:17-17:16

“And the Almighty blessed the Seventh Day and sanctified it; for it was then that God rested from all God’s labors that the Almighty had created to do.” (Gen. 2:3)

Fast forward to our Torah reading, in which, after lying dormant for millennia, the Sabbath Day finally awakens again. How does this happen?

The Israelites have left Egypt and marched to freedom under God’s mighty protection. Leaving their Egyptian pursuers behind, they enter the open wilderness. To answer their need for sustenance God sends them “bread from heaven” (Ex. 16:4) – called “manna.” And then God explains that this heavenly gift, meant to satisfy every person’s hunger, will fall from the skies everyday – except for Shabbat. The manna will fall each day and will be edible for only that day. It cannot be hoarded for another time. But on Friday a double portion will rain down from heaven, enough for two days, and the food will not spoil, so that the Israelites can enjoy a Sabbath day of rest, their food already prepared. Continue reading

Incapable Heart: Parashat Va’era

Parashat Va’era
Exodus 6:2-9:35

Pharaoh’s heart is tested again and again during the chain of plagues that God inflicts upon Egypt. How strong or heavy or light will Pharaoh’s heart be? Again and again the Torah characterizes Pharaoh’s stubborn persistence to hold onto the Israelites as deriving from his hard, heavy, strengthened heart. Such strength seems to indicate not only firm resolve, but also a lack of compassion. The plagues rain down upon Egypt’s waters, dust, fields, and houses, and upon the bodies of the Egyptians themselves. But Pharaoh does not care. He will not submit. (We have often discussed this theme, a classic subject of all readers of this story.)
Continue reading

Narrative Distance: Parashat Sh’mot

Parashat Sh’mot
Exodus 1:1-6:1

With this book we begin speaking about the Jewish people as a nation. Until now we have been speaking about individuals. But now the Children of Israel are called a people “`am” for the first time. So they are called by Pharaoh, by Moses, by taskmasters, by God.

And with this shift we enter, almost imperceptibly, into a change of the nature of the voice of the Biblical Narrator. From the start of the Torah, from The Beginning, we have heard a voice of a storyteller who is not God or any identifiable being. The voice is the voice of an all-knowing narrator who can tell us what God does and thinks and says, and what everyone else says or does or wants. But the narrator is not God, or Laban or Tamar, or any other character in the story. We accept this voice naturally, for it tells us of events and personae – such as Noah or Sarah – long gone.

Continue reading

Mythic Space: Parashat Vay’hi

Parashat Vay’hi
Genesis 47:28-50:26

As Jacob, the final Patriarch, prepares to die, he begs his son Joseph to take his body out of Egypt and bury it in the ancestral cave originally purchased by Abraham. He chooses to take his place within the mythic space – historical and imaginative – that this cave signifies. (See Sparks 2011) His consciousness of this transformative choice can be detected in the way he recalls the history of the place: “It was there that they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife; it was there that they buried Isaac and Rebecca, his wife; and it was there that I buried Leah.” (Gen. 49:31)

Continue reading

Debt Forgiveness: Parashat Vayigash

Parashat Vayigash
Genesis 44:18-47:27

As we read our Torah portion during this Jewish Sabbatical Year (Sh’mittah), many have noticed the stark difference between the economic plan developed by Joseph to help sustain the Egyptian people during their seven years of famine, and the later 7-year plan commanded by the Torah for the Jewish people in the Promised Land. (See my discussion in Sparks for 2012) Some have written harsh condemnations of Joseph, calling into question the traditional characterization of Joseph as “the Righteous One.” They righteously protest: How righteous could Joseph be if he conceived a plan that reduced the Egyptian people to servitude?
Continue reading

Willful Forgetfulness: Parashat Miqetz

Parashat Miqetz/Hanukah/Rosh Hodesh
Genesis 41:1-44:17

Our story is about forgetting and remembering. The Chief Butler had forgotten his promise to Joseph for two years, after he had been restored to his position in Pharaoh’s court. But, after Pharaoh cannot find a satisfactory interpretation for the dreams that torment him, the Butler remembers, saying, “It is my sins that I recall today.” (Gen. 41:9) Joseph is raised from his jail cell to hear Pharaoh’s dreams, and Joseph interprets the dreams to be saying that the country will be swept over with seven years of abundance and then seven years of famine. And the famine years will devour the years of plenty, “and all the satisfaction in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will destroy the land.” (Gen. 41:30) Continue reading

Linked Sufferings: Parashat Vayeshev/Hanukah/Thanksgiving

Parashat Vayeshev/Hanukah/Thanksgiving 
Genesis 37:1-40:23

The era of the Patriarchs virtually ends with this Torah reading. The Patriarchal system rested on the myth that all power and control over the destiny of the family and the extended group was in the hands of that central figure. It is a significant organizing myth, even if the reality is always much more complicated. All the Torah’s stories until now have both affirmed this myth but also undermined it in many ways. Fathers decide who their heir will be, who their heir’s spouse will be, who will get the blessing – except, of course, when other factors intervene.
Continue reading

Whitewashed History: Parashat Vayishlah 

Inaccurate depiction of the conditions of slaves on George Washington’s plantation. – Stearns, Junius Brutus

Parashat Vayishlah 
Genesis 32:4-36:43

The stories of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs and their children often present their actions in a questionable or even objectionable light. And, as we are introduced to the sons of Jacob, in this Torah portion and beyond, we cannot but notice that they are not exemplars of great spiritual or moral stature. I have written about this phenomenon in the past. (See, e.g., Sparks for this Torah reading from 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020.) But one thing is clear, our sacred Scriptures have not chosen to forget these disturbing evidences of moral failure. On the contrary! They form the very substance of our Torah! And the rest of the Torah will continue to unflinchingly retell stories of Israel’s transgressions and corruptions.
Continue reading

A Gate: Parashat Vayetze

Parashat Vayetze 
Genesis 28:10-32:3

The Torah mixes her metaphors, moving from “ladder” to “house” to “gate.” The place Jacob encounters affords him an overwhelming experience. In his sleep he dreams that the earth upon which he lies is the grounding for a ladder that leads up to heaven. When he awakes, he exclaims “How awesome is this place. It is none other than the House of the Almighty and this is Heaven’s gate.” (Gen. 28:17)
Continue reading

Esau’s Blessing: Parashat Toldot

Parashat Toldot 
Genesis 25:19-28:9

In last week’s Torah portion we saw that Abraham, in the concluding decades of his life, stepped down from his world-significant plane of living to become just another person, living his private life as best he could. The change – freely chosen or imposed by destiny – is not described by the Torah as being stressful or challenging.

In contrast, this week’s portion brings us into a moment of great and painful stress when one of our protagonists, Esau, is forced to cross the bridge leading from one of those two planes of living to the other. Esau has sold his birthright, but he still expects to receive his father’s blessing. However, his brother, Jacob, and his mother engineer it so that Isaac bestows the blessing upon Jacob, instead. Continue reading