Category: Judaism

Balak: Great Source

The Torah: A Women’s Commentary includes a “Contemporary Reflection” with each weekly portion. Sue Levi Elwell’s essay on Balak offers a challenge “to move beyond the narrow, dichotomous thinking that blinded Balak and Balaam in this portion” (pp.956-957):

Are we ready to open our tents and our hearts to those who wish to dream — and then to build sacred communities that not only tolerate diversity and difference but also celebrate them?

In this spirit, Be’chol Lashon/In Every Tongue, advocates for “the growth and the diversity of the Jewish people.”

UPDATE 2019:
Older, now defunct, resources removed. Newer materials here:

Jews of Color Field Building Initiative resources;
Keshet LGBTQ-inclusive resources;
JConnect disability inclusion resources;
Reform Movement’s Audacious Hospitality program.

The “Opening the Book” series was originally presented in cooperation with the independent, cross-community Jewish Study Center and with Kol Isha, an open group that for many years pursued spirituality from a woman’s perspective at Temple Micah (Reform). “A Song Every Day” is an independent blog, however, and all views, mistakes, etc. are the author’s.

Balak: Language and Translation

When Balaam speaks poetry given him by God — 23:7, 23:18, 24:3, 24:15 — the text says he “va-yisa m’shalo.” Alter and JPS (and The Women’s Commentary) say, “took up his theme.” Stone has it, “declaimed his parable.” Fox says, “took up his discourse.” (For references, see Source Materials.)
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Chukat: Great Source(s)

Miriam’s death (verse 20:1) is juxtaposed with another water crisis:

The community was without water, and they joined against Moses and Aaron. The people quarrelled with Moses, saying, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished at the instance of YHVH!…” (Numbers/Bamidbar 20:2-3)

This juxtaposition is one of the sources for the concept of “Miriam’s Well,” a movable source of water that followed the Israelites due to Miriam’s merit. (The cloud of glory, accompanying the Ark, was in Aaron’s merit; the manna, in Moses’ [Talmud tractate Ta’anit 9a].) For more on Miriam’s Well — including 15 traditional sources and one modern study — see entry #496 in Tree of Souls by Howard Schwartz (Oxford University Press, 2004).
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