Tag: Source

Masei: Great Source

So the Prophet remains in the wilderness, buries his own generation, and trains up a new one. Year after year passes, and he never grows weary of repeating to this growing generation the laws of righteousness that must guide its life in the land of its future; never tires of recalling the glorious past in which these laws were fashioned. The past and the future are the Prophet’s whole life, each completing the other. In the present he sees nothing but a wilderness, a life far removed from his ideal; and therefore he looks before and after. He lives in the future world of his vision and seeks strength in the past out of which that vision-world is quarried.
Continue reading Masei: Great Source

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.

Korach: Great Source(s)

This portion (Bamidbar/Numbers 16:1 – 18:32) highlights a wilderness leadership challenge, led by Moses’ cousin Korach. Some of its power comes from the community dealing with God’s pronouncement in the previous portion (Shelach):

“But your carcasses shall drop in this wilderness, while your children roam the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your faithlessness, until the last of your carcasses is down in the wilderness.” Continue reading Korach: Great Source(s)

Shelach: Great Source-2

The first Great Source(s) post for Shelach (Lecha) included a long, century-old poem and several academic references. For a different approach to this week’s — or any Torah portion, visit Rabbi Shefa Gold’s Torah Journeys.

Rabbi Gold notes that the Torah portion Shelach (Lekha) [“send out (for yourself)”] (Numbers 13:1 – 15:41) includes the story of spies sent to scout out the promised land and ends with the instruction to tie fringes [tzitzit] as a reminder of the commandments. Like the portion’s spies, we all experience odd moments that hint at “the infinite that is the source of our finite world,” she writes. She then explains that this portion is a challenge:

“to remember what I have glimpsed, to plant the glimpse, like a seed, in the soil of my life. And Shelach Lekha warns me that if I deny that glimpse – if I doubt its validity – then I will be denied entrance to the Land of Promise – the state of consciousness that witnesses Divine Presence filling the whole world. To plant the seed of that glimpse requires that I acknowledge and celebrate it, and that I nurture its growth with my loving attention.”

by Zachary Lynch, mixed media/sgraffito board
by Zachary Lynch, mixed media/sgraffito board

For me, this piece of art –“From Dirt to Life,” by Zachary Lynch — offers a powerful visual embodiment of this teaching. (This work — mixed media, sgraffito board — was created through the Washington Very Special Arts “Articulate Gallery,” which is sadly no more; the piece can now be found at Temple Micah).

 

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.