Judaism, Rabbi Sacks writes, is less a religion of holy people and holy places than it is a religion of holy words. In my comments on this week’s Torah portion, Tazriyah/Metzorah, I explore how words create worlds.
THE TROPE
Tazriyah (Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59) : Click here.
Metzorah (Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33) : Click here.
Jewish law, Judaism itself, does not assume a single, immutable form, rather that there is a covenant between human beings and God to continually co-create this world and to do so together.
In this week’s Torah portion, for the first time in the Torah, we are faced with a social structure that includes a hereditary elite within the Jewish people: Aaron and his male descendants, the priestly caste. “Modern Judaism has a problem with the priesthood. The notion of hereditary holiness—that one segment of the Jewish people is set apart from others, given ceremonial privileges, and invited to bless the people—conflicts with our egalitarian ethos.” (Daniel Nevins, JTS).
It turns out that the rabbis of the Talmud, whose discussions over the course of hundreds of years during which Judaism went from being a religion centered on the Temple to one centered on legal scholarship, also had a hard time embracing the very idea of an inherited dynastic social order of elites.
Mishpatim: Loving Those Most Difficult to Love
This week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, is a radical call for human beings to challenge God – especially the God(s) of that which you believe to be the absolute truth.
“Lifted” from the Torah of Rabbi Shai Held, Rabbi Irwin Kula, and others!
