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Mishpatim: Love, Freedom, and the Law

And now, a little bit of law. Nestled between the two mega-memes of the Revelation at Sinai and the construction of the Tabernacle, we find a weekly reading that starts with "these are the statutes (mishpatim) that you will place before them." It goes on to provide us with the basics of the Torah's civil and criminal laws.B’shallah: Hands Up!

The stories in this week's reading may seem disjointed, but in fact they form a single unit. A modern editor, looking for a groovy chapter title, might have called the collection, "Ancient Israel's Bipolar Moment." Or, even more flippantly, "Hands Up!"Vay’hi: Zealotry and Tolerance

The time of patriarchs was reaching its end. Jacob was dying, and alongside his dictation of burial arrangements, he also gave final words to his twelve sons, words in which he would tell them "what will befall you in the end of days." We usually read them as his final "blessings." But in the case of two sons, Simeon and Levi, they are assuredly curses.Mikeitz: Joseph’s Torture

How to make sense of Joseph? This week we learn of his nearly pathological efforts to ensnare, baffle, accuse, imprison, and shame his brothers—the same brothers who, decades earlier, sold him into slavery. Now he is Grand Vizier of Egypt, and he gets a chance to show them who's boss.Toldot: The Blinding of Isaac

If you take a fresh, unadorned look at the life of Isaac, son of Abraham, you might feel like you've walked into a bad remake of a great film. Many of the same plot lines are there, but without much of the magic.Vayera: The Binding of Abraham

Our weekly reading gives us two radically different stories about Abraham—with two contradictory messages.  First, God decides to destroy the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone.Noah: Tower of Power

What's wrong with the Tower of Babel? At first glance, the famous story that closes out this week's reading seems pretty straightforward. The men of Babel build a tower to Heaven.Ha’azinu: Moses’s Other Song

It's one of the least-sung songs in the Bible. Known as the "Song of Moses," or shirat ha'azinu among traditional Jews, the poem that takes up almost the entirety of this week's Torah reading is twice as long as Moses's better-known Song of the Sea.Ki Teitzei: Defending Human Dignity

From beginning to end, this week's reading offers a catalog of value-laden statements about how the ancient Israelites were to become a good people.Korah: The Morning After

It is one of the most famous stories in the book of Numbers, yet we often miss the story behind the story. For it turns out that the rebellion of Korah, which features prominently in this week's reading, is really just a frontispiece for a far more interesting drama playing out in the background.