Shabbat Weekly Dvar Torah

Parshat Shemini presents a pivotal moment in the Torah, particularly in the context of community and leadership. The portion details the inauguration of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) and the roles of Aaron and his sons as the first priests. One significant event is the tragic death of Aaron's sons, who bring unauthorized fire before God. This alien fire consumed them, and they instantly died. A day that began amidst celebration, and particular elevation for Aaron and Elisheva’s family of Kohanim (priests), turned into one of death and grief.

As we move through the Jewish year, few holidays reveal as much about the Jewish soul as Yom Kippur and Passover. One calls us inward, into silence and fasting. The other calls us outward — into storytelling, song, and shared meals. Though they stand in stark contrast, both holidays use food — or its deliberate absence — as a spiritual tool, helping us sharpen our focus and deepen our connection to Jewish memory and meaning.

Made only of flour and water — with no shortening, yeast, or enriching ingredients — matzah recreates the hard “bread of affliction” (Devarim / Deuteronomy 16:3) and meager food given to the Hebrews in Egypt by their exploitative masters. Like the bitter herbs eaten at the Seder, it represents the degradation and suffering of the Israelites. Matzah is, therefore, both the bread of freedom and the erstwhile bread of slavery. It is not unusual for ex-slaves to invert the very symbols of slavery to express their rejection of the masters’ values. But there is a deeper meaning in the double-edged symbolism of matzah... Matzah is the bread of the Exodus way, the bread of freedom; hametz is the bread eaten in the house of bondage, in Egypt.

An article in New York magazine entitled “How Not to Talk to Your Kids” described Thomas, a gifted fifth grader who attended a highly competitive school. In his school, prospective kindergarteners were given an IQ test to confirm their precociousness, and only the top one percent of all applicants was accepted. Thomas scored in the top one percent of the top one percent. Since Thomas could walk, he has always heard that he was smart. But as he progressed through school, this self-awareness didn’t always translate into fearless confidence in tackling his schoolwork. In fact, Thomas’s father noticed just the opposite...

One of the things I miss most about going to shul regularly is the moment when the final line of a book of Torah is read. In many places, the kahal (community) rises and calls out, “Chazak, chazak, v’nit’chazek” (“Be strong, be strong, and may we be strengthened”). These words are then echoed by the Torah reader. This 30-second ritual takes an otherwise ordinary moment in the flow of Torah reading and transforms it into a reflection of what we have experienced and what we hope is to come. This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Pekudei, reveals a similar moment of enriching dissonance.

If you were making a movie version of the Torah, you wouldn’t have a Parshas Vayakhel. You would have last week’s Golden Calf episode; you might have Moshe “on the mountain” getting instructions for the Mishkan. You certainly would include the splitting of the sea in your movie. You might even have a scene where we hear Hashem say, “build Me a mishkan and I will dwell among them,” from Parshas Trumah and some jump-cut edits to building the various mishkan components. But you certainly would not have Moshe telling all the details of the build to the Jewish people and then the actual item by item description of the build like in Parshas Vayakhel. Instead, you would have a montage.

It can’t happen here,” thought the Jews of Susa on the eve of their planned extermination, “not here; this is the country of Cyrus the Great!” They were right to be shocked. Persia’s emperor Cyrus had allowed – and helped – the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple after the Babylonian Exile... The incredulity of Persian Jews when Haman the Wicked so easily convinced King Assuerus to massacre the Jews is understandable. If the fact itself was shocking, the ease with which Assuerus’ acquiesce to betray his ancient allies was outstanding. He had no animosity towards Jews. He was just a frivolous monarch, interested in hunts and parties, akin to a modern politician who spends his tenure golfing.

This week is Parashat Tetzaveh, which details the dress of the Kohanim / the priests and the aspects of the altar, on which the priests performed sacrifices. This past week, I also taught an evening adult bat mitzvah class at Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus about Shabbat. What to teach that wouldn’t be... routine, obvious, maybe boring, G!D forbid? So I started by putting onto the classroom table my own challah board, knife, challah cover and some salt. And I figured I would begin the whole lesson with a question that they might not know the answer to in order to capture their attention after a long day: Why the salt? Why do we traditionally dip our bread into a bit of salt or sprinkle salt on the bread on Friday night? Total quiet— I now had their attention, success!