Torah for now

Archive for July, 2026

Eikev, Fires and Floods

As I write this, 300,000 are evacuated from Spain and France due to climate fueled fires. The whole earth is filled with G8d’s Kavod/Presence. Soon Spain will experience a total solar eclipse. People today experience a sense of the majesty of the solar system in viewing things so grand. In ancient days, it was a fearful portent, to see the sun’s power dimmed. The beginning of wisdom is fear of G8d – the Big picture of the Universe, (Proverbs 9:10) The dual meaning of the Hebrew yirah is fear and awe. We need tears, the thickening of our hearts to be cut open (Deuteronomy 10:16) We have just emerged from Tisha B’av, soon to be immersed in TuB’Av, the Biblical Holiday of Love, and comfort as the refugees returned from Babylonian Exile. More than ever we need hearts broken by awe and fear to fill with love.

It would take a couple of hard smacks from life before my heart could heal.

The theme of opening our hearts to bring tikkun repair to ourselves and the world runs through this amazing parashah in three parallel ways!

https://soundcloud.com/user-30824119/vakhalta1. Gratitude: Birkat Hamazon, the blessing after a meal, is partly here.  We are always yearning, hungry, But each item on your plate is grown from the earth, watered, harvested, delivered, prepared – a miracle. To stop, and really enjoy the food, is another miracle, and to really allow yourself a moment to say – wow I am satisfied! (It is easier without distractions, electronic or otherwise) I have found that even a brief blessing said with focus, or Kavannah can be transformative. Here’s a quick one based on words from Deuteronomy 8:10 V’achalta, v’savata, uverachta,et Adonai Elohecha(It is written that you shall eat, you shall be satisfied and you shall bless!)Blessed are you G8d for goodness, and holiness, for the land and for this food. Here’s a lovely version from Hannah Tiferet Siegel

2. Open our hearts to the vulnerable, the immigrant: because it is how G8d acts: 18) G8d upholds the cause of the orphan and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving them food and clothing.— (19) You too must love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

3. What if the rain were G8d’s tears? In Eikev Rain is clearly dependent upon our ability to act in justice and to love. Unlike Egypt where slave labor irrigated farms from the Nile, The promised land drinks water gifted by the Holy one. These passages are the second paragraph of the Shema, but here the command to love G8d has moved from singular to plural, communal.  The shema itself is a progression of love rippling outward from the center: beginning between your eyes and upon the heart of a person to your family/children, to the borderlines of your home, across your gates, and into the outside world, where, earlier we learn to love the stranger. It is parallel to the journey from Mitzrayim, the narrow straits, to the wide skies of freedom.

All depends on water, water is life. What if the rain were G8d’s tears, and they being withheld because of our heartlessness? What if this were the spiritual source of climate change?

I wrote the song Water planet inspired by the text and associated meditations from Rabbi Jill Hammer’s Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah

Water planet from the Breath of Life

Dazzling blue suspended in the night,

If we could hold it as Holy One might

We would feel the fluttering of life’s wings

How fragile our lonely home world seems

Our heart–beats sending lifeblood that we need

To heal the suffering our callous actions bring

To turn the sad melody G*d’s tears sing.

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Priorities

If you had to list your three most important values, the guides of your neshamah/ soul, what would they be? My cousin asked me this at dinner recently. What do you dream and spend time and effort pursuing? And for what aim? Sources here, and to see my own

In our Torah drama tale, the Freedom project begun in Egypt has led us to the brink of the Jordan River. This double portion, Matot-Masei begins with a section of the three types of vows: the neder, assur, and shevua –the vow, the “I’m going to abstain” and the oath. (For more on women vs. men’s oaths Sources here) Words that you swear in a vow or oath must be fulfilled! Is your word your bond? Interestingly these opening words of Matot, meaning tribes, are directed to the leaders of the Israelites. According to Ibn Ezra, the words are directed to the Leaders because the Israelites have just been through a war together. (One of the most troubling, violent passages in Torah. Check out the bottom of source page) In this Freedom Project the leaders of the tribes, under direction of Moses, have certainly vowed to have each others’ backs. Could some temptation cause them to abandon these vows? Apparently, after this war, two of the tribes, Reuben and Gad have accumulated riches in the form of herds of cattle. How did this happen? One can imagine by grabbing rather than equal distribution. And on the shores of the Jordan they say to Moshe, we’re good here, can we please be excused? Their reason? This is great cattle country, a great place for our possessions (how can we protect our stuff if we go?)

Moshe (Moses) is a bit upset at this abandonment of their obligations to their “brothers” In fact the same words of “doing what comes out of your mouth” is repeated in Moshe’s argument. (Ibn Ezra) The Reuvenites and Gaddites have a compromise. They will build enclosures for their flocks, shelters for their families, and then come join the other tribes in the conquest of the land. Moses corrects them in their word order and accepts the deal. “You may build homes for your families and enclosures for their flocks, and then join us” Rashi says they have their priorities backwards.

The second of this double reading is Masei meaning Journeys. “These are the journeys of the children of Yisrael through the wilderness. There were forty two times when the Israelites camped, and then traveled, guided by a pillar of cloud to camp, and of fire to journey. Why this naming and travel-log? Priorities are great. But to focus only on priorities can be problematic. What about the every day? R. Ingber’s podcast “Detours and Destination” asks all guests about their plans, and then what actually happened in their lives. Sometimes the most important things are what happens on your way to the priority! Zohar says each of the forty two stops were opportunities to see and uncover the holy sparks within the ordinary. Perhaps after the catastrophes of the calf and the spies, these wanderings were the healing. The Barbara Streisand Song On My Way to You jumps to my mind. “if I had changed a single day, what went amiss or went astray, I never would have found my way to you. I wouldn’t change a thing that happened on my way to You. I wouldn’t change a thing that happened on my way to You”

Rashi asks “why name all the stops if the destination is the promised land? he answers with a parable And Rabbi Tanhuma explained it with a different drasha: This can be compared to a king who had a sick child and he brought him someplace very far to be healed. And once they return home, his father recounts all of the journeys and says, “here we slept, here we were cold, here you had a headache.” [Bamidbar Rabbah].

Chazak Chazak, v’nitchazek. As we close the book of Numbers until next year, may we be strengthened together, drawn close by dancing with the words of Torah.

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What Five Brave Sisters Teach.

In our Torah reading we are nearing the end of our wilderness journey. Sources Here. As I write this post, it is the 17th of Tammuz, a day to remember the sadness in our history and honor the the fear we face in a challenging world. As I write this post it is also 103 Degrees Fahrenheit- deadly hot, as are tempers round the world. The powers that be in this world, both human leaders, and technological challenges seem overwhelming. We in the older generations are living a lifestyle that is destroying our nest – we take natural gifts, and really most of our gifts for granted in the quest for “getting and spending, we lay waste our power” ~William Wordsworth. In our wilderness journey, a census is taken, “lifting up the heads of those who are counted” It is about half of what it was at the outset of the freedom project that began 40 years ago. An entire generation has died. Miriam and Aaron have died, and Moshe (Moses) knows he will not enter the land. It is a time of transition. As if to dramatize that the “times they are a’changing” the Five Daughters rise up, and draw near. I’ve written about them before (2021 post) Have you heard of these women, the daughters of Tzeloph’chad? In an all male genealogy, where women had no rights of inheritance, they bravely and brilliantly “wrote themselves into the narrative” to paraphrase Hamilton. Song below. There is brilliant timing and Torah spoken by the Sisters, and even a bit of gender bending (Chizkuni).

Immediately after this wonderful scene, as if to emphasize this crossing over, Moshe is called by G8d to travel to Mount Eivarim – which is elsewhere called Mount Nebo. Eivarim, with the Hebrew root Ayin, Vet, Reish means to cross over, as Ramban reminds us. Ramban opines that it’s because the folks are about to cross the Jordan. But an entire generation has crossed over, and Moshe himself is about to cross over. Nostalgia can be sweet or toxic. We are in a world where nostalgia of returning people to a former powerful era is being used as an excuse to harass and deport refugees and immigrants. As I write this, ICE is intensifying its efforts. And in Israel and Iran to continue warring. When will they ever learn? Let’s be in it for the long haul, with a vision that extends from generation to the next: l’dor va’dor.

The Daughters and the Promise. Miryam Wolfson, 2016, final form 2021, Sound track

“Who are we that have the courage to be freely

Standing tall before the powers that be?

We are Machla, Noa, Hogla Milka and Tirtza,

daughters of Tzelophechad

Five strong sisters, each her sister’s keeper

On the journey to our land“

Now our father’s gone,

what will come of our name?

Who will tell our family’s story?

We believe in the Kingdom

a land milk and honey

Where justice and wisdom

will sing of G8d’s glory.

Chorus

­­­

Hand in hand we stand,

talking justice to the Man

“Moses, Our father was a good man,

even though he had no sons

his name should not be banned.

Please take our case to the Holy One

 for the sake of the orphan,

 the powerless, and all women”

Chorus

Moses says

“Listen up oh Children of Israel,

The law of these five sisters is true, G8d tells”

And in their love for each other and their strength,

They bring down the justice of the Holy One

Machlah, Noa, Hogla, Mika and Tirtza

They put themselves back in the narrative
(Machlah, Noa, Hogla, Milka and Tirtza)        

In their story I see hope for,

the disenfranchised of today.

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