Torah Study

By Patricia Karlan-Newmann

In every generation, Jews have understood the significance of the Torah in their lives. We have studied, written, and taught about the meaning of Torah and its relevance to contemporary circumstances. With the publication of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary in 2007, the teachings of women scholars and Jewish professionals on the significance of Torah in their lives is now available in a scholarly compendium. The “Contemporary Reflections” section in The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, “enable us to hear women’s voices that reckon with divine revelation… each essay shows the significance of Torah as a record of God’s revelation to Israel: it is a repository of Jewish memory, however incomplete, from which we, as individuals and as members of contemporary Jewish communities, can attempt to hear and understand the voice of God.” (Ellen Umansky, “Women and Contemporary Reflection,” The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, page ix)

Today’s Ten Minutes of Torah is excerpted from The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, pages 402-403.

There are moments that define us: unexpected or unplanned moments when the decisions we make, the actions we take, determine all that will follow. Crossroads come disguised in many forms. Many are unmarked, without a hint of what is ahead.

by Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana Finally Home. The opening verses of this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, describe a ceremony of “first fruits.” Standing still in the wilderness, Moses envisions a time to come in which the people will be beyond war and want – a settled time when farmers can tend to their fields in the Promised Land. Flowing with Milk and Honey, the good land will provide for all the people’s needs. But there is something they must do in acknowledgement. “You shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that your God YHVH is giving you, put in a basket and go to the place where your God YHVH will choose to establish the divine name.” (Deut. 26:2)

By: Cher Krichmar In this week’s Torah portion, Nitzavim, Deuteronomy 31:1-30, God instructs Moses about his death, as well as the succession for the people of Israel and the Promised Land. Moses will not see the Promised Land, but Joshua is instructed by Moses on how to lead the people. This parasha speaks to me as a committed woman in sisterhood. I have had the honor and privilege of being on the WRJ, WRJ Pacific District, and local sisterhood boards. As leaders, it is our responsibility to bring the message from WRJ to our local sisterhoods, and teach them and guide them to be strong, thriving sisterhoods. I have co-chaired our area days for the last four years, and have had the pleasure of seeing new and returning women and their excitement from the camaraderie and learning of the days’ teachings. As a leader, I, too, feel like I am commanded by God to teach new and younger women the ways of sisterhood.

By:  Renee Morris Roth This week’s Torah portion, Ki Teitzei, is a list of seventy four laws given to the people. The topics of the laws address relationships between family, neighbors, members of society and even laws concerning animals. They speak to sexual misconduct, clothing, and forbidden relations. They address laws protecting the vulnerable, with special care to paying wages to workers, protecting the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. There are laws disclosing the need to be honest in business with regard to using accurate weights and measures. Finally, there is a charge to remember Amalek - to blot out the name of the enemy of the Jewish people.