Ta Shma

The moment when Bilaam can’t see the angel is familiar to us—too familiar for comfort.We’ve seen this scene before: a hidden angel, an unusual occurrence, the word of God.  We’ve seen it all at the burning bush (sneh), the moment when Moshe, our greatest prophet, receives his first mission: speech.

There shouldn’t be much ambiguity about why 17 Tammuz is a fast day; the Mishnah relates five tragic events that took place on this date.

It is Miriam  who was always the speaker of the three siblings. Miriam, who, according to the Talmud, was also called Puah because of the sounds she made to soothe women in childbirth as their babies emerged into the world. Miriam, who used her words to stand up to her father when he separated from his wife, insisting that a chance at life, however small, was better than no chance at all. Miriam who quickly figured out what words would ensure that Pharaoh's daughter would adopt Moshe, creating the path to redemption.

The Song of Songs (2:4) imagines a boundless love between two lovers in which one lover says of the other, “his flag of love was upon me.”  That’s how I felt at Pride this month—surrounded by flags of love.

The most insidious part of Korach’s claim is that it is a lie we desperately want to believe.

The Talmud is notoriously complex, and its stories are no exception. In this class, we will learn strategies for how to understand these texts such as structural analysis, to explore the narrative flow and construction; interiority, to uncover the unstated emotions and motivations of the sages; and contextual analysis, to place each story within the broader tapestry of Talmudic and rabbinic literature. Through these and other tools, we’ll gain a richer understanding of the inner worlds of the sages, the ethical questions they grappled with, and how these tales continue to speak powerfully to our lives today. Recorded in Winter 2025. Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/PassowReadingRabbis2025Part2.pdf

To be a Jew is to believe in impossible dreams.To be a Jew is to believe that slaves can become free. It is to believe that the senselessness of this world can be disrupted by divine words that break through the barrier between heaven and earth. It is trust, even on our darkest days, that we are part of God’s dream.

The Talmud is notoriously complex, and its stories are no exception. In this class, we will learn strategies for how to understand these texts such as structural analysis, to explore the narrative flow and construction; interiority, to uncover the unstated emotions and motivations of the sages; and contextual analysis, to place each story within the broader tapestry of Talmudic and rabbinic literature. Through these and other tools, we’ll gain a richer understanding of the inner worlds of the sages, the ethical questions they grappled with, and how these tales continue to speak powerfully to our lives today. Recorded in Winter 2025. Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/PassowReadingRabbis2025Part1.pdf

The tragedy of Moshe’s final conversation with his father-in-law are the words that he leaves unsaid.

The psalms attached liturgically to each day of the week are often mumbled over quickly, without much attention to their meaning. In this series, we'll engage in careful literary-theological readings of these psalms, looking at how various midrashim interpret the psalms, and bring new meaning to this part of our daily prayers. Key themes explored will include the idea that God creates the world by subduing the chaotic forces that threaten life; the notion that a concern for justice is what makes a god "qualified" to be one; and the question of what kind of character those who seek to live in God's presence must have. Recorded in Fall 2023. Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/HeldShirimShabbat2023.pdf