Kol Ramah

Parsha alk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Sh’mini [Leviticus 9-11] coincides this year with Parashat Ha-chodesh [maftir: Exodus 12:1-20; haftarah: Ezekiel 45:16-46:18]. This is the last of the four special shabbatot before Pesach, which is now officially just over the horizon. Ha-chodesh is the first commandment given to the Israelite people, understood to mark Nisan as the first of the months; it takes place on the Shabbat before or coinciding with Rosh Chodesh Nisan, so that we are finally, or too soon, depending on your cleaning schedule, about to enter the month in which Passover is celebrated. For those of you keeping score at home, the first seder is Monday evening, April 22. The text from Leviticus, which is the weekly Torah reading, concludes the inauguration of the Tabernacle and priesthood with the tragedy of Nadav and Avihu, which was the focus for most of our conversation. Near the end, we took up Ha-chodesh and the upcoming Passover holiday, which w

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Tzav [Leviticus 6:1-8:36] coincides with Parashat Parah [maftir: Numbers 19:1-22; haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16-38], the third of the four special shabbatot before Passover. Tzav presents the priestly view of the sacrifices which were covered in last week’s parashah from the Israelite’s point of view. Our conversation touched upon a writing feature found in the second verse, the word moq’dah beginning with a small mem [equivalent to English m]. From there our conversation caught fire as it were! We hope you enjoy it! Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the hostages, may they be returned to their homes safely, and the soldiers defending Israel, may they be removed from harm’s way. Shabbat Shalom.

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-yiqra [Leviticus 1:1–5:26] coincides this year with Shabbat Zakhor [maftir, Deuteronomy 25:17-19; haftarah 1 Samuel 15:2–34] in anticipation of the holiday of Purim, which begins Saturday night, upon the conclusion of Shabbat. Parashat Va-yiqra, the opening parashat of Sefer Va-yiqra [Book of Leviticus], introduces the principal sacrifices of the Israelite Temple cult. We ourselves made a sacrifice this week, by devoting our conversation to the Book of Esther, read as part of the Purim observance on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Many have noted that the story of Esther reads very differently this year, given the particular course of Jewish and Israeli history since the war began on October 7th. Our heartfelt wishes for a freiliche Purim [a joyous Purim], perhaps more important this year in a world where Israel is at war and hostages continue to be held captive. Sometimes we have to take what the calendar gives us

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. With the reading of parashat P’qudai [Exodus 38:21–40:38] we conclude the reading of the Book of Exodus. We have already seen most of this material in parashat T’tzavveh three weeks ago. Our conversation focused on the last several verses [40:34–38], comprising the maftir aliyah. We discussed what the verses themselves mean as well as the arc of the Book of Exodus itself. We hope you enjoy it! It is customary to say חזק חזק ונתחזק [hazzaq, hazzaq, v-nit’hazzeq, let us be strong, let us be strong, let us be strengthened] upon the conclusion of each of the five books of the Torah. May we continue to find strength in Torah, and Torah study, as we navigate these difficult days. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the hostages, may they be returned to their homes safely, and the soldiers defending Israel, may they be removed from harm’s way. Shabbat Shalom.

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-yaqhel [Exodus 35:1-38:20] coincides with Shabbat Sheqalim [special maftir (Exosdus 30:11-16) and haftarah (I Kings 12:1-17)], the first of the four special shabbatot preceding Passover. Whereas the previous three parashiyot concern the plans for the mishkan [tabernacle], Va-yaqhel and P’qudai [next week] concern themselves with the execution. There seems to be a lot of repetition. Our conversation focused primarily on the opening passaged, the intriguing opening word, va-yaqkel [and he (Moshe) gathered], the specification of kol edah [the entire congregation], and the connection of the mishkan with Shabbat. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the hostages, may they be returned to their homes safely, and the soldiers defending Israel, may they be removed from harm’s way. Shabbat Shalom.

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Ki Tissa [Exodus 30:11-34:35] features the episode of the Golden Calf, one of the great sins of the Exodus generation. In the rabbinic imagination, it is paired with the sin of the spies, bracketing the 3-week period of mourning introduced by the 17th of Tammuz and culminating with the 9th of Av. The sin itself is not so easy to understand, in part because of the curious use of the word Elohim, here used to refer to pagan gods, with the plural verb; when Elohim refers to God, the verb is always in the singular. The sin sets in motion a number of events, including the removal of the Tent of Meeting to outside the camp and God’s revelation in private to Moses. The passage, including chapter 34, is so rich, we hardly had time to take note of the opening passage which we will read again as the maftir for Shabbat Sheqalim, the first of the 4 special shabbatot preceding Passover, next week. or the other details concerning the

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat T’tzavveh [Exodus 27:20-30:10] deals mostly with the priestly vestments and the installation of the priests. It raises the question: do the clothes make the person or the person make the clothes? In our conversation we attempt to address this question, though you may find we skirt it more than you like and barely touch other aspects which you might think require more attention. Such is the style of our conversation this week! Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the hostages, may they be returned to their homes safely, and the soldiers defending Israel, may they be removed from harm’s way. Shabbat Shalom.

Parsha Talk - with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat T’rumah [Exodus 25:1-27:18] is the first of three successive parashiyot which take up the plans for building the Tabernacle and its furnishings. Given the details I think it fair to say that the content is an acquired taste and not everyone gets that far! There is the well-known verse [25:8] וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם “And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them”. In the JPS Torah Commentary on Exodus, Nahum Sarna draws attention to the unusual locution which suggests that the purpose of the sanctuary is to enable God to dwell among the people. In our conversation, we talk about this verse, and more generally about how we construct holy space and holy time, and how these bear on our religious experience. We hope you enjoy it! Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the hostages, may they be returned to their homes safely, and the soldiers defending Israel, may they be removed from har

Parsha Talk - with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Mishpatim [Exodus 21–24] is the sixth parashah of Sefer Sh’mot. It is made up almost entirely of what Biblical scholars call the Covenant Code, the exact parameters of which scholars disagree. Suffice it to say, after the drama of the Revelation at Mount Sinai comes a litany of laws. What exactly is the relationship between the two? We discuss Rashi’s comment as well as offer our own interpretations of the exact connection between what one might call the poetry of revelation with the prose of legislation. Give a listen and let us know what you think is here, below, or at parshatalk@gmail.com. As the war is about to enter its fifth month, we are about to begin our 5th year of Parashah Talk. May the study of Torah sustain us during these difficult times. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the hostages, may they be returned to their homes safely, and the soldiers defending Israel, may they be removed from har

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Yitro [Exodus 18–20] is the fifth parashah in the Book of Exodus. It features the 10 commandments which was the topic of most of our conversation. How does the Sh’ma compare with the Ten Commandments? What meaning might these commandments have for us today? How do we evaluate them as a text? These are some of the questions we discuss. We’ll leave for another time chapters 18 [the arrival of Yitro and the establishment of the judiciary] and 19, the description of the event of revelation. There is always next year! Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the hostages, may they be returned to their homes safely, and the soldiers defending Israel, may they be removed from harm’s way. Shabbat Shalom.

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat B’shallach [Exodus 13:17–17:16], the fourth parashah in Sefer Sh’mot [the Book of Exodus] features the Song of the Sea [Exodus 15:1–19], which has become part of the morning prayer service. In introducing the show, Eliot framed our discussion as Anatomy of a Scene. We examined the four main figures [God, Moshe, Pharaoh, B’nai Yisrael], seeking to understand their motivations, evaluating their words and actions. This is a rather different approach for us, so we want to know how you liked it! Feel free to leave comments below, or write us at parshatalk@gmail.com. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the hostages, may they be returned to their homes safely, and the soldiers defending Israel, may they be removed from harm’s way.

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Bo [Exodus 10:1–13:16] is the third parashah in Sefer Sh’mot [Book of Exodus]. It relates the last 3 plagues, describes the original Passover celebrated in Egypt and prescribes what should happen in subsequent generations, and concludes with the first 16 verses of chapter 13, which comprise the third and fourth passages in the tefillin, the ritual objects worn during the daily worship service by those who consider themselves so obligated. Chapter 12 in particular, at 51 verses one of the longest in the Torah, is particularly rich, and is one of my favorites. We will meet it later as the maftir [additional reading] on Shabbat Ha-Hodesh, the fourth of the four special parashiyot preceding Passover and the Torah reading for the first day of Passover. In our conversation we took up the enigmatic verse in which Pharaoh apparently asks Moshe and Aaron to bless him on their way out of Egypt [12:32] and considered whether or not

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-era [Exodus 6:2–9:35] is the 2nd parashah of Exodus. Unlike many of the parashiyot, it takes its name from the first word of the 2nd sentence, in which God declares that He appeared to the patriarchs as El-Shaddai, but did not make known to them the 4-letter name, YHVH. In modern critical scholarship this verse looms large, but alas, that is the subject of another conversation. We focused our attention on the phrase sh’lakh et ammi v’-ya’avduni, a trope in this chapter in its manifold iterations. It translates as “send forth My people, they might worship Me”. We spent most of our conversation trying to unpack this enigmatic phrase. Near the end we took up Moses’ description of himself as aral-s’fata’im, of uncircumcised lips. What did Moses intend to say about himself in describing himself so? There is much we did not get to, including the 7 plagues and the verses of redemption [6:6–8], which are the foundation of

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Shemot [Exodus 1:1–6:1] opens the Book of Exodus [Shemot in Hebrew]. It summarizes the end of Genesis in a few verses wherein בני ישראל [b’nai Yisrael] the biological children of the patriarch Jacob who had been renamed Israel, becomes עם בני ישראל [am b’nai yisrael], the mighty nation of Israelites. Very quickly, the anxious ending of Genesis gives way to Pharaoh’s plan to oppress the people with hard work in order to suppress their population growth, instructions to the midwives to murder infant boys in the guise of stillbirth, culminating with genocide by having all Israelite boys thrown into the Nile. We then meet Moses, who will, in turn, meet God, the God of the ancestors, and who instructs him to liberate the Israelities from bondage. Moses is a reluctant leader, claiming to be of heavy mouth and tongue; God appoints Aaron to be his mouthpiece. There first venture into diplomacy ends with abject failure, for Pha

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-yehi [Genesis 47:28–50:26] is the twelfth and final parashah of Genesis. We address the overall theme/direction of the book, and how it fits into the Torah. We also discuss the burial of Jacob: why does he insist on being buried in the ancestral grave? As always [we hope] the conversation is spirited, and we hope you enjoy it! As daylight increases now that we have passed the winter solstice, may light again increase in the world as well. Again this week, our thoughts and prayers are with the hostages, may they be returned to their homes safely, the soldiers fighting in defense of Israel, may they be removed from harm’s way, and all those affected by this war, both near and far. May the One Who brings peace in the heavens, bestow it upon us on earth as well. Shabbat Shalom

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-yigash [Genesis 44:18–47:27] is the penultimate parashah of the Book of Genesis. It opens with Judah’s plea to Joseph to take him as captive instead of Benjamin. The events unfold quickly which lead to the reconciliation of the brothers, the descent of Jacob and his family into Egypt, a genealogy [interesting enough on its own, but which we leave for another time], the reunion of Jacob and Joseph, the meeting between Jacob and Pharaoh, and concluding with what Nahum Saran in his JPS Commentary, calls “Joseph’s Agrarian Policies”. We focused on what seems to us a few of the key verses of the parashah. As becomes abundantly clear, biblical stories are never quite how they appear to us even the last time we encountered them. We hope you enjoy our conversation! Again this week, our thoughts and prayers are with the hostages, may they be returned to their homes safely, the soldiers fighting in defense of Israel, may they

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barrry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. According to Eliot, Parashat Mikketz [Genesis 41:1–44:17] is the second-most amazing parashah in the entire Torah, coming a week after his Bar Mitzvah parashah. This parashah is the heart of the Joseph story: Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams and subsequent elevation to second-in-command to Pharaoh, and the scenes with his brothers who have come to Egypt to buy grain. Joseph, as is well-known, tests his brothers, to see if they have changed. Our conversation focused almost exclusively on Joseph’s character. Has Joseph changed since that fateful day he was sold into slavery? The Hebrew of one of the verses makes the illuminating connection between recognition and strangeness, and estrangement, all with the same three letter root: nun, kaf, resh. We hope you enjoy it! As always, our thoughts and prayers are with the hostages, may they be restored to their families speedily, and with the soldiers defending Israel, may t

Parsha Talk Vayeshev, with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chasler and jeremy Kalmanofsky. Hanukkah edition.

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-yishlah [Genesis 32:4–36:43] features, among other things, Jacob’s wrestling match with an angel, the meeting with Esau after a twenty-year absence, the disconcerting story of Dinah, the genealogy of Esau, and a list of kings of Edom. We spent a fair amount of time on the story of Dinah, discussing it in a way that is unlike any previous conversations we have had on this story, at least if memory serves correctly! Comments and criticisms are welcome below or at parshatalk@gmail.com. As always our thoughts are with Israel, both עם [am, people] and מדינה [m’dinah, political entity or state]. May those held hostage be returned to their families, may the soldiers defending Israel be removed from harm’s way. Shabbat Shalom.

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-yetze [Genesis 28:10–32:3] is a personal favorite, in that it is my Bar Mitzvah portion. Coincidentally [or not] it is the Bat Mitzvah portion of my wife, Carol. And, my Hebrew name is יעקב [ya’aqov, Jacob], who is the main character. The parashah begins with Jacob heading northeast, to the land of his uncle Lavan, as he flees from his brother Esau. The parashah ends with Jacob on his way back to Canaan, with two wives and two handmaidens s, in tow, with 12 children [11 boys and a girl], and much flocks, preparing to meet his brother after 20 years.. The parashah begins with a divine encounter, the angels going up and down the ladder, and ends with one, after Jacob concludes his treaty with Lavan. This parashah seems particularly rich, though we say that almost every week. We confine our conversation to the scene at the well, and how that shapes our understanding of the characters involved and the events that subse