The Sages understood tsara’at , the theme of this week’s parsha, Metzora, not as an illness but as a miraculous public exposure of the sin of lashon hara , speaking badly about people. … more

I t was the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, that translated tsara’at, the condition whose identification and cleansing occupies much of Tazria and Metzora as … more

Shemini tells the tragic story of how the great inauguration of the Tabernacle, a day about which the Sages said that G-d rejoiced as much as He had at the creation of the universe, was overshadowed … more

In “The Watchman’s Rattle,” subtitled “Think- ing Our Way Out of Extinction,” Rebecca Costa delivers a fascinating account of how civilizations die. When their problems … more

O ur parsha, Vayikra, which deals with a variety of sacrifices, devotes an extended section to the chattat , the sin offering, as brought by different individuals: first the High Priest (Ex. 4:3-12), … more

Pekudei has sometimes been called “The Accountant’s Parsha,” because that is how it begins, with the audited accounts of the money and materials donated to the Sanctuary. It is the … more

Melanie Reid, a journalist with The Times of London, is a quadriplegic who, with a wry lack of self-pity, calls her weekly essay Spinal Column. She told how she, her husband, and others in their … more

One of the most important Jewish contributions to our understanding of leadership is its early insistence of what, in the eighteenth century, Montesquieu called “the separation of … more

As soon as we read the opening lines of Terumah we begin the massive shift from the intense drama of the Exodus with its signs and wonders and epic events, to the long, detailed narrative of how the … more

First in Yitro there were the Aseret Hadibrot, the “Ten Utterances,” the Ten Commandments, expressed as general principles. Now in Mishpatim come the details. Here is how they begin: … more