Mishpatim: An eye for an eye

Following the gathering at Sinai, the Torah’s narrative resumes with this week’s parasha, a series of laws and remedies for righting civil wrongs. One passage in this week’s text has confounded readers probably from the time it was written down. I refer to Exodus 21:23–25 which…

Parashat Va’Era: Marching Toward Liberation

Rabbi Lizz Goldstein is with IfNotNow DC

“Standing on the parted shores, we still believe what we were taught before ever we stood at Sinai’s foot; that wherever we go, it is eternally Egypt; that there is a better place, a…

Our Fire will not be Extinguished: Parashat Tetzaveh

The latter half of Exodus, for many of us, is not the most exciting section of the Torah. Our inspirational journey out of Egypt occurred earlier in the book and we received the Ten Commandments shortly afterward. The remaining Torah…

Parshat Vayakhel-Pekudei: The Building Freeze

Sometimes I doubt that our normative tradition contains within itself the moral resources to overcome its entirely understandable yet corrosive biases toward the outside world. The flashes of ethical insight which once brought us to life have become…

Parashat Terumah: Make Me a Sanctuary

Rabbi Lizz Goldstein, IfNotNow DC

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Terumah, God starts telling the Israelites the very specific blueprints for how they should build the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, the Divine dwelling place on Earth…