Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, PhD

Every year at the time that we celebrate Passover, Jews read this week's Torah portion, Acharei Mot. What is the connection between Acharei Mot and the Passover ritual that coincides with the reading of this portion?

The very title of this parashah warns us that something is different, for it begins with a surprising phrase: "On the eighth day [ Va-y'hi bayom hashmini ] Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel" (Leviticus 9:1). The commentators tell us that this was the eighth

Exodus began with birth in a time of death, when God appeared as midwives'hands and as a path through raging waters. And then Moses became God's mouth, and the rabble became a people. After Sinai, where will God live? The last five parashiyot of Exodus set forth detailed instructions for

When Jacob and Joseph meet at the beginning of Va-y'chi, this final portion in Genesis, the weathered, weakened patriarch approaches his regal son. Jacob, a stranger in Egypt, is beholden to his son for his very life. He wants to give his son a blessing to assert the traditional relationship