Torah Commentary

As a cantor, I have sat with families after an elderly parent or relative has died and seen their frustration and struggles when the relative has made no preparations for the end of their life.

The least exciting but perhaps most exacting section of Parashat Pinchas is the list of sacrifices specific to different sacred occasions.

There are few biblical passages that speak to the feminist and the progressive Jew in me as much as the story of the daughters of Zelophechad. Five women—Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah—come before the all-male leadership of the Israelites and demand the right to inherit their father’s portion of the Promised Land.

Global news seems to be filled with stories related to the transition of power and very different models of what that can look like. In the last month alone, we read that the Israeli coalition government was dissolved, the prime minister of the United Kingdom resigned, and the president of Sri Lanka fled the country.

Because women close to me had never confided their experiences of sexual violence, I was shocked when they began to tell me – first one, then another, and another– that they had been raped, sexually harassed, touched without permission, or abused in other ways. Listening to their stories, trying to absorb their pain while controlling my rage, I felt guilty about my own ignorance and inaction. Why was I shocked at a truth that has been true for so long? Why had I never spoken out before?