Shabbat Shalom
Shabbat Shalom is a weekly column by the Temple Isaiah clergy that offers insights into the weekly Torah portion.
On this Shabbat we read the Torah portion Vaethanan in the Book of Deuteronomy. At the beginning and the end of the reading Moses instructs the people on the rewards of faithfulness to God and the perils of faithlessness as they prepare to enter the land. In the middle Moses expresses some of the basic, eternal teachings of our tradition, including a repetition of the Ten Commandments and the basic theological commitments of Judaism contained in the Shema and the V’ahavta.
the Eternal is one.” (Deut.6:4)
Parshat Maaseh / Num. 33:1-36:13
When I was in high school, history was one of my worst subjects. I would not say that I was not interested in the events that we were studying. It was just that when I was in school so much of learning history was remembering dates and places. This was not my forte. I was always struggling to keep the numbers straight in my head (was it the 18th century or the 1800s?!?!) and without having visited places, it was hard to remember all of the names. In addition, this kind of learning was rather dull and monotonous. Moreover, I never really understood why all of these details were so important. On the surface, the opening of this week’s Torah portion seems to be another one of those tedious history lessons.
