There is an important opportunity in the red heifer Torah portion.

In the background of news footage, we often see people collecting body parts for preparation for burial; in Israel these are often trained burial society volunteers, chevra kaddishah members.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" That famous line from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" spins through my mind. The wicked queen had a daily practice, a meditative practice you might say. Each day she peered into her magic mirror to see how she was doing in life.

by Rabbi Shefa Gold

So shall they put my name upon the Israelites and I will bless them.

The Blessing

At this time of Naso we give and receive the great and ancient Priestly Blessing. Our arms are outstretched above the tumult of our lives and our hands imitate the cloven hoofs, invoking the power of the animals of our shepherding ancestors who bless this world through us. Through this blessing, God’s name (which means the Divine essence) rests on us.

This week’s Torah portion, more than any other, brings back precious memories, for it is the week of my Bat
Mitzvah, not at age 13, but at age 36.

I studied for nine months for this event with the ferocity of a tiger, rising each morning at 5:30 to go
downstairs and study. Remarkable, considering that I naturally am a late riser.

by Barbara Diamond Goldin
 

I was born at 5:16 PM on the day of Erev Yom Kippur, October 4, 1946.

This Torah portion is largely concerned with laws of bodily purity. The descriptions of bodily secretions and infections remind us that the kohanim, the priests, were the first dermatologists and infectious disease practitioners. How can you tell what is pure, tahor and what is impure, tamei? Tazria, as it is called, is the least popular Torah reading in the entire year’s cycle.

A condition called Tza-ra’at appears frequently in the Torah and occurs prominently in this section. We’ve seen the term previously: Magically coming and going upon Moses’ hand to convince Pharaoh; as a symptom manifested by Miriam which leads to Moses’ famous prayer for her healing (ana el na r’fa na la); and in our reading it even is used to described a substance growing or appearing on houses, garments, hair and beards.

by Rabbi Shefa Gold
 

The Blessing

These parshiot are concerned with the delicate times when one’s condition necessitates a period of separation from communal life. How does that separation happen and how is that person re-integrated into the community?

by Ellen Triebwasser

Rabbi Jonathan (Kligler) has spoken about why we call what we do in religion a “spiritual practice.”

We practice any skill we want to develop, improve or maintain, things like:

An instrument

A sport

An art

Our profession

Our schoolwork

Think about something you’ve either been doing for a long time or something you’ve recently started to learn, and how much better you are at doing it than you were when you started.