Divrei Torah by Portion

Bereishit - Fruit from the Tree of Life

by Rabbi Joyce Reinitz
 

God sprouted from the earth every tree that is pleasant to see and good to eat.
The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
 

This visualization can also be read aloud to a group during a Tu Bi-Shevat seder for the fourth dimension of the seder experience, reaching into Atzilut, the realm of Essence.

Bereishit - In the Beginning There was Healing

Bereshit bara Elohim et ha shamayim v'et ha aretz

Finding Your Torah Portion

The Torah, also known in book form as the Chumash, meaning “Five” Books of Moses, is studied and chanted aloud in weekly segments known as the parsha, or “portion.” This annual process ends and starts all over again on the holy day known as Simchat Torah, which is a day of “Rejoicing in the Torah.”  Since Judaism follows a lunar cycle, with certain years containing leap “months,” one year’s Jewish calendar does not help with the next. For the same reason, in some years two portions will be assigned to one date. On festivals and holidays special portions are read that go out of order with the sequence of the year.