A Quick Torah Thought

Rashi shares on Parshat Bamidbar, that the color of each tribe's flag, reflected the color of the stone on the Cohen Gadol's breastplate. The levites would blow the shofars and trumpets, and then each flag, in a majestic procession, would leave the encampment in their predesignated order.  It would seem that there's a powerful metaphor here. There is a oneness of purpose reflected in the synchronization of the flag color, and the color of each tribe's precious gem. When departing the camp, each tribe could show its "true color," in essence its unadulterated purity enabling it to take on the challenges of the journey ahead. 

There is a segment in this past week's Torah portion that I always found odd. The Torah places a monetary value on the worth of each and every person; though insightful in its own right, it would seem extraneous, for were a person to seek to pledge the value of his being to the High Temple, certainly the rabbis, or Sanhedrin could have found a mechanism to gauge the "right" value; furthermore, very often in the Torah, the sages seek sources for measurements/amounts, and it would seem that were it to be necessary, the sages could have found sources here as well. For example, the minimal height for a sukkah does not appear in biblical verse, nor does the amount of the ketuvah for a widow, divorce or virgin, all of which - one opinion states - are divinely ordained.  Let's briefly review the verses:  Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When any party explicitly vows to Hashem the equivalent for a human being,  the following scale shall apply: If it is a male ...

Is there a divine imperative that slavery be outlawed? This parsha seems to take a puzzling stance. "You," God says, (shall not be slaves because you) are my servants for I have taken you out of Egypt." This would seem to presuppose that God only takes umbrage at Jews being slaves. In the Israel Museum, there is an original synagogue from Paramaribo, Suriname that used to be used by Jewish plantation owners about 300 years ago. Ironically, founded in 1736, the synagogue is named Tzedek ve-Shalom, justice and peace; the plantations themselves were given biblical names, and to the best of my recollection, the Jewish plantation owners' royal charter stated that they were allowed to not compel their slaves to work on the Sabbath. I've shared in the past an interesting thought from R' Faivelzon, namely that the raison d'être, or guiding thought, behind human's role in history is to eliminate the curses of the bible. Can that be said about slavery? The trac...

For those with any familiarity with Jewish marital laws, it is common knowledge that whereas a Cohen can marry a widow, he cannot marry a divorcee. In the words of this week's parsha:  "They shall not take [into their household as their wife] a woman defiled by harlotry, nor shall they take one divorced from her husband. For they are holy to their God." My simple question is why is there something less becoming for a Cohen to marry a divorcee than a widow. Humbly, I would like to admit that I have no good answer.  A friend, Sami Molcho, answered that his understanding was that it's imperative for a Cohen who brings people closer to Hashem to have clarity of mind, thought and spirit, the equanimity that stems from marrying someone without "baggage," a clean slate.  A widow knows her husband will never return and gains a certain level of closure - perhaps - on her husband's passing. The relationship terminated with her having been married to him, whereas a...