Torah Commentary

The commandment to be holy raises questions about our responsibilities towards community and our relationships with God.

Nadav and Avihu died in an act of sanctification; our goal should be to sanctify God through our lives, not our deaths.

We can reach God by engaging with the world around us and connecting to others and the earth.

The commandment to leave behind some of the harvest for the poor challenges our assumptions about to whom the food belongs in the first place.

We can learn from and adopt only those practices foreign to Judaism that enhance and strengthen Jewish practice.

Rabbinic interpreters regarded leprosy as punishment for the sin of careless speech.

The burnt offering and the sin offering that a woman brings after childbirth symbolize the dual nature of parenting.

An internal process of repentance must accompany the external, physical cleansing for leprosy.

The ritual of circumcision allows us to partner with God in the covenant and also in perfecting creation.

The cycle of life and death represented by leprosy encourages us to bring acts of purity into our lives even when we have become impure.