Commentary on Matot — Mas-ei

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis Daughters are not Sons They said, “The Lord commanded my lord to assign the land to the Israelites as shares by lot; and my Lord was further commanded by the Lord to assign the shares of our kinsman Zelophehad to his daughters. Now if they marry persons from another Israelite …

Commentary on Sh’lach L’cha

June 15, 2019 By Bettijane Eisenpreis “And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me, and how long will they have no faith in Me, despite all the signs that I have performed in their midst? I will strike them with pestilence and disown them, and I will make of you …

Commentary on Parashat B’midbar

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis “On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting …” Numbers 1:1 This book, which we call Numbers in English, is called B’Midbar, In …

Commentary on Tazria-M’tzora

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis “As for the person with a leprous affection, his clothes shall be rent, his head shall be left bare, and he shall cover his upper lip, and he shall call out, “Unclean, Unclean!” He shall be unclean as long as the disease is on him. Being unclean, he shall dwell …

Commentary on Parashat Tzav

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis The Lord spoke to Moses saying: Command Aaron and his sons thus: This is the ritual of the burnt offering…. Leviticus 6:1-2 The titles of the Torah’s parashot do not necessarily reflect their principal themes. Rather, the first or most important word of the early sentences becomes the method of …

Commentary on Parashat Yitro

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis Honor your father and your mother, that you may long endure on the land that the Lord your God is assigning to you. Exodus 20: 12 The Ten Commandments are often cited as the bedrock of our faith. For both Jews and Christians, they are said to lay down the …

Commentary on Parashat Va-Yehi

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis When Joseph saw that his father was placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it was wrong, so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s. “Not so, Father,” Joseph said to his father, “for the other is the first-born…” Genesis …

Commentary on Parashat Mikeitz

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis “After two years’ time, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, when out of the Nile came seven cows, handsome and sturdy, and they grazed in the reed grass. But presently, seven other cows came up from the Nile close behind them, ugly and gaunt…. And the ugly …

Commentary on Parashat Ki Teitzei

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis If a man has a wayward and defiant son, who does not heed his father or mother and does not obey them even after they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of the community. They shall say to …

Commentary on Parashat Naso

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis Here the priest shall administer the curse of adjuration to the woman, as the priest goes on to say to the woman – “may the Lord make you a curse and an imprecation among your people, as the Lord causes your thigh to sag and your belly to distend; may …

Commentary on Parashat Emor

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis There came out among the Israelites one whose mother was Israelite and whose father was Egyptian. And a fight broke out in the camp between that half-Israelite and a certain Israelite. The son of the Israelite pronounced the Name in blasphemy, and he was brought to Moses – now his …

Commentary on Parashat Aharei Mot

Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis “Do not defile yourselves in any of those ways, for it is by such that the nations that I am casting out before you defiled themselves.” Leviticus 18:24 Parashat Aharei Mot consists largely of a catalogue of sins that the priests and the people are not to commit. These range …