Passover in the Desert

One year after the exodus from Egypt, God tells the people they must celebrate Passover. It is the beginning of their second year in the wilderness. On the fourteenth day of the first month, they perform the Passover sacrifice as commanded, but not everyone is able to...

The Appointment of the Levites

Our portion begins with God instructing Aaron, via Moses, to kindle the Menorah lamp in the Tabernacle so that each light points towards the face of the Menorah. The Menorah itself, we are reminded, is hammered from a single piece of gold.   The Israel Bible...

The People’s Complaints

Here begins a dark chapter in the Israelites’ journey, foreshadowing worse to come next week. The Torah tells of not one, but two complaints the people level against God and Moses. The first is left to the reader’s imagination, and we are only told that God becomes...

Traveling the Desert

Now the Torah describes the process of the people’s journeys through the wilderness. We are told that once the Tabernacle was erected in the camp, the cloud of God’s Glory would settle upon it. When the cloud lifted off the Tabernacle, it was a sign the time had come...