Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf

Redeeming Relevance in the Weekly Parsha: Tetzaveh

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

What about the Temple service required God to intervene commanding Aaron what he needed to wear?

Redeeming Relevance in the Weekly Parsha: Pinchas

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

5 sisters, with no brothers, questioned an assumed law concerning land inheritance in Israel-and won

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Bo: How Do You Translate First Born?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

When Moshe is told about the plague of the first born (4:22-23), God gives an explanation, something we do not see with any of the other plagues. Yet is it actually middah keneged middah?

Redeeming Relevance: Vayetzeh: Why Ya’akov DIDN’T Pray

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Ya’akov did not pray for Rachel to conceive because he did not believe in "forcing God’s hand." He asks, “Am I instead of God? God knows best whether to give children or not. All I can do is ask.”

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Noach: Of Facts and Narratives: Postmodernism and the Ohr HaChaim

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

The Torah itself presents parallel narratives of the same stories, thereby showing that the same events can truthfully be constructed in more than one way.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Vaera

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Moshe viewed his speech impediment as part of his core identity and his intrinsic human imperfection

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Bereshit: Why Can’t a Man be More Like a Woman?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Though a woman helps her partner and remains his equal, she nurtures and thereby becomes a man's superior. Paradoxically, therefore, woman may be just a bit closer to the image of God than man.

The Clothing and Unclothing of Yosef

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Yosef’s tale illustrates that "clothes don't make the man"

The Fathers-in-Law: Lavan and Yitro

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Of all the many fathers-in-law in the Bible, only Yitro & Lavan are singled out for this designation

Redeeming Relevance: Chaye Sarah: The Advantage of Disadvantage

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Yishmael’s challenge was whether to come back at all. Having been so clearly rejected, why would he want to have anything more to do with his father Avraham?

Redeeming Relevance: Zot HaBeraKha: A Grave Apart

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

It was not enough for Moshe to die by himself, however; his separation from family and nation had to be total, even after his death. And so his burial spot would need to be hidden from all.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Lech Lecha: Avoiding Too Much Virtue

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

While we read of tests of Avraham, it is clear that Sarah endured tests of her own. According to Ramban, she failed her test in her treatment of Hagar

Redeeming Relevance in the Weekly Parsha: Vayera

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Yishmael could claim to be a victim; he only prevails when he subordinates himself to Yitzchak.

Redeeming Relevance: Ki Tetzeh: Remember Not to Keep People Waiting

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Since not saying lashon hara is easier said than done, here is something to help you: Just remember what happened to Miriam!”

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ki Tavo: Amalek, Bikkurim and Ma’aser

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Many commentators sense a significance to the placement of the bikkurim declaration, at the beginning of this week’s pasha, right after the injunction to destroy Amalek. What is the connection?

Redeeming Relevance: Pesach’s Missing Eighth Day

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Appreciate that Pesach is NOT meant to end on the seventh day, but at Shavuot. With that in mind, we need to work harder to accept making the days of sefirat ha-omer into days akin to chol ha-moed

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Achrei Mot: Nameless Heroes and the Holy Path

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Parshat Achrei Mot represents a transition in the book of Vayikra from an emphasis on Aharon and his sons to the Jewish people as a whole

Redeeming Relevance: A Bittersweet Song You Better Remember: Parshas Ha’azinu & Jewish Destiny

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

God’s foremost desire is to conduct a relationship with the Jewish people built on love and commitment. The song of Ha’azinu reassures us that the relationship will never die.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Pinchas: Midian, Moab and Yisrael

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

The fact it was specifically Midianite and Moabite women involved with Jewish men {Moshe and men involved with Ba'al Peor) shows that an existential bond existed between these nations and Israel.

Redeeming Relevance: Tazriah: The Things We Must Do To Belong

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

The outcast metzorah or zav, is essentially promised a quick rebirth within the Jewish nation.

Redeeming Relevance in the Weekly Parsha: Beshalach

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Leading by example must be visible, regarding where, when and how-like Nachshon entering the Red Sea

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Reeh: The Taste for Blood and the Imperative of Relevance

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Is the Torah to be read exactly as the Jews who received it would have, or, is it actually to be read in a contemporary way that can't possibly be the same as those who first received the Torah?