Tag Archives: Zohar

How Many Parashot in the Torah?

This week’s parasha is Chukat, and this year it is read independently although it is often read together with the following parasha of Balak. Why is it that in some years we read certain parashot on their own, and in other years they are linked to another? The simple answer is because of the dynamic Jewish calendar. A typical Jewish year has 50 weeks, while a leap year has an extra month of Adar resulting in 54 weeks. The Jewish calendar cycle runs 19 years, and there are 7 leap years within a 19-year cycle that have 54 weeks. Naturally then, the Torah needs to be divided up into 54 parashot so that there is a parasha for each Shabbat in a leap year. (In times past, some communities, especially in Israel, actually read the Torah once over a span of about three years, not one year, splitting the parashot into smaller segments.)

Practically speaking, there will always be some Shabbats that fall in the middle of a holiday, including Pesach and Sukkot, and sometimes others like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Plus, the final parasha of V’Zot haBerakhah is always read on Simchat Torah and not on its own Shabbat. So, in a typical year there are usually no more than 47 Shabbats with a parasha. That means you have to combine the remaining seven (of the 54 total) with another parasha.

When it comes to which parashot should be combined, there are differing traditions, especially among Yemenite and Syrian communities, but the general consensus today links the following seven pairs: Vayak’hel and Pekudei, Tazria and Metzora, Acharei and Kedoshim, Behar and Bechukotai, Chukat and Balak, Matot and Masei, Nitzavim and Vayelekh. Three of these pairs are linked because they are thematically similar, and the other four are linked simply because they are short and adjoining, making them easy to combine into one. (The latter is especially true for the two shortest parashot in the Torah, Nitzavim and Vayelekh with just 40 and 30 verses each, respectively.)

Which parashot are combined in which years also depends on the approaching holidays. For example, parashot are scheduled so that Bamidbar typically precedes Shavuot, while Nitzavim (with or without Vayelekh) typically precedes Rosh Hashanah. Of course, we must have the penultimate Ha’azinu before Sukkot so that the final V’Zot haBerakhah is left for Simchat Torah, and the first Beresheet for the first Shabbat of the year following the holidays.

To summarize, we have a maximum total of 54 parashot, but up to seven can be combined with others, depending on the type of year, to leave us with 47 parashot. But then, amazingly, the Zohar comes in and says the Torah actually has 50 parashot! Continue reading →

Understanding Hair Covering for Women in Jewish Law

“Death of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram” by Gustave Doré

This week’s parasha, Korach, has a hidden theme: hair. In fact, the name of the villain himself, Korach (קרח), is spelled exactly the same way as kere’ach, “bald”. As we shall see below, Korach’s rebellion began when he saw himself bald-headed following his initiation ritual as a Levite. Hair comes up again in the famous story of one of Korach’s co-conspirators, a man named On ben Pelet. On is strangely mentioned right at the beginning of the parasha (Numbers 16:1), and never again. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 109b-110a) explains that he was saved thanks to his wife: She told her husband that he had nothing to gain from joining the rebellion; now he was subservient to Moses, and if the rebellion would be successful he would just become subservient to Korach!

On understood, but worried that he had already agreed to join the group. So, his clever wife got him drunk and sleepy, and On passed out in bed. Meanwhile, she went out to the entrance of their tent and “exposed her hair”. When Korach’s collaborators approached, the Talmud says they turned away due to the immodest sight of the woman. By the time On recovered from his drunken stupor, the whole episode was over, and he was spared. This story implies that Jewish women cover their hair, and for a woman to expose her hair publicly is immodest. Yet, nowhere in the Torah is there an explicit command for a Jew to cover their hair at all times (male or female). Hair-covering is not listed among the 613 mitzvot! If it isn’t a Torah mitzvah, where did it come from? Continue reading →

Kabbalah of the Omer

What is the deeper significance behind the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot? Why do we count the days, and what is their mystical connection to the Sefirot? Also, where did “mourning” during Sefirat haOmer really originate, and what is the proper way to approach these customs? Find out in this eye-opening class as we dive into Sefirat haOmer and explore what it takes to become a complete, refined human. Plus, the primordial elements associated with the Sefirot, and a Kabbalistic look at Yom ha’Atzmaut, Yom Yerushalayim, and Yom haShoah.