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The Book of Haggai

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Background of Haggai Time: 520BCE (Persian Period) Place: Yehud Kings:  None. Ruled by High Priest + Governor   Political Backdrop: ·        We’re back from exile! Step 1: Assyrians are the Big Bad: Northern Kingdom falls (722BCE) Step 2: Babylonians take over as the Big Bad: Southern Kingdom goes into exile (586BCE)             Exile period… 539BCE: Neo-Babylonian Empire falls to Cyrus the Great (Perisan Empire) Step 3: The Persian Empire sends us home! (538BCE) Primary Themes of Haggai: ·        The necessity to rebuild the Temple! ·        ‘On that day’ no longer refers to returning from exile   ·        Haggai speaks to the leadership – more like the historical prophets than the literary prophets! Structure of Haggai Content Verses Section 1: Accusation! Chapter 1 Superscript – so many details! 1:1 Why haven’t you built the House? 1:2-11 T
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Tazria: Staying Outside the Temple Gates

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  Staying Outside the Temple Gates This week, I have spent time with two women whose thoughts and ideas are permeating my experience of our Torah portion. The first, Kerry, has been my best friend since before we can remember. Kerry is now Doctor Kerry, and her field of medicine is paediatrics. She spends her days (and often nights) in the NICU - the neonatal (or newborn) intensive care unit. Kerry’s babies are often just a couple of pounds, dwarfed in comparison to full-term newborns, and facing the fight for their lives. The second of these women is Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers, my guest in the Salon last week. Rabbi Debbie joined us to talk about the Wellspring Project, the building of a centre of wellbeing with mikveh - waters for ritual immersion - at its heart. Mikveh is not commonly used outside of the orthodox world anymore, with the exception of conversion to Judaism. The reasons for this are varied, but are mostly related to two things: off-putting experiences in orthodox mikva’
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The View From the Ziggurat - Parashat T'rumah

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The View From the Ziggurat           Imagine that we’re in a Temple.            Sorry, that wasn’t clear. We’re not in that Temple. Take your mind away from Jerusalem and picture, instead, a temple in ancient Mesopotamia. In this part of the world, a temple might be found perched atop a ziggurat - or, in Akkadian, ziqquratum , meaning “to build high”. You can guess from the name that it’s a high place. To get into the temple structure, we need to ascend an incredible staircase. The temple is made of layers and sections, and there are places we mere peasants cannot go. While not all ancient holy spaces were completely identical in all time periods, common features would appear in temple design among Israel's neighbours: courtyards outside, likely for the public; basins of water; altars for animal sacrifice; a structure of multiple layers, and - most importantly of all - a holy chamber that housed the god. You and I cannot enter that chamber, but perhaps we can catch a glimpse of the
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