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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 Golem, the Virgin Bride, and the Beautiful Captive

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  The Golem, the Virgin Bride, and the Beautiful Captive  Parashat Ki Teitzei           In the early 1970s, when she was still identifying as an Orthodox Jew, now-Rabbi Rachel Adler published a trailblazing article entitled: “The Jew Who Wasn’t There: Halacha and the Jewish Woman”. I was inspired to reread this recently, after going to see the Barbie Movie, which is a very normal reaction, thank you.           Rachel Adler’s article was about how halakhah, the Jewish legal framework, has largely been enacted upon women throughout history; that many mitzvot aimed at women were really about their relationships with men and children rather than their relationships with God. It’s a good article and well worth reading if you haven’t come across it. She was clearly thirsty for a halakhic framework that really saw her as a full member of the Jewish community and participant in the Jewish story. And she concludes the article by invoking the folk tale of the golem, the creature made of clay who
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