The weekly Torah portion

In six days God calls the world out of nothing and rests on the seventh. Adam and Chava are placed in the garden, eat from the Tre…

The Flood covers the earth for a year; Noach, his household and the animals come out of the ark to a rainbow and a covenant. Human…

«Go for yourself»—Avram leaves Charan for Canaan at seventy-five, goes down to Egypt and returns. He parts from Lot, rescues him f…

Three visitors come to Avraham's tent and promise a son; Avraham argues for Sodom, and Sodom is overturned. Yitzchak is born, Haga…

Sarah dies and Avraham buys the cave of Machpelah in Hebron—the first piece of the land held in his own hand. The servant is sent …

Rivka bears twins who struggle in the womb; Esav sells the birthright for lentils. Yitzchak digs his father's wells again in Gerar…

Yaakov dreams of a ladder with angels and vows a tenth at Beit El. He works seven years for Rachel and is given Leah, then seven m…

Yaakov prepares for Esav with gifts, prayer and division of the camp, wrestles until dawn with a man and is named Israel; the brot…

Yosef's dreams and the coat set his brothers against him; he is thrown into the pit and sold into Egypt. Yehuda and Tamar meet at …

Pharaoh dreams of cattle and ears of grain; Yosef reads the dream and is set over Egypt at thirty. Seven years of plenty are store…

Yehuda steps forward and offers himself in Binyamin's place, and Yosef can hold back no longer: «I am Yosef—is my father still ali…

Yaakov blesses Ephraim and Menashe with crossed hands, then calls his sons and tells each what will befall him at the end of days.…

A new king arises who did not know Yosef; the bondage begins and the midwives refuse to kill. Moshe is drawn from the river, grows…

God is made known by His name and the promise of four expressions of redemption is given. Moshe and Aharon come before Pharaoh wit…

Locusts, darkness and the death of the firstborn break Egypt. Israel is commanded its first mitzvah—the new moon and the reckoning…

Pharaoh pursues; the sea splits and closes over his chariots, and Israel sings the Song of the Sea. Then the bitter water is sweet…

Yitro comes to the camp and advises Moshe to appoint judges over thousands and hundreds, so that he does not wear himself out alon…

After the thunder, the law: the Hebrew servant, damages, the goring ox, the pit, the thief, the borrower and the watchman; the wid…

«Let them make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them.» The gifts are listed and the Mishkan is described piece by piece: the…

The oil for the lamp that burns continually, and then the garments of the priests: the tunic, the robe with its bells and pomegran…

The half-shekel, the laver, the anointing oil and the incense; Betzalel is called by name. Then the calf: the tablets are broken, …

Moshe gathers the people and puts the Sabbath before the work of the sanctuary—even this building does not override the seventh da…

An accounting is given of all the gold, silver and copper brought and used—the builder renders his reckoning in public. The priest…

The offerings are set out: the burnt offering wholly consumed, the meal offering of the poor man, the peace offering shared, the s…

The same offerings from the priests' side: what is burned, what is eaten and where, the fire kept always alight on the altar, the …

On the eighth day Aharon offers and fire comes out from before God; the people fall on their faces. Nadav and Avihu bring strange …

The days of purity after birth, and then the laws of tzaraat: the priest looks at the skin, at the hair, at the spread of the mark…

The purification of one healed of tzaraat: two birds, cedar wood, crimson thread and hyssop, shaving and immersion, and offerings …

The service of Yom Kippur: Aharon enters the Holy of Holies once a year, the two goats, the lot, the confession, the goat sent to …

«You shall be holy»—and what follows is not withdrawal but conduct: leave the corner of the field, do not steal or deceive, do not…

The special sanctity of the priests—whom they may marry, whom they may not become impure for, what disqualifies from service. Then…

The seventh year the land rests, and in the fiftieth the shofar of the Jubilee frees the servants and returns each man to his hold…

If you walk in My statutes: rain in its season, bread to the full, peace in the land, and My dwelling among you. And if not: a lon…

A census in the second year: six hundred and three thousand men over twenty, counted by their families. The camp is arranged in fo…

The burdens of Gershon, Kehat and Merari; the sending out of the impure; the sotah and the nazirite; the priestly blessing in thre…

The lamps of the menorah, the Levites set apart, a second Pesach for those who were impure, the silver trumpets, and the cloud tha…

Twelve men go up to see the land and ten come back saying it devours its inhabitants; the people weep through the night, and the g…

Korach and two hundred and fifty men rise against Moshe and Aharon—«all the congregation are holy». The earth opens and swallows t…

The red heifer, whose ashes purify the impure and make the pure impure—the statute that is called a statute. Miriam dies and the w…

Balak hires Bilam to curse Israel. The donkey sees the angel and speaks; Bilam goes on and three times opens his mouth to bless: «…

Pinchas is given the covenant of peace for stopping the plague. A new census of the generation that will enter the land; the daugh…

The laws of vows and their annulment. War against Midian, the division of the spoil and the vessels' purification. Then Reuven and…

The forty-two stages of the journey are listed one by one, from Rameses to the plains of Moav. The borders of the land are drawn, …

Moshe begins to speak in the fortieth year, on the far side of the Jordan, and retells the way they came: the appointment of judge…

Moshe pleads to be allowed across and is refused. He warns against images and against forgetting, and sets apart the cities of ref…

If you heed these ordinances, the blessing; and remember that man does not live by bread alone. Do not say «my strength and the mi…

«See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse»—on Gerizim and Eival. One place will be chosen for the offerings; the false p…

«Judges and officers shall you appoint in all your gates»—and «justice, justice shall you pursue». The king, the priests and the p…

More commandments than any other portion. The captive woman, the rights of the unloved wife's firstborn, the wayward son; returnin…

The first fruits are brought in a basket with a declaration that retells the whole descent and redemption. The tithe of the third …

«You are standing today, all of you»—the covenant is made with those present and with those not yet born. The commandment is not i…

Moshe at a hundred and twenty says he can no longer go out and come in, and encourages Yehoshua before the people. The Torah is wr…

The song of Moshe, laid out in two columns: heaven and earth are called as witnesses; God's work is perfect and His ways just; the…

Moshe blesses the tribes one by one before his death, each according to what it is. He goes up Nevo, sees the whole land from Gila…