One of the interesting things about the Torah is that it is not organized by topic. Before we could look everything up on the internet, if you wanted to learn everything the Torah has to say about Shabbat, you had to read most of the Torah to make sure you didn’t miss anything. There is no single chapter covering Shabbat or other major topics. Instead, topics such as Shabbat, holidays and various ethical and civil laws are found throughout the five books, sometimes repeated, and interspersed with the narratives from Genesis through Deuteronomy. Genesis is mostly narrative but Jewish scholars show us that it too has legal material.
How does weaving the Torah’s ritual, ethical and legal expectations into our narrative impact us as readers? What if we had received a text with only the stories and their beloved characters, and a separate set of volumes that was only the laws? (Later, of course, our scholars did create such volumes of Jewish law, extracted from the Torah and combined with legal interpretations and further teachings.)
At this point in the year, we are in the midst of reading the book of Leviticus, which is mostly laws and less story than the previous books. But still, it is helpful to remember that even Leviticus is a set of communications from a God with a personality we have learned about from the narrative, to a people in the midst of our journey from slavery toward building a new society. This week, in the middle of our Torah reading, we read, On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest, a sacred occasion. You shall do no work; it shall be a sabbath of the Holy One throughout your dwelling places. (Lev. 23:3)
How different is it to read this verse keeping in mind the context of leaving slavery, from reading it without the story that led to it? How different is this kind of reading from that of a dry rulebook, and what difference does it make for you?
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller
Emor (Leviticus 21:1-24:23) Torah Reading May 2, 2026
April 29, 2026 by Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller • D'var Torah, Julie Saxe-Taller
One of the interesting things about the Torah is that it is not organized by topic. Before we could look everything up on the internet, if you wanted to learn everything the Torah has to say about Shabbat, you had to read most of the Torah to make sure you didn’t miss anything. There is no single chapter covering Shabbat or other major topics. Instead, topics such as Shabbat, holidays and various ethical and civil laws are found throughout the five books, sometimes repeated, and interspersed with the narratives from Genesis through Deuteronomy. Genesis is mostly narrative but Jewish scholars show us that it too has legal material.
How does weaving the Torah’s ritual, ethical and legal expectations into our narrative impact us as readers? What if we had received a text with only the stories and their beloved characters, and a separate set of volumes that was only the laws? (Later, of course, our scholars did create such volumes of Jewish law, extracted from the Torah and combined with legal interpretations and further teachings.)
At this point in the year, we are in the midst of reading the book of Leviticus, which is mostly laws and less story than the previous books. But still, it is helpful to remember that even Leviticus is a set of communications from a God with a personality we have learned about from the narrative, to a people in the midst of our journey from slavery toward building a new society. This week, in the middle of our Torah reading, we read, On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest, a sacred occasion. You shall do no work; it shall be a sabbath of the Holy One throughout your dwelling places. (Lev. 23:3)
How different is it to read this verse keeping in mind the context of leaving slavery, from reading it without the story that led to it? How different is this kind of reading from that of a dry rulebook, and what difference does it make for you?
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller