When we lived in Norfolk we knew a LOT of people who serve in the US Navy. It was a real priviledge and honor to be part of that community and I came to better understand the level of commitment and sacrifice made by the men and women who serve. I also came to understand the level of commitment and sacrifice made by their families. Deployments, PCS (permanent change of station - aka moving) across the country or the world, packing and unpacking and losing and breaking things

I never thought that a Turkducken would come up as a possible Parsha Inpsired Menu item, but here we are...so how did we get here? Well, it starts with this interesting pasuk: וְנָשַׁל֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ אֶת־הַגּוֹיִ֥ם הָאֵ֛ל מִפָּנֶ֖יךָ מְעַ֣ט מְעָ֑ט לֹ֤א תוּכַל֙ כַּלֹּתָ֣ם מַהֵ֔ר פֶּן־תִּרְבֶּ֥ה עָלֶ֖יךָ חַיַּ֥ת הַשָּׂדֶֽה׃ The ETERNAL your God will dislodge those peoples before you little by little; you will not be able to destroy them quickly, else the wild beasts would

Much of Dvarim is spent with Moshe telling the people about how or why to stay close to God. In Vaetchanan there's one of these mentioned, but what caught our attention was the paraenthetical description given to Egypt in this particular section. It is the only time this phrase is used for Egypt in the Five books of Moses. It says "And when you look up to the sky and behold the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole heavenly host, you must not be lured into bowing down to

So begins the last sefer of the Torah: These are the things that Moshe told to all of Israel on the other side of the Jordan, in the desert wilderness facing Suf, between Paran and Tofel and Lavan and Hatzerot and Di-Zahav. It is a journey of eleven days from Horev, via Mount Se'ir, to Kadesh Barne'a. In the fortieth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, Moshe spoke to Bnei Yisrael according to all that God had commanded him for them; After he had slain Sihon

In parsha Mattot, God instructs Moshe to assemble a band of warriors to exact vengance on Midian (who had led some of Israel astray.) Interestingly, the leader of this campaign is not Moshe, nor Joshua, the next leader of the people, nor Eleazar, the High Priest. It is Pinchas. I've discovered two ideas for the reason for this choice. The first is that this battle is ideological in nature vs. national or land-based, therefore it makes sense for the leader to be tied to the re

My family loves Legos and not in a "nostalgic, we keep some in the basement from when our kids were little" way; more in a "we are still buying new sets to build for everyone from my 13 year old son to my 51 year old husband" way (those 80's nostalgia sets are FIRE). And through all these years, no one in my family has swallowed a brick or mini head, but I was still intrigued when I saw a reel about a change Lego made in 2013, adding barium to the materials so that when kids

We read from pasukim that are in Parsha Pinchas A LOT! In this week's parsha, we find the passages that also get read on the Shalosh Regalim (Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot) and the passages read on Rosh Chodesh. It's the list of the sacrifices that should be brought on each of these special days. I may have mentioned this before, but the Rosh Chodesh torah reading the first one I really learned (not memorized.) It's also one I've taught to our boys and I felt immensely proud when

When Miriam passes away and there's no water, we get more complaining by the people. Why have you brought GOD’s congregation into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die there? Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place, a place with no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates? There is not even water to drink!” This is a strange complaint for 2 reasons. One - if the main concern is lack of fresh water due to the disappearance of Miriam's well, w

There are 3 times in this parsha where Moshe or Moshe and Aaron fall on their faces - in all 3 the common theme is humility. The first instance is as Korach and team malign Moshe and Aaron, saying "They combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and God is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above God’s congregation?” Before they go on to explain more of their grievances, Moshe falls on

In this parsha we get the story of the spies, which famously has just two people who believe enough in God to feel confident that the Israelites can successfully take the land - Caleb and Joshua. When Joshua is introduced as one of the spies, the Torah has this pasuk: These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to scout the land; but Moses changed the name of Hosea son of Nun to Joshua. While name changes are not unusal in the Torah, they usually come from God, but what's

Food has a central focus in part of this week's parsha, as does whining! Manna was introduced when the Jews first fled Egypt and, using some of dates and timeline we know from the Torah, by the time we get to BeHa'alotecha, it's been over a year of manna. That's a lot of manna. As someone who makes sure that our family has variety in food (even my kids' lunches each day), I can see how this might get tiresome. There are midrashim that suggest that manna adapted to each person

We've been reading Naso during the week and at Shabbat mincha for 2 weeks since last week Shavuot's Torah reading filled the Shabbat morning slot. Good thing it's such a long parsha that there's still more to find in it for Parsha Inspired Menus two weeks in a row! In fact, it's a really long parsha. The longest single parsha in the whole Torah. As I mentioned last week, a good chunk of the 176 lines is the repetition of the gifts from the tribal leaders. While I was thinking

There's a lot of repetition in Naso, but that's kind of the point. Over the course of 72 verses (the total parsha is 176, so it's a significant portion) we are given the details of each tribal leader bringing their gift to the dedication of the altar. It reads like this: The one who presented his offering on the first day was Nahshon son of Amminadab of the tribe of Judah. His offering: one silver bowl weighing 130 shekels and one silver basin of 70 shekels by the sanctuary w

The final sefirah of the Omer is Malchut, Sovereignty. When I picture a sovereign the image that comes to mind is the official portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II (I’m kind of into British Royalty stories.) There the sovereign stands, with the physical reminders of leadership and all alone - one person in charge. But in practice, the strongest form of leadership is not isolated rule; it is decision making with the help and guidance of others. A leader’s auth

This week we start a new book of the Torah - in Hebrew it's Bamidbar, in the desert, which is an apt description. Though in English the name is Numbers, which sure feels right for the first part of this parsha....so many numbers about the census. Also, the taking of the census both begins and ends this book of the Torah, so it's a fitting name for the whole section. I thought about a recipe with a lot of numbers, but that didn't seem so fun to cook. So, how about the Hebrew

One of the most powerful, and often overlooked, leadership moves is simply connecting people to each other. As the leader, it's all too easy to become the hub through which everything flows: questions come to you, ideas come to you, updates come to you. It's an inefficient and exhausting way to run an organization. Leadership rooted in Yesod, foundation/connection, says that instead of holding all the threads, you start tying them together. In practice, it can be as simple as

I've said it before and I'll say it again...some weeks the #parshainspiredmenus ideas are really direct lines to ideas in the parsha and sometimes I go a more circuitous route. This week, admittedly, it's circuitous. In Behar, there's a lot of talk about the shmeitah year (every 7th year) and the Yovel (the 50th year). The Yovel, or Jubilee, is particularly special, coming on the 50th year in the cycle when, like the shemitah year, the land rests, but also land returns to it'

One of my favorite Jewish leadership stories is about Moshe. In Bamidbar there is this pasuk about Moshe's character: “Moshe was extremely humble, more so than any other person on the face of the earth.” Moshe, the greatest leader of the Jewish people...Moshe, who beat Pharoah...Moshe, through whom miracles were perfomed...Moshe, who talks directly with God. How could he be the most humble? Well, it is all about how you understand humility. You can consider humility in terms

This parsha is sometimes called Torat Kohanim - Law of the Priests - because of the extensive set of laws given that pertain just to the priests. The priests have a special responsibility among the Jewish people and, as part and parcel of that, comes particular restrictions and requirements. One of the things I noted is the qualifier in the first pasuk of the parsha, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron." This unique group is passed down through the family line of Aaron.

The 4th week of the Omer is associated with Kabbalistic sphere of Netzach, which is often translated as fortitude or endurance. Interestingly, the first thing that came to mind regarding endurance was about the persistance, resilience, and stick-to-it-iveness of athletes. I guess those sports equipment ads really sunk in. Yet, endurance is a key part of good leadership of all kinds. A leader needs to show persistance, resilience and stick-to-it-tiveness to keep an organzation