Toldot

The early narratives in the Torah are an opportunity to learn about and understand human relationships, before humanity's relationship with God takes centre stage.

Mother/son experiences are particularly complex. Men are often embarrassed to admit being able to relate to their mothers and tend to hide any deep feelings of filial love. Mothers learn to step back as their child grows up and will endeavour to act in the best interests of their child, perhaps regardless of the consequences.

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Chayei sarah

The book of Bereshit is a book of promises. In this parashah, we read how the ancestral promise made to our matriarchs and patriarchs passes from Sarah to Rebecca.

The blessings received by Rebecca here echo that given to Abraham and Sarah for multiple descendants and land in parashat Lech Lecha. Abraham makes it clear to his senior servant, whom he sends on a mission to find Isaac a wife, that although the woman must come from "the old country", Isaac must not go back but he and his wife must continue Abraham and Sarah's journey.

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Vayera

Perhaps the most difficult test faced by our forefather Abraham was when Sarah asked him to banish his son Ishmael from their home. Abraham was the pillar of love and kindness in the world; to banish his own son from his home was anathema. But God supported Sarah's motherly instincts and instructed Abraham to heed her decision. Our sages deduced from this that Sarah was superior to Abraham in her capacity to intuit God's will.

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Lech lecha

The denizens of Sodom, whose principal sin is usually taken to be the sexual predilection with which they have become synonymous, enjoy a more complex interpretation in rabbinic literature. True, the Midrash Rabbah to this verse dissects and interprets it as might be expected: "wicked" and "sinners" - they were wicked to each other; sinners in adultery; "against the Lord" in idolatry; while "very" refers to bloodshed.

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Noach

With cramped living quarters, poor sanitation and no television, perhaps it was inevitable that Noah favoured some animals. Consider his special relationship with the dove. On her first mission to see if the waters had receded, the Torah says, "He sent the dove from him", intimating that Noah would suffer at her departure. When she returns, the text says, "She returned to him, to the ark…and he sent out his hand, and he took her and brought her to him, into the ark."

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Bereshit

We all enjoy a challenge, as did the ancient rabbis. When asked to propose the most important verse in the Torah, we might suggest the first line of the Shema or the first of the Ten Commandments.

The great sage Rabbi Akiva advocated "Love your neighbour as yourself". His colleague, Ben Azzai, however, chose the verses from Genesis quoted above. Ben Azzai is telling us that the creation of man is the main principle of the Torah.

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Shabbat chol Hamo'ed Succot

In a world where a leading scientist questions God's role in creation, the concept of a personal God who cares about human beings is at best quaint. The context of these words reveals their meaning. Moses appeals to God: he does not want to live in a world where even though he would be made into a great nation, the Israelites would be destroyed. It is the same as saying today, "I don't want to live in a world without Jews." On many occasions in Jewish history, Judenrein existed as a possibility.

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Yom kippur

Repentance is one of Judaism's most uplifting concepts. The Rambam teaches that a person could be despised and hated by God one day and be loved by Him the next. All it takes to make the difference is a sincere process of repentance.

On my recent trip to South Africa, I witnessed an exhilarating example of national repentance. Just a few years ago, the country was governed by a brutal, racist regime, making it a pariah state. Now, it has transformed itself into a highly respected democracy.

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Ha'azinu

The poem that forms part of Moses's farewell to the Israelite nation summarises the themes of the Book of Deuteronomy: the greatness and generosity of God and the stubbornness of the nation.

But this parsahah is one of the most devastating to read. At the end of the section, God takes Moses up Mount Nebo to show him the beauty of the Land of Canaan and then tells him that he will not enter into the land because of his sin in hitting the rock rather than talking to it as God had commanded him. We hear nothing of Moses's response on hearing this news.

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Nitzavim-vayelech

Moses is dying. With his final breath he calls everyone forward. "You are standing today, all of you" (Deuteronomy 9:9). Leaders and old men, women and children all come to hear these last words. Moses utters a strange phrase: "Not with you all alone do I seal this covenant... but with whomever is here, standing with us."

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