Hal Miller

Shabbat Parashat Naso - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter, afflictive waters, and the afflictive waters shall come into her as bitter. [Bamidbar 5:24] He shall cause the woman to drink the water. [Bamidbar 5:26] He shall cause her to drink the water, and it shall be that if she had become defiled ... [Bamidbar 5:27] The case of the sotah, the wayward wife, is both distasteful and strange. One could ask many questions upon it and

Shavuot - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller There is a widespread custom to stand in shul during the reading of the Aseret HaDibrot (Ten Commandments) on the morning of Shavuot. What is the purpose of this custom and exactly how widespread is it? Certainly not every person nor every shul have this custom. Rambam was very emphatic in his criticism of it, saying that any person or any congregation standing should be rebuked and made to sit down. Sephardim for the most part follow Rambam on

Shabbat Parashat Bamidbar - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller You shall give the Levites to Aharon and his sons, given given are they to him from the children of Israel. [Bamidbar 3:9] We can ask a number of questions on our short verse. First, why is the word given repeated? Second, at the beginning of the verse God tells Moshe to give the Levites to Aharon, which implies that it is Moshe doing the giving, but the end of the verse says that they are given from the people. Third, whe

Shabbat Parashat Behar-Bechukotai - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller The resting of the land shall be yours to eat, for you and for your slave and for your maidservant and for your hired worker and for one who resides with you. [Vayikra 25:6] The Torah commands us that we are not to work the land in the seventh year of each seven-year cycle. At first glance, this yields a problem--what are we to eat in that year? Jewish society a couple thousand years ago was very agrarian, and had