Weekly Unscrolled Torah Portion: Pinhas
“With each interfaith union, my father has mellowed or maybe just become resigned; either way, from that La-Z-Boy our family’s Grand Poo-Bah looks quite pleased these days. The Smith family name continues. It does so without the bloodshed of Pinhas’ day, or the eye rolling of mine.”
In the story of Pinhas, God tells Moses to prepare for his death. Moses wonders which person has the leadership abilities to replace him and lead the Israelites. Larry Smith adapts the story of Pinhas and lineage to that of his own family. He shares with the reader details of his sibling and his various traditional life stages from bar/ bat mitzvahs, marriages and having children, and how they were influenced by his father- from negotiations and thought processes surrounding those choices, and reveals the outcomes turned out pretty great.
Click on the image to read the full portion and interpretation
Larry Smith is the creator of the Six-Word Memoir project, a bestselling book series, live events program, and popular form of storytelling in classrooms, company retreats, and anywhere people gather. He has led workshops and given keynotes at Dell, Dropbox, Shutterfly, JPMorganChase, Snapchat, and other companies and nonprofits. He is the producer and director of the play, “A Map of Myself: a One-Woman Revolution on War, Immigration, History, DNA, and Home,” by and starring 20-year-old Syrian-America Sara Abou Rashed.
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