Tazriah - Metzorah תשפא This week’s Torah portions are replete with references to the concepts of טומאה - tumah and טהרה – tahara, what we call “spiritually unclean and spiritually clean.” These concepts have no parallel in the secular world,…
Sefirat Haomer – The Counting of the Omer When the Holy Temple stood, a daily sacrifice was brought every morning and evening. Our current morning prayer, שחרית - Shacharit, corresponds to, and substitutes for, that morning sacrifice, and מנחה -…
Pesach II תשפא As we approach Pesach 2021, it is impossible not to think about Pesach 2020. Covid 19 was very new, a cure or vaccine was nowhere in sight, and families and friends were forced to celebrate the holiday…
Pesach תשפא The Festival of Pesach is, by far, the Jewish calendar’s most celebrated holiday in. In terms of popularity, it trumps even Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the “High Holidays.” The theme of freedom that we celebrate on Pesach…
החודש - Shabbat HaChodesh On the last day of the month of Adar, just as the first sliver of the new moon signaling the beginning of Nissan appeared, Hashem taught Moshe and Aharon the Mitzvah of sanctifying the new month…
Ki Tisa תשפא In this week’s parsha Ki Tisa, we meet the principal craftsman for the Tabernacle and all its accoutrements, Betzalel ben Uri ben Chur from the tribe of Judah. (Exodus 31:1-5) (א) וַיְדַבֵּר יְדֹוָד אֶל משֶׁה לֵּאמֹר: (ב)…
Purim תשפא Purim is the most festive and happy holiday in the Jewish calendar. It is the only holiday that carries with it an obligation to drink wine to the point that one doesn’t know the difference between “Cursed be…
Parshat Shekalim תשפא Although this coming Shabbat is Parshat Zachor with its own special additional Torah reading and is the Shabbat on which we focus how Amalek (including, generations later, his great-great-great grandson, Haman), warred with us and tried to…
Parshat Yitro תשפא Yitro (in English Jethro), the person for whom this week’s portion is named, should have been the very last person in the world to have a portion in the Holy Torah named for him. Indeed, not only…
Parshat Beshalach This Shabbat, parashatבשלח (Beshalach), is called שבת שירה (Shabbat Shira), the Shabbat of the Song, because it contains the song that the Jewish people sang to Hashem in appreciation of their salvation from the pursuing Egyptian army at…