Terumah תש"פ Exodus 25:1-2 "וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל משֶׁה לֵּאמֹר: דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִקְחוּ לִי תְּרוּמָה מֵאֵת כָּל אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר יִדְּבֶנּוּ לִבּוֹ תִּקְחוּ אֶת תְּרוּמָתִי:" “ HaShem spoke to Moshe to say. Speak to the children of Israel let…
Parshat Mishpatim תש"פ “And these are the laws [“Mishpatim”] that you should place before them”: “And”—Parshat Mishpatim starts off in a peculiar way. The Hebrew text begins with a “ו”, which translates as “And,” a word usually used to connect…
Parshat Yitro תש"פ The Jewish people left Egypt on the Fifteenth of Nisan and reached Mount Sinai forty-five days later, on the First of Sivan. From the moment that HaShem appeared to Moshe at the Burning Bush, HaShem made it…
Parshat Beshalach תש"פ When our forefather Avraham was age seventy, HaShem told him that his children would be slaves for 400 years in a foreign land. HaShem also promised him (Genesis 15:14): "וְגַם אֶת הַגּוֹי אֲשֶׁר יַעֲבֹדוּ דָּן אָנֹכִי וְאַחֲרֵי…
Parshat Bo תש"פ On Rosh HaShanah this year, the Jewish Calendar year changed from 5779 to 5780 (“Rosh HaShanah” means the “head of the year” or the beginning of the new year.) This number represents the years that have passed…
Parshat Va’eira תש"פ When HaShem appeared to Moshe at the Burning Bush, and Moshe responded that the people would not believe that HaShem had really appeared to him, HaShem gave Moshe three miracles to perform to convince the people. The…
Shemot תש"פ This week we begin the second book of the Torah, Shemot - Exodus. The book of Shemot begins with the Jewish people’s slavery and redemption from Egypt, concluding with the completion of the Tabernacle. Despite Moshe and Aharon…
Parshat Vayechi תש"פ When thumbing through the pages of the Chumash, have you ever wondered what the פפפ or ססס at the end of almost every Parshah in the Torah mean? The פ stands for פתוחה,an open paragraph, and the…
Parshat Vayigash 5780 By way of background, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had two consecutive baffling dreams, which even his wise men could not satisfactorily interpret. Pharaoh’s butler then recalled having two years earlier been in prison with Yosef, who…
Chanukah תש"פ We celebrate the eight-day Chanukah holiday by lighting an eight-branch Menorah, each branch representing one night of the holiday. By daily adding another candle each night, we acknowledge the miracle of the Temple Menorah’s lights that burned continuously…