Parshas Emor 5784
This week’s portion Emor contains the five mitzvot relating to the קרבן העומר - the Omer Sacrifice. The first mitzvah is to bring an omer of barley (omer is the name of a unit measurement equal to, according…
This week’s portion Emor contains the five mitzvot relating to the קרבן העומר - the Omer Sacrifice. The first mitzvah is to bring an omer of barley (omer is the name of a unit measurement equal to, according…
What do you do when you know the world is about to end? Where do you go if you’re sure the world is going to experience an apocalyptic culmination in the very near future? If you’re any where near the…
The Talmud (Brachot 6a) reveals a stunning idea: אמר רבי אבין בר רב אדא אמר רבי יצחק: מנין שהקדוש ברוך הוא מניח תפילין? שנאמר נשבע ה' בימינו ובזרוע עוזו בימינו זו תורה שנאמר מימינו אש דת למו ובזרוע עזו אלו…
Dairy cows are prodigious producers. You pump about one hundred pounds of feed into a dairy cow over the course of a day; usually a mixture of hay, grain, soybean meal or some other protein, and silage, which is fermented…
In 1981, Project Kansas was hatched secretly in the boardroom of one of the most successful companies in the US. It was the desperate gambit of a company that was rapidly losing its footing, and it would set off a chain of…
When I was twelve years old, there was nothing I enjoyed more than going to the Shuk Machane Yehuda. The massive indoor/outdoor market in Jerusalem was an assault of sights, sounds, and smells coming from the garbled masses of people…
Alfonso Hernandez is a farmer who grows infected cacti on the Canary Islands (Pop Quiz! Where in the world are the Canary Islands?) While cactus plants are generally considered a nuisance, and plant infections don’t rank high on Top 10…
Parshat Shemini תשפד I was once asked, “Rabbi, you say that Judaism is the only true religion; the Christians say that Christianity is, and the Moslems say that Islam is! How do you know you are right?” I would like…
The Robert Y. Love was the little towboat that could. It spent its time merrily chugging up and down the Arkansas River, pushing barges loaded with asphalt, construction debris, coal, or oil. While it was only 104 feet long and 30 feet…