Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha: Shelach (Numbers 13-15) A Student, a Prostitute, and a Sag We are introduced to the mitzvah of tzitzis at the end of this week’s Parsha. Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations…and when you see it, […]
Messages from 2018 (Page 2)
[Rav Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, known as Sfas Emes,the title of his magnum opus, was one of the most prominent Chassidic masters of the 19th century. Many of his writings focus on helping the downtrodden and persecuted Jews of his time find meaning in their existence. He employs the deep mystical concepts of Kabbala in his compositions […]
G-d spoke to Moses saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, This is how you shall bless the children of Israel, saying to them: May G-d bless you and watch over you. May G-d cause His countenance to shine to you and favor you. May G-d raise His countenance toward you and grant you […]
These are the offspring of Aaron and Moses on the day G-d spoke with Moses at Mount Sinai. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the eldest is Nadav, then Avihu, Elazar, and Ithamar. Nadav and Avihu died before G-d because they offered a foreign fire before G-d; they had no sons, and Elazar and Ithamar […]
If your brother becomes impoverished and his means falter with you, you will support him…(25:35) The Midrash uses a verse from Psalms (41:2) to explain the above verse: Praiseworthy is one who contemplates the needy…But shouldn’t the verse read, Praiseworthy is one who gives to the needy? The Midrash answers its own question by saying that you should look at […]
When you reap the harvest of your Land, you shall not completely remove the corner of your field during your harvesting, and you shall not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. [Rather,] you shall leave these for the poor person and for the stranger. I am the Lord, your G-d. (ibid. 23:22) The latter part […]
If you had to pick a topic that most people never talk about for much of their lives, what would it be? I would vote “G-d.” People have serious discussions about sports, music, theater, hobbies, child rearing and a host of other discussions. They ask each other’s opinions about quarterbacks, quartets, and how to handle […]
I remember a recurring anti-smoking TV commercial growing up; it aired from 1967-1982. It began with a scene of a man on a ladder painting the side of a house while a little boy (about 3 years old) looked on with a paint brush in hand; he was helping. The narrator said, “like father, like […]
Moses saw Elazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s two sons, offer a sacrifice. He became angry because he thought they had acted improperly. However, they were correct in their actions. Aaron intervened and humbly asked a question to clarify the matter. Moses then realized that he himself had made a mistake. And Moses heard (the point that Aaron […]
The main idea of Passover is not merely abstaining from bread, cake, crackers, and other leavened products, it is to identify with the theme of the holiday. Freedom is what we focus on during Passover. We were freed from the Egyptians, as we say in the Haggadah, Had not the Holy One taken our ancestors out of Egypt, then we, our children, and our children’s children would have remained enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt. In 1922, in Luban, Communist (i.e. oppressive) Russia, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein asked the following question in a sermon: How can we celebrate freedom when we have been constantly persecuted, exiled, and harassed? Are we really free if we are denied equal rights and protection in the countries in which we live? (Although we have been blessed with freedom in America, it is a new phenomenon.) Getting back to the question asked almost 100 years ago in a small Russian town; how can we (Jews living under the violent oppression of communism) celebrate a festival representing freedom?
In every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. And the Holy One rescues us from their hands. (Passover Haggadah) These words will hopefully be familiar to anyone who grew up attending a Passover Seder; but is it true that non-Jews have attempted to destroy us in every generation? At our Seder, when […]
Live for the Future; Remember the Past Thousands of years ago, when the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the first activity done every morning was the separation of a scoopful of ashes from the altar. If you had to assign clothing to the cleric whose job it was to remove those ashes, what would you have […]
Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha: Vayikra (Leviticus 1-5) Finding the Spark in a Life of Dark And if a person brings a meal offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil over it and place frankincense upon it. (2:1) Rabbi Noah Weinberg used to ask students, in his Judaism 101 classes, if […]
We complete the book of Exodus this week. Although the mitzvah of building the Mishkan (portable sanctuary) was already given in a previous Parsha, this week’s Torah reading concerns itself with the carrying out of the instructions. Various types of metals, fabrics and other raw materials were generously donated; contributions were encouraged but not mandatory. The response was overwhelming; […]
When viewing a relationship, what indication might an onlooker use to determine if it is robust, vibrant, and has sustainability? Traits such as being a good listener, empathetic, and caring are desirable, perhaps crucial, but even they might not be enough; something else is necessary and this week’s Torah portion tells us what it is-but […]
In addition to the regular Torah reading this week, shuls worldwide will fulfill the mitzvah of reading about Amalek, the nation who attacked the Jewish people when they left Egypt. Some say they were the first nation to attack us after we were triumphantly liberated from 210 years of slavery but that is not entirely […]
The following incident occurred in 12th century France. A person sold tin roofing materials to his neighbor. When the neighbor examined the tin sheets, he discovered a layer of pure silver under the tin coating. The seller claimed the silver was his because the buyer had only intended to purchase a tin sheet; that’s all he […]
If men fight and one strikes his fellow with a stone or a fist…he shall pay for healing. (21:18-19). The Talmud (Berachos 60a) infers from this verse that “permission was given to a doctor to heal.” This is a difficult idea to accept; do we really need an explicit verse in the Torah to let us […]
Jethro, minister of Midian, father in law of Moses, heard all that G-d had done for Moses and for Israel, His people-that G-d had taken Israel out of Egypt. The verse above is followed by others that inform us that Jethro went into the wilderness to meet Moses, whom he had not seen since Moses […]
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote this in .1963 in a jail in Birmingham, Alabama. It is the sad truth about the history of oppressive nations, with one exception-Egypt. Each year at Passover we […]
Moses said, “This is what G-d has said; At about midnight, I will go out into the midst of Egypt. Every firstborn will die” (Exodus, 11:4-5) Moses relays G-d’s message that the plague of the first-born will happen at midnight. However, he doesn’t say “midnight,” he says “at about midnight.” The Talmud notes this odd choice […]
That is Aaron and Moses…(6:26) Rashi comments that some places Aaron’s name is listed before Moses’ and in other places it places Moses before Aaron; this is done to teach us that they were equal. Rashi’s explanation is difficult to understand because even though Aaron was great, was he really on the level of Moses, […]
This week we begin reading the second book of the Torah, Exodus. The first book, Genesis, covered about 2000 years from the creation of the world until Jacob’s family went to live in Egypt to survive during the famine. They ended up settling there until a paranoia arose in the mind of Pharaoh and other […]