Miriam (Moses’ sister) spoke negatively about Moses to Aaron, their brother. As a result, she broke out intzaras, a form of leprosy that existed only in biblical times; it emerged when a person spokelashon hara, negative talk-non beneficial criticism. Moses prayed for Miriam, but the prayer was just five words.Moses cried out to G-d, saying, “Please, […]
Messages from 2020 (Page 2)
The Mishkan (Tabernacle) was the portable place of worship for the Jews in the wilderness and the precursor to the Temple (Beit Hamikdash) that King Solomon would build hundreds of years later in Jerusalem. After its completion, there was a seven-day ceremony in which the clergy was installed into their sacred office. At the end of each […]
The two-day festival ofShavuot begins tonight. The Bible describes it as an agricultural celebration but most people know it as the as the Jewish holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. It took seven weeks for this nascent nation to travel from Egypt to Mount Sinai. The name Shavuot, […]
When the cycle for the weekly Torah readings was established centuries ago, this week’s Parsha was designated specifically to be read this Shabbos. I.e. the reading is from the first few chapters of the Torah’s fourth book, Numbers and always proceeds the holiday of Shavuos. What connection is there between this week’s Parsha and Shavuos, the festival commemorating the […]
The 26th chapter of Leviticus sets out with stunning clarity the terms of Jewish life for following the Almighty’s directives. On one hand, there is an idyllic picture of the blessing of Divine favor. How? If Israel follows G-d’s decrees and keeps His commands, there will be rain, the earth will yield its fruit, there will […]
A great deal of this week’s Parsha deals with matters pertaining toKohanim, the decedents of Aaron. “Priests” is usually the English translation but there’s no appropriate terminology to describe this unique group of people whose task it is to perform the service in Jerusalem’s ancient Temple as well as being teachers for the Jewish people. […]
Do not take revenge… (Leviticus 19:18)The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when their tormentors suffer. (Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption)Which one of us hasn’t had inner thoughts of vengeance at […]
This week’s Parsha continues discussing the harmful effects oflashon hara, senseless negative speech. Many people don’t take speech seriously; they freely speak about others without regard for their feelings or the potential damage it can cause. King Solomon wrote, Life and death are in the hands of the tongue. One explanation given in the Talmud is that […]
When enumerating the non-kosher birds, the Torah mentions a bird called da’ah. The Talmud points out that, later on (Deuteronomy 14:12), when the Torah repeats the list of kosher birds, it refers to it as a ra’ah. The Talmud (Chulin 63a) takes note of the Etymological significance of “ra’ah” because it is the root of the Hebrew verb […]
Imagine yourself as the leader of an enslaved nation. You have much power on your side and you know you will be able to overpower the reigning monarch who has enslaved your nation for centuries. The time of liberation has finally come and you, the leader of this persecuted nation, will be the one to […]
This Shabbos, the Shabbos before Passover, is referred to as Shabbos HaGadol. The word “Gadol” in Hebrew means “expansive”. It means to transcend your usual way of being. On Passover we see G-d breaking the rules of nature, thereby demonstrating that He actually runs the world. The message for us is to do the same: Be […]
Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha: Vayikra (Leviticus 1-5) And G-d called to Moses (Leviticus 1:1) If you drive by a construction site, you can’t help but notice that it looks more like an advertising billboard than a work in progress. A banner promoting Company A , who is doing the actual construction of the building, is outside. Next to it is a […]
(Being as we are less than two weeks away from Passover, each week we will have a short dvar Torah on Passover and another on the weekly Torah reading. Keeping Up with the Stein’s Passover is the holiday of freedom and Matzah is known as the bread of poverty, lechem oni. If it has eggs or fruit juice or […]
When all the parts of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) had been made, they were brought to Moses, who actually stood the walls up and erected the Mishkan. Rashi quoting the Midrash explains that due to the massive weight of the materials, none of the people were able to erect it, so they brought the materials to Moses-but he was also unable to […]
[Being as the Corona Virus is currently in our thoughts most of the day, I have to chosen to write about it in a practical way. Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha comes afterward.] Six Jewish Takeaways from COVID-19We are all at wits end trying to manage in these challenging times. The Talmud (Yevomot 63a) tells us that […]
This week we read about the tragic incident of the Golden Calf. When Moses descended with the tablets, he encountered Joshua, who had heard the voice of the people rejoicing (over the Golden Calf). He commented to Moses, “Battle sounds are heard in the camp.” And (Moses) said, “It is not the sound of strength (a […]
One of the puzzling incidents in the Purim story is Esther’s asking King Achashverosh to invite Haman, the arch enemy of the Jews, to a banquet. Ostensibly, she asked for a party so that she could plead with the king to have the decree against the Jews rescinded, but why would she invite the anti-Semite […]
The Torah reading this week gives the instructions for building the Mishkan (Tabernacle), a portable synagogue in the midst of the desert; it was the place where the Almighty’s Presence would rest wherever the Jews happened to be. They took it with them throughout their 40 year stay in the desert and rebuilt it in […]
Linguists are at a loss to find an origin for the word “bribe.” It is first used in 14th century old French but it means “steal.” By mid-15th century its meaning had shifted to “gift given to influence corruptly.” No one knows where “bribe” came from or how it ultimately came to have the meaning we use […]
From the time we are children until we reach old age, freedom is something we all desire. Small children want the freedom to go to sleep when they want to as well as choosing their diet, i.e. mostly junk food. Teenagers complain there are too many rules at home and school; middle aged people talk […]
How should we react when we see or hear of our enemy’s demise? Thousands of years ago King Solomon advised:Do not rejoice at your enemy’s downfall, and when he stumbles let your heart not be joyous, lest the G-d see and be displeased and turn back His anger from him [to you] (Proverbs 24:17-18).This statement tells us […]
One of the great consequences of the Jews being liberated from Egypt was that they would now be able to make decisions. A slave’s life is dictated by his master-when to eat, sleep, work, where to work, and everything else in the day is determined by the master. The Hebrew month of Nissan, the month […]
Imagine if you were miraculously given superhuman power and had the ability to confront an evil monarch, someone who has persecuted, oppressed and murdered tens of thousands of people. How would you approach him? Would you address him in a respectful way or would speak in an insulting and degrading fashion? Whether it was Ivan […]
If you want to know how power effects even our most mundane choices, you need go no further than the “Cookie Monster Study,” done by Dr. Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at Berkeley. Here’s how he describes it. We bring three people to the lab, and we randomly assign one person to the role of leader. […]
Jacob is on his deathbed and is ready to give his final blessings to his children and grandchildren. When Joseph brings his two sons (i.e. Jacob’s grandsons) for a blessing, Jacob makes the following cryptic remark.And now, your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt, until I came to you, […]
Ad Vingerhoets is a professor of psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. The thing that makes him unique is that he is an expert on crying and has spent over twenty years “studying when and why we cry, and how the study of crying may help us obtain better insight into human nature.” According […]