Shmini

(9:1-11:47) Laws describing kosher and non-kosher animals are enumerated.

Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha: Shmini (Leviticus 9-11) 

 Sometimes Silence is the Answer This past year I had the opportunity to be part of a group who visited Auschwitz. That evening, we stayed in a hotel across the street from one of the oldest and most renowned synagogues in Poland, the Rema’s shul in Cracow. Over 40 years earlier, in 1979, Professor Yaffa Eliach […]

Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha: Shmini (Leviticus 9-11) A Birdseye View

Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha: Shmini (Leviticus 9-11) 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 takes note of the Etymological significance of “ra’ah” because […]

Rabbi O’s Parsha Page: Shmini (Leviticus 9-11)

Refrigeration and Kosher Food: Rite or Right This week’s Parsha talks about kosher food and discusses the signs and details that render an animal, bird, or fish kosher. Being as so many people think that these laws stem from a lack of refrigeration and other considerations due to the limitations of the ancient world, we […]