An Effective Tool for Getting Love You Want Many people are familiar with an attitude about a task we aren’t looking forward to: “It is not very glamorous, but somebody has to do it.” And so the Torah begins this week’s portion by telling us the mitzvah of , removing the ashes that accumulate from […]
Shabbat Parshat Zachor-5776/2016 A time for love, a time for hate A time for war and a time for peace About ten years ago a tragic news story became a major item in England due to its theological ramification. Reverend Julie Nicholson, Vicar at a church in Bristol, England, resigned because of questions she had […]
Flipping the Switch And they brought the Mishkan to Moses…(ibid. 39:33) When all of the various parts of the Mishkan (portable “Temple” in the desert) had been fashioned, they were brought to Moses, who actually stood the walls up and erected them. The commentary of Rashi explains that because of the massive weight of the […]
The first Jewish fundraising initiative is found in this week’s Torah portion. Moses said to the entire assembly of the Children of Israel saying: This is the word that G-d commanded saying: Take from yourselves a portion for G-d…everyone who is generous of heart shall bring it… (Exodus 35:4-5) When they started bringing contributions to […]
The sin of the Golden Calf is one of the great enigmas of the Torah. The age old question—how could the same people who witnessed the Ten Plagues, the Splitting of the Sea, and national revelation at Sinai recklessly ignore G-d and pray to an idol—has many answers and there is one theme common to […]
You shall place both stones on the shoulder straps of the ephod, remembrance stones for the Children of Israel. (Exodus 28:12) Moses was commanded to make garments for the Cohen Gadol-‘high priest’. Included in these was a piece of clothing similar to an apron called the ephod. It had two shoulder straps and held precious […]
The Torah reading this week gives the instructions for building the Mishkan (Tabernacle), a portable sanctuary (i.e .spiritual center) in the midst of the desert; it was the place where the Divine Presence would rest wherever the Jews happened to be. They took it with them throughout their 40 year stay in the desert and […]
Enjoy Rabbi Oppenheim’s insights into Passover aspects Weekly Torah Reading: Metzora (Leviticus 14-15) (Being as Passover is a bit more than ten days away, we will discuss different aspects of Passover for the next two weeks) Are You a Freed Slave or A Free Person Anyone who has attended even one Passover Seder knows how […]
…the Kohen shall look, and behold! – the affliction has covered his entire flesh, then he shall declare the affliction to be pure… (Leviticus 13:13) The portion of Tazria includes a detailed discussion of an affliction known as Tzara’at, one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Torah. Because Tzara’at afflicts the skin, it is […]
Someone once gave the following summary of Jewish holidays: they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat. This certainly seems to have been the case in the Purim story. A plan (between King Achashverosh and his advisor Haman) was made to annihilate the Jews, the plan was thwarted, and Jews since then have made […]
Purim is less than two weeks away! This coming Thursday is a fast day established about 2500 years ago decreed by Esther, the heroine of the Purim story. Why did she mandate a day of fasting? In order to answer this we need to analyze a few verses from the Megillah. And the King said […]
This week is the portion that completes the book of Exodus and the discussion of the Mishkan (Tabernacle), portable sanctuary used when the Jews wandered in the desert. It’s worth noting that the Torah enumerates all of the precious metals that went into the building of the Mishkan and lists exactly how much gold, silver, […]
G-d spoke to Moshe, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they take an offering for me; from every man whose heart desires [to give], take my offering.’ (ibid. 25:1-2)
And these are the ordinances that you will place before them. (ibid. 21:1) A sizeable quantity of this week’s Torah portion deals with the laws of theft and damage. The question asked by many commentators is, what significance was there in giving specifically these laws immediately after the Ten Commandments and revelation at Sinai (last week’s […]
Reams have been written about the first verse in this week’s Torah portion: These are the offspring of Noah; Noah as a righteous man, perfect in his generation… Question One: The verse begins with “these are the offspring of Noah,” but never tells us who these offspring were. Rather, it merely tells us that Noah […]
All the plants of the field were not yet upon the earth and all the herbal vegetation of the field had not yet sprouted, for God had not brought rain upon the soil. (Genesis.Breishis 2:5) The verse quoted above (All the plants of the field were not yet upon the earth…) refers to the world […]
Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations. And Noah, with his sons… went into the Ark because of the waters of the Flood. (ibid. 6:9; 7:7)
Although most people aren’t Bible experts in the Bible, unless you grew up secluded from the world, you surely know the story of Adam and Eve and the snake. The commentators are divided in understanding the snake. Do we understand it as a literal creature, a reptile similar to today’s snakes, or do we understand […]
In this week’s Parsha we are introduced to the first patriarch of the Jewish people, Abraham. God tells him to leave his father’s house, his relatives and his homeland. So Abram went as God had spoken to him and Lot went with him; Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. Abram took his […]
After the flood God makes a covenant with Noah and his family. Although God will eventually make a covenant with the Jewish people at Sinai, He enumerates seven laws not only for Noah and family but also for all non Jews. They are the basis of morality and the foundation of a principled society. One […]