This week’s Torah portion, titzaveh, almost always falls during the week of the holiday of Purim which this year will be this Wednesday night, March 4th and Thursday, March 5th. Purim was the day 2500 years ago in Persia that Haman tried to annihilate all the Jews and Queen Esther saved them. Haman was a…
In this week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, Yaakov leaves Lavan’s house and learns that Esav his brother who wanted to kill him is coming with 400 men. He sends his family ahead and prepares them for war and then Yaakov crosses back over the river Yabbok alone in the night. There he has the famous struggle…
A well known verse in this Parsha states: “…I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse, -and you shall choose life,(u’vacharta b’chaim)-in order that you and your offspring shall live. (30:19)” Why do we need this verse? Don’t we know we are supposed to choose the path of goodness and life? Has…
In this week’s parsha, Vayeshev, we read the story of Joseph and his brothers which contains the tragic seeds of the Jewish peoples’ exile in Egypt. As the Talmud writes (Shabbat 10b): “Rava bar Meḥasseya said that Rav Ḥama bar Gurya said that Rav said: A person should never distinguish one of his sons from…
This week’s Torah portion, Va’yeshev, begins by describing the relationship between Joseph and his brothers when Joseph was 17 years old. The Torah tells us that when Joseph was tending sheep with his brothers “…Joseph brought slander about them to his father. Israel loved Joseph more of all the brothers….and they (his brothers) were unable…
Rabbi Joseph Solovetchik explained that there are different forms of prayer. We fulfill an obligation to pray three times a day, we pray in order to take the place of sacrifices, we pray in times of great need. Maimonides says that an integral part of the process of teshuvah, of repentance and return, is prayer,…
This week’s parsha, Ki Tisa, speaks of counting the Jewish people by means of the half shekel. The Torah states that this was done in order to avoid a plague that could result from the counting. Indeed King David, against the better judgement of his advisors, insisted on counting the people and this did result…
In this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tisa, the Jewish people make and worship the golden calf after which Moshe comes down the mountain and breaks the tablets. This parsha is bookended by God giving the instructions for making the Tabernacle to Moshe and Moshe telling the Jewish people how to build it. Rash”i reads…
This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tisa, contains the famous 13 Attributes of Mercy. We say them on fast days, and on Yom Kippur we say them over and over in an attempt to beseech God for mercy. As the Talmud says in Rosh Hashanah, 17b, “God appeared to Moses and taught him the 13 Attributes,…
In this week’s parsha, Ki Tisa, the Jewish people, just after hearing God at Mount Sinai, worship the golden calf. This of course is a great sin for which Moshe appeals to God’s mercy and ultimately, gains forgiveness for the people. Aviva Zorenberg points out that if we look at the larger context of the…
The Talmud, Avoda Zava 8a, states: Our Sages taught: When Adam the first man saw that the day was progressively diminishing, as the days become shorter from the autumnal equinox until the winter solstice, he did not yet know that this is a normal phenomenon, and therefore he said: Woe is me; perhaps because I…
This week’s double parsha is Vayakhel-Pekudei which concludes the book of Shemot. The parsha begins with the commandment of shabbat. But if we view these parshiot about the mishkan from 30000 feet an interesting pattern emerges. The point is made by Avivah Zornberg that the story of Moshe on the mountain learning about…
Yosef is called Yosef HaTzadik, Joseph the Righteous. He is the ancestor who lives in a foreign, idolatrous land, becomes well integrated into its structure functioning there as a great leader, and yet retains his Israelite religious values. Yosef’s ability, in the face of Egyptian culture, to not only retain his values and religious outlook…
This week’s Torah portion, Pikudeh, the last in the book of Exodus, includes the completion of the Tabernacle, the moveable Temple that the Jewish people carried with them in the desert. Following its erection the Divine presence rests upon it in fulfillment of God’s Biblical promise: “Make a sanctuary for Me and I will dwell…