In this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, we continue to read about the Mishkan, the Tabernacle which takes up a great deal of the laws of the Torah. It is arguably the most central element in the Biblical communal life of the Jewish people. The Mishkan not only was a place of Divine service but represented…

This week’s Torah portion begins with God speaking to Moshe but here God addresses Moshe in an uncommon way, with the words “V’Ata,”  “And You.”  One verse later, we have this opening again, and then a few verses later we have this phrase repeated a third time, after which it disappears as quickly as it…

In this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, Moses is told to command the Jewish people to take pure olive oil to light the menorah in the Temple.  The menorah was lit each day as one of the first services in the temple in Jerusalem.  The description of the actual fashioning of the gold menorah was already…

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…