• Wavering Notes, Resolute Souls: The Shalshelet of Identity and Transformation

    In this parsha, Tzav, we find something fairly unique, a Shalshelet, which is a very long repetitive trop (chanting) note, it wavers up and down three times.  This musical note appears four times in the Torah.   The first is when Lot, Abraham’s nephew, is told to leave Sidom.   The Torah records that Lot…

  • Sacrifice, Devotion, and Progress

    In this week’s Torah portion, Tzav, the Torah continues its description from last week of the sacrifices and their rituals. For us, who live in the current period of time in the Western world, animal sacrifice is foreign and seems, in many respects, barbaric. Reading about the sacrifices in the Torah, imagining the most central…

  • From Sinai to the Tabernacle

    In this week’s torah portion, Tzav, the torah continues its description from last week of the sacrifices and their rituals.   For us who live in the current period of time in the Western world animal sacrifice is fairly foreign and seems in many respects barbaric.   To us perhaps reading about the sacrifices in…

  • Understanding Sacrifices: Perspectives from Torah and Tradition

    In this week’s Torah portion, Tzav, the torah continues its description from last week of the sacrifices and their rituals.   For us who live in the current period of time in the Western world animal sacrifice is fairly foreign and seems in many respects barbaric.   To us perhaps reading about the sacrifices in the Torah…