This week we take a break from our regularly scheduled parsha (weekly Torah reading) and read about Pesach (Passover). Last year I shared some insights on Passover and you can read them here. This year I want to share a story. It takes place a few hundred years ago in a small town in Russia. It was your usual Jewish village with a rabbi and a couple of beggars, lots of children and poor people, and a wealthy miser. This … Continue reading
How interesting is it that just days before we leave Egypt, we read about how the cohen gadol (high priest) atones for everybody’s sins, ie. we read about the yom kippur service. Why? Well, if I tell you now, you might not read the rest of this email, and then you might miss out on one or two other juicy tidbits. 🙂 So, let’s get to it, shall we? The parsha (weekly Torah portion) from last week is called Acharai … Continue reading
This week we complete a topic we started last week: Tzaarat. it is a spiritual affliction with physical components and its symptoms can appear on human flesh, leather, wool, linen, and even on the walls of a house. Last week, the Torah talked about how to recognize it on a person and on a person’s clothing. This week the Torah talks about how a person heals from Tzaarat and also how to recognize it in a house and how to … Continue reading
The title of this week’s parsha (Torah portion) is called Tazria, which literally means, “You (male, singular) will cause to sow (as in sowing a seed in the earth), and it refers to a woman becoming pregnant. I must admit, that the parsha did not excite me as I was reading it. It starts with a discussion about the affects that birth have on a woman (from a spiritual point of view), and then veers off on the details of … Continue reading
This past week has been a busy one for us. The week started with Purim which includes dressing up in costume, getting so drunk you cannot tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys, and reading the book of Esther that is in the Tanach (bible). The book of Esther is an interesting book because it is the only book in Tanach that does not mention the name of god. And yet, if one looks carefully at … Continue reading
This year, Purim is literally on the heals of shabbat. As shabbat goes out, we find ourselves reading and listening to the Scroll of Esther being read. An interesting point about the Scroll of Esther is that you can also translate the Hebrew, Megilat Esther, to mean: revealing the hidden. Tzav is the command form of the verb to command, and our parsha (weekly Torah portion) begins with god telling Moshe (Moses) to command Aharon and his sons in regards … Continue reading
Next week we enter the week leading up to Purim. If we allow ourselves to believe that the energy of the Purim story is timeless, we might also come to realize that while the events of the coming week (and the past few weeks) might seem to be crazy or difficult, the truth of Purim is that there is a hidden goodness in these events, and at Purim, if we get high enough, the whole world will flip-flop, and things … Continue reading
This week we finished the 2nd book of the Torah which is called Shmot (Exodus). The concluding parsha (weekly Torah portion) is called P’kudi. The root of this word has many meanings including,:to order, to remember, and to count. In context, p’kudi means, “The countings or the accounts,” as in, These are the accounts of the mishcan (tabernacle)…,” which is in fact how the parsha begins. You see, the parsha begins with Moshe telling the tribe of Levi to take … Continue reading
Next week, we wrap up the book of Shmot (Exodus), but before we can do that, let us review what we read this week. The parsha (Torah portion) for this week is called Vayakhail which means, “And he assembled,” as in Moshe (Moses) assembled the whole community of the children of Yisrael. If you recall from last week’s parsha, Moshe goes up the mountain for 40 days and nights, and we build a golden calf. Moshe comes down and destroys … Continue reading
Key tisa, which literally means “That you will raise,” is the name of this week’s parsha (Torah portion). The verse continues with, “The heads of the children of Yisrael to redeem them and give a man atonement of his soul to haShem (god) in redeeming them and there will not be in them a plague in their redemption.” Basically we are talking here of the first census of the people, but I do find it interesting that the raising of … Continue reading