…The universe is full of Vayikra, of God’s call to us. And here we are ready to receive that call, but without the bluetooth connection between us and those signals, there is no transformation of the human condition, there is no yetziat mitzrayim. For a generation, for decades, Rabbi Lamm has been, as was Moshe Rabbeinu in his generation, the…
…and Betzalel, the master-craftsman, and those who work with him, including the women who spun goats’ hair into cloth, brought gifts and gave their mirrors for the bronze washbasin. Most of the narrative reads as if it belongs to Vayikra, the book of holiness, rather than Shemot, the book of freedom. The Torah is telling us something profound and still…
Koren Publishers have launched a new Magerman edition of the Koren Tanach featuring, for the first time, the complete translation of Chumash by Rabbi Sacks zt”l. You can order your copy here and view the opening pages below. Peek Inside…
Lecturers of the highest quality, both local and international, are scheduled to deliver shiurim which will develop Rabbi Sacks’ ideas on each parsha in Sefer Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar, and Devarim, and they will distill key ideas in his approach to Chumash. This new course, offered by the London School of Jewish Studies, is open to all, available online, worldwide, and…
…alone וּמָה אַתָּה רוֹצֶה שֶׁנִּלְמַד מִזֶּה And what do You want us to learn from this? וְאֵיךְ נֵדַע לְהִתְאַחֵד בַּפֵּרוּד הַזֶּה And can we unite from this separation? עַד שֶׁנִּתֵּן לְךָ כֶּתֶר מְלוּכָה Until we give You a crown of sovereignty בֵּין פְּקוּדֵי לְוַיִּקְרָא Between Pekudei and Vayikra כֻּלָּנוּ בְּאוֹתָהּ סִירָה We all are in the…
…the poor willow that have neither. And the Midrash says, “amar Hakadosh Baruch Hu”, the Holy One, blessed be He, says, “yuksh’ru kulam agudah achat”, may they all be bound together in a single bundle, a single binding together, “v’hen m’chaprin eilu al ailu”, and let them atone for one another (Vayikra Rabbah 30:12). Now, this is remarkable, because what…
…day, when for them the festival is over, God says to us, “Stay awhile”. That’s the atzeret, the atzor: stop, don’t go just yet. “Kashah alay pridat chem” – it’s hard for Me to say goodbye (Rashi on Vayikra 23:36). Now, what exactly does that mean? Elaine and I, some years ago, had the privilege of seeing pretty much what…
…and changing, potentially at the cost of losing connection with its past? Parsha Puzzle Question Which sect always observed Shavuot on a Sunday, and why? This Week’s Parsha Puzzle Answer: The Sadducees explained the Torah literally. They therefore understood the meaning of the phrase on Shavuot from Vayikra 23:15 – “mimacharat haShabbat”- to literally mean, “the day after Shabbat”. This…
There is one aspect of Christianity that Jews, if we are to be honest, must reject, and that Christians, most notably Pope John XXIII, have also begun to reject. It is the concept of rejection itself, the idea that Christianity represents God’s rejection of the Jewish People, the “old Israel”. This is known technically as Supersession or Replacement Theology, and…
It was the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, that translated tsara’at, the condition whose identification and cleansing occupies much of Tazria and Metzora as “lepra”, giving rise to a long tradition identifying it with leprosy. That tradition is now widely acknowledged to be incorrect. First, the condition described in the Torah simply does not fit the…