by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 10, 2023 | Emor
The portion of Emor continues many of the same themes found thus far in the book of Leviticus. It expands upon the laws of the priest which set him apart from the rest of the community, as well as those that apply only to the High Priest. It adds details regarding...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 6, 2022 | Emor, Faith, God, Happiness and Joy, Prayer, Sukkot
By Rafi Weinstein Today is the first day of the seven-day holiday known as Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). Though the Torah commands: “You shall live in booths seven days” (Leviticus 23:42), growing up in New York my family barely spent time in the sukkah...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 2, 2022 | Counting the Omer, Emor, Shavuot (Pentecost)
Shavuot is an annual Jewish holiday, one of the three Biblically mandated pilgrimage festivals when, in Temple times, Jews ascended to Jerusalem. It is observed after the Jews complete a seven-week count beginning on the second day of Passover: You must count until...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 12, 2022 | Emor, Temple
After designating the descendants of Aaron as the kohanim (priests) in perpetuity, the Torah then delineates specific physical blemishes that disqualified, either temporarily or permanently, individual kohanim. Just as animals brought to the altar had to be free of...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 12, 2022 | Community, Emor, God, Justice, Kindness and Compassion, Redemption
Leviticus (chapter 24) relates the story of a fight between an Israelite man and a half-Israelite man. The half-Israelite man was the son of Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, from the tribe of Dan, and his father was an Egyptian. In the course of the fight, the...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 12, 2022 | Emor, Justice, Repentance
Leviticus seems to tell the Children of Israel that when someone hurts his fellow he should be punished in kind. Understood literally, the verses seem to say that we must implement reciprocal justice; paying another back measure for measure for the harm he inflicts on...
