by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 9, 2023 | Acharei Mot
The portion of Acharei Mot picks up following the deaths of Aaron’s older sons, Nadab and Abihu. It contains the instructions for the Yom Kippur — or Day of Atonement — service in the Tabernacle, and forbids slaughtering animal offerings outside the...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 9, 2023 | Pekudei, Temple
This week’s portion is often read together with the previous portion, Vayakhel. Besides the mathematical inevitability of some years having an extra Saturday, Jewish tradition prescribes a leap month be added seven times over a 19-year cycle so that Passover always...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 29, 2022 | Community, Covenant, Holiness, Humility, Justice, Korach, Leadership, Responsibility
Communism didn’t start with Karl Marx. It actually began 3,500 years ago with a different man – Korah. Korah was the wealthiest Israelite alive when God took the Children of Israel out of Egypt. He was from the tribe of Levi, and thus was never enslaved by the...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 22, 2022 | Bechukotai, Community, Covenant, Faith, God, Temple
Agriculture in Israel is a joint venture in which God partners with the farmers. God promises that if the Jews are faithful to the Torah and keep the commandments, He will ensure that the rain will fall in its proper season and the land will yield its bounty. And just...
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...
