In this week’s parashah we read the story of Noah. The parashah begins with the following statement: “Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age.”  Rabbi Jonathan Sacks notes that Noah is the only individual in Tanakh described as righteous. No such praise is given to Abraham or Moses or any of […]

Living in Israel will entail additional obligations, and in the beginning of this parashah Moses describes one of these additional obligations:  Bikkurim- the first-fruit ceremony.  The mitzvah of Bikkurim will be fulfilled long after Moses has died, after the conquest of the land and division of tribal portions, after homes are built, and after fields […]

Parashah Naso has 176 verses and is the longest parashah in the torah.  One of its most moving passages, and the one that has had the greatest impact over the course of history, is very short and is known by almost every Jew.  It is the Priestly Blessing. This is among the oldest of all […]

You might have missed reading last week’s parasha, Vayikra, and are wondering what you’ve missed. You don’t have to worry. In this week’s parashah, Tzav, the laws of sacrifice are completely repeated. Not again! Since our tradition maintains that nothing in the Torah is redundant and that there are no excess, unneeded words, we wonder […]

This week’s Torah portion contains many significant narratives demonstrating God’s love for the Jewish people, and the Jews ’response to him. It tells us several of the more striking miracles in our people’s history: the splitting of the Red Sea, the falling of manna from the sky, the providing water from a rock and the […]

Parashah Noach begins and ends with two great events: the flood in the beginning, Babel and its tower at the end. On the face of it, they have nothing in common. The failings of the generation of the flood are explicit. Babel, by contrast, seems almost idyllic.

After the flood, man again began to multiply and […]

Parasha Ki Tavo contains one of the most powerful and frightening chapters of the entire Torah. First, there are fourteen verses which outline all the good things which will happen to the Jewish people if they obey God faithfully and observe all the divine commandments. That is the good news. Then comes 54 verses warning […]

In today’s parsha, sandwiched between Pinchas getting rewarded for killing the Simeonite Prince and the Midianite Princess and Moses empowering Joshua to succeed him and lead the people to the land of Israel, is a brief section which is easy to overlook. It deals with how Moses is instructed to divide the Promised Land amongst […]

Parshah Emor covers laws regulating the lives and sacrifices of the Kohanim. The set times in the Jewish calendar are named and described for Shabbat and the holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot.  God commands the Israelites to bring clean olive oil for the lighting of the menorah.  This parshah ends […]