This is my paternal lineage
The descendants of Natan ha Kohen.
Yosef ben Natan ha Kohen – Born 1864 Russia begot
Nachum ben Yosef ha Kohen – Born 1890 in Birmingham – begot
Moshe ben Nachum ha Kohen begot
Aharon Shalom ben Moshe ha Kohen – Born 1960 (that’s me)
The maternal side of my family is only traceable to my […]
Last month, I saw a patient in the office named Mike. Mike is a fully alert and competent 77-year-old man who has been through lots of heart and circulatory issues. He had a major heart attack in 1990, 29 years ago, when he was 48. It left his heart quite damaged. He had 4-vessel coronary […]
It seems like only yesterday. However, seventy-five, eighty years have passed since the Holocaust. My heart bleeds when I think about the loss of my ancestors. My soul cries out in pain for them and the millions who were slaughtered. What was their sin to lead to such a terrible end? Being Jewish? They were flesh and blood […]
There is a familiar story of a man searching the sidewalk for his keys and looking frantically under the streetlight. When questioned by a passerby who found out that the man was searching for his keys, the man admits that he lost the keys inside his house. However, since the light was so much brighter […]
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 […]
This Parsha contains 74 of the Torah’s 613 mitzvot. These include a wide array of laws including how to deal with the beautiful captive, inheritance rights of the first-born, how to deal with the wayward and rebellious son, burial and dignity of the dead, returning of a lost object, and the obligation to send away […]
This week we read Shoftim which translated means judges. Fortunately, the first few verses was all I needed to formulate my d’var. The majority of the parsha was difficult to get through and stay awake. The Torah and more important the rabbis over the centuries continue to impress me with the amount of knowledge and […]
Va’eschanan means and I pled. Who pled and to whom? Pled for what? What was the result? Before I delve further into this, allow me to briefly discuss a matter of interest. It is stated in a Midrash that Moshe offered 515 prayers to Hashem to beg to be allowed to enter the Promised Land. […]
We’re in the 5th and last book of the Torah. This book represents the speeches of Moses in the last month of his life. He addresses the next generation, those who will – as he will not – be destined to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land.
Parashat D’varim consists mostly of Moses’ historical review […]
How did we arrive at todays parshat Matot-Massei from the Exodus?
Here is a quick and a very abbreviated summary of highlights: 130 to 400 years of enslavement in Egypt; approximately 600,000 Israelites flee in Exodus from Egypt following plagues; witness miracles from G-d (like waters parting, thunderous clouds); collude to build a golden calf; Moses […]
