Ancient Connection – Modern Pioneers
Despite Chazal clearly explaining that the true reasons for the laws of parah adumah are ultimately inscrutable, the midrash provides various symbolic interpretations of the laws of our parsha’s opening passages. In one of the Midrash Tanchuma’s renditions of the scriptural passage, it describes the Red Heffer process as a metaphor for the sinful failure […]
Before formerly inaugurating Aharon and his sons as kohanim, Hashem instructs Moshe Rabbeinu to gather all of Klal Yisrael to the opening of the Ohel Moed. Moshe dutifully does so, allowing all of Bnei Yisrael to witness the proceedings inside the courtyard of the Mishkan. Rebbe Elazar, the great student of Rebbe Akiva, notes that […]
Our parsha opens with God’s charge to the Jewish people: “Be Holy!” What is the precise meaning of this mandate? Rabbi Shimon Shkop offers a fascinating interpretation. He writes that “hakdashah” or “sanctification” in Jewish law always refers to the designation of an item to a specific and higher purpose. For example, if one has […]
Our parsha discusses the momentous events of God giving the Jewish people the Torah at Har Sinai. As one would expect, when God appeared on the mountain, the space becomes imbued with sanctity. The Torah elaborates in great detail the extent of the preparations and precautions that the Jewish people took to properly relate to […]
For years the world and even some left wing media outlets in Israel have portrayed the “Arabs” as those who are “sadly displaced” from “their homes” by the illegal all-conquering Jews and who belong in this country and region, as the so-called rightful “sovereign” rulers of the land of Israel. (In their eyes Palestine) It’s time the truth […]
This Shabbat we have the privilege of reading two different songs: the song of Moshe and the Jewish people at the shores of the Yam Suf and Shi HaShirim, written by King Shlomo of Yerushalayim. The midrash notes that while all songs in the Torah are referred to as “Shir” in the singular, Shlomo’s song […]
