This week’s Torah portion speaks of the mysterious lesions that appeared on the skin of those who trafficked in gossip. Their punishment was at once severe and precise: they were cast into isolation for up to three weeks, until their affliction healed.
The Torah enumerates many forms of ritual impurity. Some …
The dreidel for Chanukah and the gragger (Ra’ashan) for Purim have the exact same structure, have you ever noticed? Both have a round bulb from which a stem protrudes. The difference is that the dreidel’s stem protrudes from the top of the dreidel and points upward, the gragger’s stem protrudes …
I am a Servant
In our Parsha we read that Eliezer, servant of Avraham, traveled to Charan to seek Rivkah’s hand in marriage to Yitzchak. When he appeared before her family he prefaced his presentation with the words, “I am a servant of Avraham.” The Talmud teaches that even the casual …
A Curious Distinction
Among the many rituals observed during the holiday of Purim are those of Mishloach Manot, sending food baskets to fellow Jews, and Matanot Laevyonim, sharing gifts with the poor.
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How Dare We?
Jewish tradition and history assigned names to all Torah portions. The portion that describes the delivery of the Ten Commandments at Sinai is named after Moses’ father in law, Jethro. Based on the belief that everything, including a choice of name, occurs for a reason, we wish to …
These past two days have been the most difficult for our people in the last fifty years. It was Simchat Torah, a time for rejoicing, yet it was a time of horror. Nearly a thousand members of our family were brutally murdered, more than a hundred were taken hostage, and …
