The Parsha and Current Events:
Once the axe falls there is no turning back
With an unpredictable, albeit pro-Israel, president in the US, this is the time to make aliya - do not postpone it!
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Parshat Shavua
News and updates about Parshat Shavua
Parashat Bamidbar:
Why was the tribe of Levi so much smaller than all the others?
Torah commentaries address the reason for the small number of levites when compared to every other tribe.
Parashat Bamidbar:
Make your desert bloom
When we read the Torah portion this Shabbat about transforming individuals into a group and a desert into a city, let’s take the message to heart.
Parashat Behar-Bechukotai:
Answering the famous question about shmitta and Mount Sinai
The shmita year reminds the Jewish people that they are slaves of G-d, and therefore everything they own should be used to serve Him, whether land or people.
Office of the UK Chief Rabbi
Make those moments last.
D’var Torah for Parshat Behar: Ramban says that Yovel, the Jubilee year in our parasha, means taking something forward.
Parashat Behar-Bechukotai:
Bigger bombs aren’t the answer
The full solution is in the parsha this week.
The Parsha and Current Events:
Global natural disasters
We might be seeing now the beginning of the period where one evil nation wages war on another evil one, while in the background their countries are being ravaged by Hashem’s manipulation of natural disasters.
Parashat Behar-Bechukotai:
The good news
The Torah says that during the exile of the Jewish people, as they wandered the ends of the Earth, the Land of Israel will be desolate and barren, unable to support large thriving populations. And then comes the next part.
Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch: Behar-Bechukotai
Inner peace
This parsha contains the secret to overcoming anxiety and self-doubt.
Haftarat Behar-Bechukotai
Individual responsibility, collective rewards
In moments of personal hardship, it is natural to wonder: Why am I not being rewarded for my efforts? The Torah’s answer is painful, but empowering.
Parashat Emor:
Kohanim and independence
Though we are once again sovereign in our ancestral homeland for the first time since the days of Queen Shlom-Zion, the murderers still stalk us. And though tragedy strikes, we are in an incomparably better situation than we have been at any time since Queen Shlom-Zion.
A survey of commentaries:
'Do not do as Egypt did, nor Canaan'
Commentaries weigh in on what exactly this prohibition means.
Achrei-Mot-Kedoshim:
A peek into the Super-Conscious
This is not a world one can describe because one can only experience it from within oneself. In this world, we lose the very self to the magnetic pull of profound oneness.
Torah Mitzion:
Why so negative?
What can connect the disparate commandments in Parashat Kedoshim?
Eretz Yisrael in the Parsha:
Violations of which sins bring about exile?
Young Religious Zionist Torah scholars connect the weekly Torah reading with the Land of Israel.
Parashat Tazria-Metzora
Conundrum: The difference in purification time between births
‘Why are the periods of impurity - and then purity - of the mother who gives birth to a girl, double the periods where she gives birth to a male?’
Israel's 1st Chief Rabbi:
Shmini: Immersion in water
When we immerse ourselves in water, we are forced to recognize our existential estrangement from the physical universe.
Eretz Yisrael in the Parsha: Shmini
Mitzvahs in Eretz Yisrael
Young Religious Zionist Torah scholars study connections between the weekly Torah portion and the holy land.
Parashat Shmini:
The power of the eighth day
Parashat Shmini opens on the eighth day, the 1st of Nissan.
Parashat Shmini:
It has split hooves but what lies beneath?
“Chazer Treif” is a Yiddish expression that describes something which is absolutely and completely non-kosher. The use of this description goes well beyond the kitchen...
Parshat Shmini:
Simcha in the face of tragedy
Despite the tragedy in the parasha and a similar one in the haftarah, the joyous celebrations at the time continued. How could they find the inner strength?
Parashat Shmini:
Moses said to Aaron: Approach the altar and perform your service
Why did Aaron have to be convinced to approach the altar?
Parashat Shmini:
Moving with astonishing speed
Our sages wondered why the Exodus is mentioned specifically in response to avoiding insects.
Torah Mitzion:
Holocaust Remembrance Day: And you shall be holy
Those who fought and those who went to their deaths with heads held high. All are holy.
Parashat Shmini:
With an abundance of love and faith
Just as there were crises on the eighth day when the Mishkan was erected, so too in our times, when we have been privileged to establish our national home, there are national and personal crises.
Eretz Yisrael in the Parsha: Tsav
The daily offering - where, what when?
Young Religious Zionist Torah scholars find connections between the week's Torah portion and Eretz Yisrael.
Parashat Vayikra:
Introduction to Redemption
Why is it appropriate that we begin reading this Book on the Shabbat of the month of redemption (whether Nissan or Adar)?
Torah Mitzion: Parshat Vayikra:
The Asham and the Chatat offerings
What is the difference between the two sin offerings and is there a psychological insight in that difference?
What is the parallel between heavenly and earthly Eretz Yisrael?
Connections between the Torah portion and the Holy Land, collected by young Religious Zionist Torah scholars.
Pekudei:
Moshe could not enter the tent of meeting - why?
Commentators weigh in on why the greatest of Prophets could not enter the Tabernacle after it was put up - see the end of the Book of Exodus.
The Parsha and Current Events: Pekudei
The war over the soul of our nation
We have no option but to succeed in revealing the hidden sanctity in the inanimate stones of Hashem’s holy land and in the deep recesses of our Jewish souls.
Pekudei:
The things we leave unsaid
About the accounting we must make every so often to clear up unsettled issues.
Torah Mitzion:
Living in the shadow of Hashem
Moshe Rabeinu is the spiritual leader who relies on the direct light from Hashem but he realizes that sometimes we should use the shadows instead.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch:
Pekudei: Dress up
Clothes have the power to change us.
Israel's 1st Chief Rabbi: Vayakhel
Art and Creation
What is the difference between wisdom, insight, and knowledge? How do they apply both to the Creator of the universe and to the human artist?
Office of the UK Chief Rabbi: Parshat Parah
One of the greatest parables I have ever read…
How can I accept irrational commandments?
Vayakhel:
The men came with the women
‘The men needed to donate their ornaments to atone for their souls; but the women who did not want to give their ornaments for the calf did not require atonement. ‘Why, then, should the women give their ornaments?
Torah Mitzion:
The power of the community in building the Mishkan
The sanctity of Am Yisrael does not stem from the individual alone but from each person’s ability to contribute to the greater good.
The Parsha and Current Events:
To where is the renewed fighting leading?
Look at a map of ancient Israel and compare it to where the IDF is today - and where it may be soon.
The Parsha and Current Events:
Megillat Esther: Hashem's relationship with Am Yisrael
Where is Hashem’s partiality for Israel made real in the 167 verses of Megillat Esther?
Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch:
Ki Tisa: Not just for children
Hashem wants mature, robust adults serving Him.
Israel's 1st Chief Rabbi:
Tetzave: Raising a Constant Flame
The oil is a metaphor for the human intellect. The mind also needs guidance; not every intellectual pursuit leads to ethical and spiritual growth. And what about the spiritual growth of the nation?
Parashat Tetsave:
The priestly robe atones for lashon hara'a
The instrument of speech is a priceless gift to our people to serve Hashem, more so than any of our other organs. The robe was designed to remind us of that.
Parashat Tetsave:
You are good
When we get dressed, we feel awake. When we dress like a professional, we behave professionally. When we dress casually, we behave casually. The same is true for good deeds, the garments of our souls. When we fill our days with good deeds, we create a mindset of goodness.
Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch: Tetsave
More red than blue
The kohen’s avnet represents the life we should all live.
Eretz Yisrael in the Parsha:
Is the Land of Israel the Exact Center of the World?
Young Religious Zionist Torah scholars find connections to Eretz Yisrael in the parasha and othr sources of Judaic knowledge
Israel's 1st Chief Rabbi:
Terumah: Tachash skins in the Tabernacle
Was the tachash, whose hides covered the Tabernacle, a kosher animal? Does it matter?
Parashat Shekalim:
How to apologise to your spouse - a lesson from a broken coin
A half which completes and is completed by the other achieves a far deeper level of “wholeness” than ever before.
In a dark exile, whispering trees
A father plants saplings 210 years early, offering solace to his children.
Office of the UK Chief Rabbi
The joyful times to come…
Our hope is that with the beginning of this month of Adar, our joy will not only grow throughout this month but continue to increase as we move forward.
The Parsha and Current Events
Tzahal’s failure to protect has to do with its upper echelons
There are very many religious and Torah educated officers in Tzahal, but there is a glass ceiling covering the general staff that leaves no room for Torah-oriented generals. That must change now.
Shabbat Parshat Shkalim:
Giving and receiving
The topic of funds is addressed in this week’s portion, Terumah, as well as in the special maftir reading for Shabbat Shekalim, and in the Haftarah. From these, we learn that there is more than one way to give.
Terumah:
'They shall make a sanctuary for Me..for the Torah in the Ark
A collection of commentaries on our Sages' question: ’’THEY shall make an Ark’’- in plural, unlike the other utensils, which they are also commanded to make, but where the command is in the singular: ‘YOU shall make..’ - why?
Terumah:
You are gold
The final teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe on this Parashah four weeks before he suffered the stroke from which he did not recover.
"If only You had blessed him with long life"
On the one year Azkara of my son-in-law David Schwartz Z”L, Hy"d
Several weeks ago, Aruz Sheva ceased posting weekly Parasha articles by David Schwartz Hy"d. They had been translated from the book of Divrei Torah published for his wedding to Meital שתיבל"א and sadly, there are no more. David Hy"d is certainly learning Torah with the other tsaddikim in Gan Eden...
Office of the UK Chief Rabbi:
Mishpatim: To see or be seen…?
As far as the Temple was concerned, it was important not only to be seen but also to see. What about other situations?
Torah Mitzion: Mishpatim
The small details
The covenant is established through both aspects—the "big" revelations and the "small" laws—together leading to spiritual heights.
Mishpatim:
Making Torah out of business
What can we learn from the fact that this issue of "Mishpatim" (laws) comes right after the revelation at Mount Sinai?
Mishpatim:
The Parsha and Current Events: Be a Rosh Gadol!
What is lacking today among many Torah leaders is the will to achieve “rosh gadol”.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch:
Mishpatim: Watch your diet?
The Torah quickly disabuses us of a popular notion.