April 15th, 2016/7 Nisan 5776 In our Torah portion last week we read the description of people who have the mysterious skin rash tzara’at, and learned what the priest should do to diagnose and care for those who are infected. This week, we move from skin rashes to the even more mysterious house rashes: “When you […]

Nisan 1 /April 8, 2016  Which was the first commandment (out of 613) that we were commanded as a people? RaShi began his commentary for the Torah by saying that the first ‘mitzvah’ was to begin a new calendar and a new year in the month of spring [Ex.12:2] This commandment is preceded by a […]

April 8th, 2016/29 Adar II 5776  In most cultures and for much of human history, there was no concept of sickness and disease as primarily a “medical” issue, as a problem with our physical bodies. A person did not get sick from bacteria, an infection or a disease. Instead it was often believed that sickness was […]

April 1st, 2016/22 Adar II 5776  Shemini Purim marks chaos. Everything is upside down: from the costumes; to the three cornered cookies; to Esther’s strange role; to the strategies for addressing threat; to the noise makers (graggors in Yiddish or Ra’ashanim in Hebrew) for blotting out the name of Haman (Evil). But as we move toward the Passover Seder […]