Thoughts on Parasha Emor Towards the end of this week’s Parasha we find a short story related to the topic of blasphemy: [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]There came out among the Israelites one whose mother was Israelite and whose father was Egyptian. And a fight broke out in the camp between that […]

 Sermon Beit Warszawa, May 2019 – Our Sidra this week covers several themes but in Chapter 23 of Leviticus we have a listing of the festivals that are to be observed – and how they are to be observed.  Which raises many questions, because we no longer do what is here described – bringing animal […]

We will begin today’s drasha by analyzing several subsequent verses from the Book of Devarim (Deuteronomy) which are part of the Torah portion read on the Shabbat which falls on the 8th day of Pesach: [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]There shall be no needy among you — since the [Eternal] your God […]

Drasha for Pesach 5779 The story of our exodus from Egypt is at the same time a story about the plagues and great crises that hit Egypt and its society. Although the Torah, describing the plagues, is rather laconic in the descriptions of social reactions to them (although it mentions, for example, anxiety of the […]

BEIT POLSKA (Warszawa & Gdansk) – It seems strange to some, but Pessach falls in the First Month of our Jewish calendar, Nissan, because Judaism is based on a Liberation, which took place in Nissan. Rosh Hashanah, the so-called ‘New Year’, in contrast, falls in the autumn, in the Seventh Month, because that is ”only” […]

In our tradition the last Shabbat before Pesach is called Shabbat HaGadol, which literally means the “Great Shabbat”. This was one of the two Shabbats throughout the year on which Rabbis would give a long sermon explaining to the members of their communities the commandments related to Pesach, especially the laws related to koshering the […]