R.H. Musaf 5775 (Sep.25, 2014) The Shofar served two different functions in ancient times: It served as the siren warning of an approaching danger: war, flood, wild beasts… It also served as the trumpet calling all to rejoice with a new king or with a new year… All these different purposes are still imbedded in […]
God’s partners –Evening of Rosh HaShanah 5775
In my recent visit in Israel I met a man who has studied and researched for years the sounds that birds use to communicate… I asked him if the birds have any sound which expresses the idea of the ‘creator’ or ‘God’ of nature. He replied: Nothing of that sort! Their languages are very practical, […]
Ki Tetze – The Body and the Soul
5th September 2014/10 elul 5774 The mutual influence of the soul on the body and the physical condition of a man on his soul is not a ‘discovery’ of modern medicine. In many issues the Torah expresses this mutual influence. One of them is the Torah’s attitude to skin diseases, which are called by the […]
Bo -5773
“This month is for you the first of months, it is the first month of the year” [Exod. 12:2]. According to our Sages, this was the first mitzvah that the Israelites received as a people, and the legal core of the Torah begins here! Beginning a new calendar by fixing the first month of spring […]
Ekev – 5774
The Hebrew language teaches us much about the logic and the values of our ancestors. Different words and terms share the same three-consonant-stem (in Hebrew: ‘shoresh’ =root) point out the dependence or the common denominator which the ancient Hebrew speakers believed these words and terms have, e.g. the noun ‘Shalom’ =peace, and the adjective ‘shalem’ […]
Shoftim – 5774
Capital Punishment –When and why? In the Torah death is the appropriate punishment not only for murder but also for a series of other crimes: Rape of a married or a betrothed woman, adultery, beating one’s parents, and even deliberate desecration of the Sabbath Day… This weekly portion of ‘Shoftim’=Judges, imposes a restriction on court […]