B”H Tora Thoughts: Parashat Bemidbar 5778 Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky Learning from the Details This week we begin the reading of the Book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Torah. At the beginning, God orders Moses to carry out a census of the Children of Israel, Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by families following their fathers’ houses; a head count of every
B”H Parashat Behar – Bechukotai 5778 Rabbi Daniela “And I walk among you, and will be your God and you will be my people” (Vayikra 26:12). This week we read the last two Torah portions from the book of Vayikra. Some call the second Parashah, parashat Bechukotai, “Tochecha Haktana”, “short warning,” in contrast to “Tochecha Hagdola”, “long warning” that appears in Parashat Ki Tavo, in the book of Devarim. A
B”H Tora Thoughts: Parashat Emor 5778 Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky Nine plus One is Much More than Ten At the end of Leviticus chapter 22, after a long list of ritual laws, the Torah concludes with three beautiful verses (31-33): You shall keep My commandments and perform them. I am the Lord. You shall not desecrate My Holy Name. I shall be sanctified amidst the children of Israel. I am
B”H Tora Thoughts: Parashot Acharei Mot – Kedoshim 5778 Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky The Weekly and the Holiday Torah Readings This week we read two parashot, Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. The first of them starts with the description of the Yom Kippur ritual of cleansing and purification. The ritual, to be fulfilled at the Tabernacle in the desert, involved mainly Aaron, Moses’ brother, who was the first High Priest. Nevertheless,
B”H Torah Thoughts: Yom Hashoah 5778 Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky This week we are commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day, or, as we say in Hebrew, Yom Hashoah Vehagvura. We remember the six million of our brothers and sisters who were killed by the Nazis and their partners in crime, during the dark years of 1939-1945. We tend to use the terms “Holocaust” and “Shoah” indistinctly, to refer to the sum of
