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Who has forsaken whom? “And Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” (Isaiah 49:14) For the past three weeks, we have been experiencing health issues at home, to the point of us giving up, unable to find the cause of certain symptoms. We were physically, morally, and spiritually exhausted due […]
We are now in Vaetchanan, the second parashah of Devarim, where Moshe’s message is very strong because he knows his days are at an end. The first generation had gone, and he is now reminding the second generation that their parents had been afraid to hear directly from the Creator and pleased with him to […]
The Root of Strife and How to Fix It The stage is set for a story that began with Israel, a nation set apart from all the others by the Creator for a purpose. Unbeknownst to all, this tiny nation would play a role in the redemption of the entire world. In Parashat Devarim, they […]
What should one generation preserve to pass down intact to the next generation? This week we read about Matot (Tribes/rods) – Masei (journeys or stages of a journey) found in Numbers 30:2–36:13. It begins with care needed to verbally express vows. God had already indicated several types of vows: voluntary, temporary, and specific, like the […]
Are We For or Against the Creator? The name Pinchas, according to Rabbi Ibn Ezra, comes from the Hebrew “Peh פה and Nachash נחש,” the mouth of the serpent or snake. Much power has been attributed to the serpent; in fact, even the medical industry uses it today as the symbol of healing. What was […]
OH, when will we ever learn? Offerings played a huge role in the life of Israel, and this week’s double parashah, Chukkat Balak, begins with another type of offering, the Red Heifer. The heifer had to be burned up completely with its blood and offered “outside the camp”, far from the holy center, the Tent […]
“You shall not covet” (לֹא תַחְמֹד, Lo Tachmod) (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21) Our portion for the week focuses on a character named Korach. The Hebrew root of Korach (קרח, Kuf, Resh, Chet) means “bald,” “naked,” or “stripped bare,” which, according to the sages, suggests a physical description of baldness, or symbolically, someone who leaves something […]
A Tribute to our Righteous Gentiles! In Parashat Shelach Lecha, twelve scouts were sent to reconnoitre the land that the Creator “had given” to the people of Israel. This demonstrates an important concept in the Torah and Biblical Judaism: God told them that He was giving them the land, but they needed to go in […]
Parashat Behalotecha בְּהַעֲלֹֽתְךָ֙ begins with the lampstand or Menorah, bringing light to the Tent of Meeting. Every problem we have to deal with in our lives and in our world boils down to “Light vs Darkness” as Rabbi Yeshua’s famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:14-19 states: ‘You are light for the world… No one […]
Naso 5786 “Those who trust in יהוה are like Mount Zion: they cannot be moved; they will endure forever.” Psalms 125:1 Parashat Naso (נָשֹׂא) is the longest single parashah in the entire Torah, with 176 verses. Naso means to lift up, raise up, or take a census. Among the topics developed here are: the census […]
