It’s called ‘Shabbat HaGadol’ – ‘The great Sabath’ and it always takes place on the Shabbat prior to our celebration of the festival of Pesach. Now, as we know, there are many reasons presented by our commentators, for why we name this Shabbat, ‘HaGadol’. But I would like to make …
We have just commenced what is probably the happiest month on the Jewish calendar. It’s the month of Nisan and as many of us know, throughout this month we do not say the Tachanun prayer and that is because nearly the entire month is festive. Now of course we …
What is a ‘scribe’ in Hebrew? It’s ‘sofer’, but isn’t that astonishing? Sofer literally means somebody who counts, so the scribe who writes a Torah scroll, is a person who counts numbers. What’s the connection? The Talmud explains that it was so important for scribes to know how many words …
Where do we find a Gematria in which the numerical equivalent of the title of a Parsha, equals the number of verses within that portion? The answer is that this week’s portion of Tzav. Tzav, ‘tzade’ is 90, ‘vav’ is six, that adds up to 96 and that’s the number …
What do I mean by that? In the Megillah narrative, which we are all so familiar with, we read how Mordechai sent a message to Esther, ‘umi yodea’ im-le’et kazot higga’at lammalchut’ – ‘who knows, it is probably for this very moment, that you became Queen’. There are occasions where …
I’m standing here at the entrance to Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel, right on the border with Gaza. A place where so many terrorist atrocities took place on the 7th of October. And from here I’d like to pose the following question to you. Why is it that in …
They are ‘Bracha’, which means blessing, ‘Matana’, present, ‘Shai’, which is a gift. ‘Nedava’, a contribution, ‘Doron’, a presentation, and ‘Mincha’ which is a heartfelt present to somebody in a time of distress. But the seventh term is the name of this week’s portion, ‘Terumah’. Terumah is when I am …
“I am not religious, but I try to be a very good person”. It is quite amazing how many people have given that sentiment to me about themselves. But I have a message for them. They might think that they are not religious and indeed they are not totally …
From Parshat Yitro we learn that the answer is, yes. Immediately after the Torah tells us about the extraordinary encounter that the nation had with Hashem at Mount Sinai, when the Ten Commandments were given: ‘Vechol-ha’am ro’im et-hakkolot’ – ‘the entire nation saw the sounds’. What can this mean? I …
