Sefer Va-Yiqra parshat Va-Yiqra/Leviticus 1:1 reads: “Va-Yiqra el-Moshe vay’dabeyr Y-H-V-H eylav meyohel mo’eyd leymor.” “And He called to Moshe - Ha-Shem spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying:”
Why is the letter Alef at the end of the word “Va-Yiqra” always written smaller than the surrounding letters?
A perpetual debate in Judaism concerns the purpose and value of the sacrificial system, to which much of the book of Leviticus is devoted. Was this system, per the understanding of Maimonides (the quintessential rationalist), a means of showing the other nations that the cows, goats and other animals that they worshipped were not gods [...]
Reflections on poverty and class at the seder, based on Tsuf Amarim, a Chasidic midrash or commentary on the Haggadah.
Via Micah Bazant and Dara Silverman:
Are you looking for a politically progressive, anti-racist haggadah that includes beautiful writing, ritual, humor and reflection? Wish you could find a haggadah that is in solidarity with Palestinian liberation, and also rich with multicultural Jewish traditions and history? Searching for something to help you to talk with family and [...]
The following text comes from Sefer Mi’luim, published in Mea Shearim some 30-odd years ago. I’m not precisely sure of the author.
The homiletical explanation of the Talmud Yerushalmi Rosh Hashana on the sentence “and He commanded the Jewish people” is that He commanded that they release their own slaves. This is deduced from Jeremiah [...]
Parashat Vayikra plunges us headlong into the sacrificial system. In many liberal congregations, we brace ourselves for what feels like a descent into an old and inaccessible mode of interacting with God. Yearlings and doves, blood and oil — surely this avodah is as distant as can be from the avodat ha-lev, the “service of [...]
Shalom chevre. I am writing today out of grave concern for the state of Israeli Jewry in its relationship to our non-Jewish fellow citizens.
Last week, one of Israel’s leading rabbis, David Batzri, came under investigation for inciting racial hatred against Arabs, making statements which should shake any conscious Jew to the core of [...]
I am pleased to welcome the latest addition to the progressive Jewish blogging community, jspot.org, “the spot for Jewish perspectives on contemporary issues of social and economic justice.” jspot.org is a project of Jewish Funds for Justice and features the blogging talents of Mik Moore, Ben Ross, Jeremy Burton, Rabbi Jill Jacobs (a contributor [...]
When Moses had finished the work the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. When the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the Israelites [...]
In this week’s Torah portion - Sh’mot parshat Ki Tisa – there are two letters which must be written very large in proportion to the rest, otherwise that particular Sefer Torah is considered pasul – unfit for public use. Rabbi Chayim Dovid Halevy writes that each case of an enlarged letter anywhere in TaNa”Kh [...]
In parashat Ki Tisa we read a series of injunctions about keeping Shabbat:
You shall keep the sabbath, for it is holy for you. He who profanes it shall be put to death: whoever does work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his kin. Six days may work [...]
More than 150 rabbis from the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist movements and Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) will rally at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza outside the United Nations to demonstrate their commitment to ending the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, nd to urge the United Nations to take stronger action today (March 13) at 10:30 a.m. [...]