Margin When looking at a Torah scroll, there are many components that make it distinct from other ancient texts. One of the most obvious of which are the spaces found before and after paragraphs. Being as a Torah scroll is written without vowels or Cantillation marks (the special indicators of the accent and tune), it […]
After all donations given by the people for the Mishkan (Tabernacle) were collected, the tribal leaders gave their portion. The problem was that by that time, there was virtually nothing left to give because the people’s donations had covered almost all of the expenses. The only thing left were the stones on the breastplate of […]
There is a little know prohibition and although there is a dispute about its origin, all sources from the time of the Talmud onward agree that it is forbidden to count Jews. Some find the source in the beginning of this week’s Torah portion when Moses is instructed to collect a half shekel coin from […]
(In honor of Purim, a supplementary dvar Torah has been added.) Purim 5777-2017 (This dvar Torah, except for the title and conclusion, was written by Mois Navon, a Computer Engineer, who was a studying in Israel in 2008 at Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav when a Palestinian terrorist attacked and murdered 8 students and injured 11 others. […]
This week’s Torah portion deals with the commandment to build a Tabernacle in the wilderness. We encounter a textual difficulty in the first two verses: G-d spoke to Moses saying, “Take for Me a portion from everyone whose heart motivates him, you shall take my portion.” (25:1-2) A literal translation of the verse would read […]
