Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha: Shmini (Leviticus 9-11) When enumerating the non-kosher birds, the Torah mentions a bird called da’ah. The Talmud points out that, later on (Deuteronomy 14:12), when the Torah repeats the list of kosher birds, it refers to it as a ra’ah. The Talmud takes note of the Etymological significance of “ra’ah” because […]
In the book, The Watchman’s Rattle: Thinking our way out of extinction, Rebecca Costa delivers a fascinating account of how civilizations die. Their problems become too complex. Societies reach what she calls a cognitive threshold. They simply can’t chart a path from the present to the future. The example she gives is the Mayans. For a […]
We begin reading Leviticus, the third book of the Torah this week. The main topics revolve around the offerings brought during the times when the Temple in Jerusalem stood (it was destroyed in 70 CE). Although the idea of animal sacrifice is foreign and even repulsive to many people, many lessons can be learned from them. One […]
And they brought the Mishkan (Tabernacle) to Moses… When all the parts of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) had been made, they were brought to Moses, who actually stood the walls up and erected the Mishkan. Rashi quoting the Midrash explains that due to the massive weight of the materials, none of the people were able to erect it, so they brought the materials to […]
The first Jewish fundraising initiative is found in this week’s Torah portion. Moses said to the entire assembly of the Children of Israel saying: This is the word that G-d commanded saying: Take from yourselves a portion for G-d…everyone who is generous of heart shall bring it… (Exodus 35:4-5) When they started bringing contributions to […]
