This week’s double portion falls approximately in the middle of Leviticus, the middle of the 5 books of the Torah. And just about in the middle of this double parshah is the commandment – ve-ahavta le-re’ekha kamokha – love your fellow as you love yourself. Treat...
Parshat Korach – Bring our Boys Home
The tragic news this week in Israel of three boys who were kidnapped by Hamas is overwhelming. Yet, at the same time, we need to contemplate what we can ultimately do. There are no words to express the pain that the families of Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali must be...
Idea for Parshat Shelach
This week’s parsha tells the famous story of the spies. Moses sends twelve spies to the land of Israel. Forty days later they return, carrying a huge cluster of grapes, a pomegranate and a fig, to report on a lush and bountiful land. But then they continue with words...Parshat Be’halot’cha
LAZY DAYS AT THE BEACH by Benyamin Cohen Torah from Dixie Staff Writer Summertime is here. Every year, we read the Book of Numbers during the summer, and often it gets less attention then it rightfully deserves. So for the moment, let’s catch up with the Jewish...
Treat for Parshat Beha-alotcha
In this week’s Torah reading, the “stiff necked people” in B’nai Yisrael complain about their lack of nourishment. They cry out for meat and fish and even reminisce about the watermelon they had back in Egypt. Our Torah Treat this week features all those foods: gummy...
Recipe for Shavuot
For our recipe this week, I found something both fun and educational for the holiday of Shavuot. It is a Libyan custom that’s certainly not cookie cutter but literally uses cookies to illustrate the essence of Shavuot. Libyan Jews create a child’s cookie...Akiva Calendar
Rabbi Grossman’s Corner
Parashat Acharei Mot – Kedoshim – The Heart of the Torah
Parashat Tazria-Metzora – by Yaffa Epstein
For this week, I would like to share the following D'var Torah by Yaffa Epstein. Yaffa Epstein lives in Jerusalem and is blessed to teach Talmud, Jewish Law, and Liturgy at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Yaffa is a recovering lawyer, and is currently poring...
Learning from a Sandwich – Parashat Sh’mini
D'VAR TORAH BY: ROBERT TORNBERG This week's parashah, Sh'mini, consists of three distinct parts that do not appear, on the surface, to relate directly to one to another. Let's begin by looking at a summary of each of these parts. The first section of this portion...
Parashat Tzav – Holiness in the Mundane
Many, many years ago, my husband and I would host the first Seder for our family in our apartment and then walk to Cooki’s house the next day to spend the second Seder with her family. Cooki’s husband Barry was my PhD supervisor and my husband and I spent many...