Post List

Parashat Tetzaveh

Remember It is Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat of Remembrance. It is always the Shabbat that falls before Purim, which in turn always falls a month before Pesach. It is our response as Jews to the commandment to ‘Remember what Amalek did to you’ (Deut 25:17). What did he do to us, and what is the connection with Purim? As we departed from Egypt to make our way to the Land…

Parashat Terumah

The earth hurtles through the dark void of space in a universe of incalculable size, and yet, as far as we know, our little blue planet is the only one upon which there is life. Indeed, the wonder of it all is that we don’t just have any life on earth, of the simple microbial kind that scientists are presently searching for evidence of on Mars, but we have the…

Parashat Masei

On the Move To the untrained eye, this portion like so many appears to be a ‎humdrum list of places and movements with some arcane ‎references to cities of refuge. In the middle of this we find that ‎Moshe is commanded to recap the journey so far, mentioning in ‎detail the 42 places or stages of the journey that has unfolded ‎before them as we wandered in the wilderness. How…

Vows and Oaths

Parashat Mattot begins with various regulations concerning the making – and breaking – of vows and oaths. As is apparent from the text the Torah takes this issue very seriously. Vows and oaths made to Hashem were to be fulfilled at all times and only in specific situations, detailed in our parashah, could they be annulled. It is for this reason that in the Messianic Writings the making of vows…

Influences (Parashat Metzora)

In the Haftorah portion attached to Metzora the thematic link of ‎the skin afflictions caused by sin, in particular the sin of lashon ‎hara (gossip, slander) is carried forward and developed into a ‎real life event .Four leprous men star during a time when famine ‎had engulfed Samaria and they in turn bring about a turning ‎point in the conflict with the Syrian army. The critical issue ‎though here is…

Parashat Vayakhel

The Blue Peter annual appeal has become one of Britain’s best loved institutions. Over the many years that the TV programme has been running generation after generation of children have been stirred into action for a veritable army of worthy causes. In 1964 kids across the nation busied themselves collecting seven and a half tons of silver paper to buy two guide dogs for the blind; in 1967 kids collected…

Making Time for G-d

Shabbat Emor In Vayikra (Lev) 21:8 we are told that it is G-d alone who makes us holy. He then wants us to BE holy in our walk with Him and before the world. G-d moves us from the camp of the unholy to the camp of the holy, and only He can do that. But once you’ve come into that camp you have to live out what this new…

The Importance of Ritual Purity

Shabbat Tazria/Metzora This double portion deals with the purity laws (tamei and tahor). Some have attempted to understand these laws in light of health or hygiene. Perhaps. However, this view should be exercised with caution as other things such as excrement didn’t make you unclean, even though it had to be disposed of outside the camp. Others define these areas along spiritual lines and this is perfectly acceptable and true:…

Weekly Drash