This week we read Parashat Bamidbar. Bamidbar is the first Torah portion and the name of the 4th book of the Torah. Bamidbar literally means in the wilderness, however its English name is The Book of Numbers. These two names are almost opposite sides of the same coin. Bamidbar, the wilderness, is the symbol of transition and confusion and on
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Choosing a topic for a D’var Torah wasn’t an easy task this week. This week we read Parashat Tzav, which this year, because it’s a leap year, falls in the month of Adar, so tomorrow in addition to Parashat Tzav we will read Parashat Parah. This week we all have in mind the tragedy and the horror that filled
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ELE PEKUDEI HAMISHKAN – “These are the numbers of the Mishkan”, they are the words that begin our Torah portion. We are concluding the fifth of 5 Torah portions that are focused on the construction of the Tabernacle. We continue reading on Exodus 38:21 : “These are the numbers of the Mishkan that are counted by Moses’ command.
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Ki Tisah/ Breaking the Dishes : A case study in organizational management So Moshe went up the mountain… and for the Israelites he basically left and it wasn’t so clear what he was doing. We know that Moshe was called by God to make the stone tablets. But in their experience they were abandoned. And they felt desperate. Who was
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Reading from the Book of Kings for this week’s Haftarah: “And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they both made a league together”. How interesting it is that peace comes from WISDOM and not from righteousness! Apparently Amichai knew what he was talking about…. The Place
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“This Torah portion begins with “Shelach lecha”. According to Rashi, God says – if you wish, send the envoys over to check. We often think that we need to see in order to believe. However this portion demonstrates that the truth is generally the opposite: we need to believe in order to see”. People know a lot about statistics, but statistics
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During the last ten years I met many many friends and colleagues struggling with this, emotionally flooded. Beautiful, brilliant and talented people becoming closed, passing hard times. And most of them not asking for help and therefore not receiving what is required in order to continue, to get over it. One of the things which worry me the most is the
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The capability to look with love and empathy and to grant the gift of a good word, a hug, a thought, your presence. Parashat Naso is the longest Parasha in the Torah, 176 verses! It continues to list details regarding enrollment in what later will become the Israeli army (not that of the nowadays state). To this end it deals with
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Yeshayahu Leibowitz explains that the reason to couple the Torah portions of Tazri’a and Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33) in the Jewish communal reading of the Torah is that they both deal with biology of Man, with the biological filth of human existence. A central element in both portions is impurity. A woman who gave birth is considered impure for a period of
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Po Ve Sham 