Author: Shlomo Bar-Ayal

The story of the Golden Calf seems to be out of place. It should have been recorded after the events at Mt. Sinai. This is to teach us that the Torah is more interested in our actions rather than beliefs.

Malicious gossip is detrimental to both the speaker and the listener. The whole purpose is to bring down the subject. Instead of trying to build themselves up and improve they want to tear down.

The purpose of the shew-bread was to remind the priests that their job was to serve the rest of the people. That they should be prideful of their position.

The Vilna Gaon looked at the US & understood that a Jew could become president. To him this meant the beginning of the redemption. So he sent his top students to Israel to begin the process of rebuilding the land.

While a republican form of government is considered the best, there are some things that are not up to a vote. Torah Law is one of them.

The priests were commanded to burn the entrails of the sacrifices in the Tabernacle. This was to lead the Jewish people away from the Egyptian culture which used the entrails to divine the future. It was meant to get Egyptian culture out of the Jews.

The lesson on how the priest in the Temple were to be dressed is to remind us that we are the representatives of the Jewish people and therefore of God. How we dress and behave tells the world what we are.

The Torah is detailed oriented about how a priest should dress while serving in the Tabernacle. The question is why. The answer is we behave better when dressed properly.

The family that made the shew bread for use in the Tabernacle kept the recipe a secret. Thus highlighting that the Torah recognizes that intellectual property is property and has to be treated as such.

The budget for the building of the Tabernacle was public. This was so that there would be no overspending in the construction of the Tabernacle. The Torah is against secret budgets and plans. It hold our leaders to a high ethical standard.