פרשת קדושים – ט”ו בעמר / ל’ בניסן תשפ”ב
We mourn Rebbe Akiva’s students death during the Omer. The official reason given is that they died from a plague. The reality is that they died fighting the Romans in the Bar-Kochba revolt. It is no accident that Israel Independence day happens during this period.
פרשת אחרי מות – י”ג בעומר / כ”ח בניסן תשפ”ב
During the Omer we lesson our happiness due to Rebbe Akiva’s dying. The Talmud gives the reason that they died was that they did not respect one another. This is to teach us to respect our fellow man even when we disagree with him.
פרשת אחרי מות – י”ב בעומר / כ”ז בניסן תשפ”ב
Today is Remembrance Day for the Holocaust and Heroism in Israel. The true defeat of the Nazis is not that we survived but that we survived as Jews and will continue to be Jews in spite of their evil.
פרשת אחרי מות – י”א בעומר / כ”ו בניסן תשפ”ב
After discussing the importance of the sacrificial rites, the Torah returns to discussing personal morality. This is emphasize that what we do privately is more important than what we say publicly.
פרשת מצורע / ז’ בניסן תשפ”ב
The Torah stresses how bad lashon Hara, evil speech is. One could make the case that it is the root of much evil in the world. People do not realize the damage they can do with their speech.
פרשת מצורע / ו’ בניסן תשפ”ב
The 2 rejected ideas for the symbol of the US were the Jews crossing the Red Sea and Jefferson’s idea for it to picture the Jews in the wilderness being led by a pillar of fire. Jefferson’s idea was that leaving Egypt was only the beginning, a lot work had to yet be done.
פרשת מצורע / ה’ בניסן תשפ”ב
The real question of the wicked son is why to we need all this ritual to celebrate Passover. Can’t we just do a simple ceremony and get it over with? The answer of course is that we need the ritual since without we will forget why we were brought out and made into a people.
פרשת מצורע / ד’ בניסן תשפ”ב
When the wise son asks his question at the Seder we give him a seemingly meaningless answer. He asks for the details of the laws and customs of Passover. We seem to give him a glib response, just don’t eat anything after the Afikoman. Is this glib or is this a deeper response?
פרשת מצורע / ג’ בניסן תשפ”ב
The main event in the celebration of Passover is the eating of the Pascal Sacrifice. This is a lamb and it is impossible to completely eat it unless you are with a group. The problem is that there can be nothing leftover. Thus the Torah is forcing us to form communities in order to carry out this celebration.
פרשת מצורע / ב’ בניסן תשפ”ב
What happens when you only have ten during davening and one leaves in the middle? We had such a situation and the solution within Jewish Law is that we continue as if we have a minyan to the next major stopping point.