Parshat Nasso – Out of the Camps
By Rabbi Dovid Markel This week’s parsha deals with the levels of banishment due to various forms of impurities. The verse (Bamidbar 5:2) states: “Command the children of Israel to banish from the...
Neirot
Rabbi Riskin and the Chief Rabbinate
By Rabbi Dovid Markel There have been many articles written about the recent Riskin controversy, of which the Chief Rabbinate wishes to review his tenure. Articles entitled, “Firing Riskin will Cross a Redline,”...
Chassidic Flames – Equanimity
A teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, of blessed memory[1]: “As waters reflect the face to the face, so does the heart of man reflect to man.” When a person stands beside water, his...
Chassidic Flames – Running Angels
I heard from my master (the Baal Shem Tov) of blessed memory[1], on the matter of,[2] “And the Chayot run and return,” that everything is aflame with desire to return and adhere to its...
Parshat Nasso – The Census of the Levites
The relevance of the counting of the Levites to our lives.
Parshat Nasso – The Test of the Bitter Water
On morality and chastity
Parshat Bamidbar – The Unique Status of the Levites
By Avner Friedmann In this Parsha HaShem commands Moshe and Aaron to take a tribal census of all males between the ages of twenty and sixty, the eligible age for military service. But...
Shavuot – Not Just Stories
By Avner Friedmann On Shavuot we relive the experience of the most significant event in all of history; the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The Holy Zohar states,[1] “Woe to those...
Shavuot – What’s the Point?
By Rabbi Dovid Markel The 6th of Sivan commemorates the giving of the Torah to the people of Israel. What is curious though, is that the Talmud (Yuma 28b) states, “Our ancestors were...
My Relative, Israel
The Jerusalem Talmud (Berachos Ch. 9) describes the love that G-d has for the Jewish People, using the following formula: “When an individual of flesh and blood has a relative who is a philosopher,...
