SELF-SACRIFICE “When a soul offers a meal-offering to Hashem, his offering shall be of fine flour; he shall pour oil upon it and place frankincense upon it.” (Vayikrah 2:1) In reference to an animal sacrifice, the Torah states (Vayikrah 1:2), “when a person (adam) among you brings...

The number four appears several times at the Pesach Seder: four cups of wine; four sons and four questions. The significance of the number four is related to God’s promise to Moshe shortly before the ten plagues began, and contains four verbs (Shmot 6:6-7): “Therefore...

THE DAILY CENTURY “The hundred talents of silver were to cast the sockets of the Sanctuary and the sockets of the Partition; a hundred sockets for a hundred talents, a talent per socket.” (Shmot 38:27) Included in the audit of the metals used to build the Mishkan...

THE COMMUNITY “Moshe assembled the entire congregation of the children of Israel and said to them: These are the matters that the Lord commanded to perform them.” (Shmot 35:1) The key verb in this sentence from which the parsha derives its name is vayakhel, “he assembled” or...

THE THREE-DAY PARTY “The rest of the Jews that were in the king’s provinces assembled and defended themselves gaining relief from their foes, slaying seventy-five thousand of their enemies, but they did not lay their hands on the spoils, on the thirteenth day of the month...

FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE “Remember that which Amalek did to you on the way, upon your exodus from Egypt. That he encountered you on the way, and he attacked from behind you all the stragglers behind you, when you were faint and weary and he...

OUR TWO LITTLE ANGELS “You shall make a cover [for the Ark] of pure gold, two and a half cubits its lengths; and a cubit and a half its width. You shall make two cherubs of gold – hammered out shall you make them – from...

THE END OF POVERTY “If you shall lend silver to My people, to the poor who is with you, you shall not be a creditor to him, you shall not impose upon him interest.” (Shmot 22:24) ‘Poverty alleviation’ is a phrase that one often hears in South...

BE A SPORT! “The Lord said to Moshe: Until when do you refuse to observe My commandments and My laws? See that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore, He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Remain each man where he...

AHA! “Yosef said to his brothers: I am Yosef, does my father still live? And his brothers could not answer him because they were alarmed before him.” (Bereishit 45:3) Yosef’s brothers had experienced several months of extreme anxiety and uncertainty. When they initially travelled to Egypt to...