JUST KEEP QUIET “Each of the sons of Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, took his fire-pan and placed in it fire, and placed incense upon the fire, and they offered before the Lord strange fire that he had not commanded them. Fire emerged from before the Lord...

THE SPLIT SEA AND THE BREAD FROM HEAVEN Marriage as an institution is under attack. More and more couples do not see the need to formalise their relationship and are choosing simply to cohabit. People are also marrying much later in life and the divorce rate...

PHYSICAL FOOD, SPIRITUAL REWARD Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin of Salant (Eastern Europe, 1810-1883), or as he is better known, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, was a prince among men. His towering intellect alone would have sufficed to ensure his memory would never be forgotten among his people. His many...

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...