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SHAVUOT RUTH AS SEDUCTRESS “Boaz ate and drank, and in a cheerful mood went to lie down beside the grain pile. Then she went over stealthily and uncovered his feet and lay down.”  (Ruth 3:7)             On...

PARSHAT BEMIDBAR NATURE AND NURTURE “On the first day of the second month they convoked the whole company [of fighters], who were registered by the clans of their ancestral houses—the names of those aged twenty years and over being listed head by head.”  ...

PARSHAT BEHAR BEHUKOTAI MOUNTAINS “The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai.”  (Leviticus 25:1)             Whenever I conduct an unveiling (the dedication of a memorial stone), I begin with the Biblical...

PARSHAT EMOR COUNTING EACH EVENING “From the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete.”  (Leviticus 23:15)...

PARSHAT AHAREI MOT – KEDOSHIM VICARIOUS ATONEMENT “Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.”  (Leviticus 16:22)...

PARSHAT TAZRIA-METZORA JUDAISM’S SIX GENDERS “Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be ritually impure seven days.”  (Leviticus 12:2) “If she bears a female, she shall be impure two weeks as during her...

PARSHAT SHEMINI WHO KNOWS EIGHT? “On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel.”  (Leviticus 9:1)             The word Shemini means “eight.”  For seven days Aaron and his...

SHABBAT HOL HAMOED PESACH ELIJAH THE PROPHET “Eliyahu HaNavi – Elijah the Prophet, Elijah the Tishbi, Elijah the Giladi, May he soon come in our days with the Messiah the son of David.”  (classical Hebrew chant, often sung at the Passover Seder.)...

PARSHAT TZAV & SHABBAT HAGADOL BETWEEN PARENTS AND CHILDREN “Take Aaron along with his sons, and the vestments, the anointing oil, the bull of sin offering, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread.”  (Leviticus 8:2)...

PARSHAT VAYIKRA DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE “If one’s means do not suffice for two turtledoves or two pigeons, that person shall bring as an offering for that of which one is guilty a tenth of an ephah of choice flour for a sin offering; one shall not add oil to it or lay...