Parshat Behar: The sin of verbal mistreatment
In Parshat Behar, among the rules of the shmita and jubilee years, we read a seemingly simple injunction: “Do not wrong one another, but...
Parshat Emor: The significance of special times
By Lilly Warren
In Emor, it talks about the Jewish holidays and how they are all different from each other. The holidays are so special...
Parshat Kedoshim: The golden rule
By Brennan Stewart
This week’s Torah portion is about God telling the Israelites some new rules. One rule is to treat your neighbor as you...
Parshat Achrei Mot: Reexamining Leviticus 18:22
By Avi Sax
Achrei Mot includes laws governing what we eat, how we pray and how we love. Some of the laws make a lot...
Passover: Renewed and new meanings
Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner
What do you remember most vividly about your earliest seder experience?
Many of us have memories of our respective Passover experiences with...
Parshat Metzora: On never letting go of hope
Rabbi Lawrence M. Pinsker
Both this week’s portion, Metzora, and last week’s, Tazria, raise questions about how we address illness, not only in terms of...
Parshat Tazria: The rituals around pregnancy
By Rabbi Rory Katz
Rituals are meant to provide orientation and grounding through the uncertain, ambiguous and/or emotionally tumultuous times of life. This week’s Torah...
Parshat Shemini: On being holy
By Paige Sachs
This week’s portion is Shemini. It is also Shabbat Parah. Parah means red cow or heifer so Shabbat Parah literally means Shabbat...
Parshat Tzav: What should we glory in
By Alice Nesky
Both my Torah and Haftorah portions concern the details of sacrifice and holy rituals. In the Haftorah, the tribe of Judah’s sacrifices...
Parshat Vayikra: Learning to love begins with Leviticus
By Rabbi Lawrence M. Pinsker
Leviticus, the very center of the Torah scroll, details ancient Jewish practices of sacrifice, ritual and teshuvah (“atonement”). It asks...
