Ki Teitzei – Sep. 9 2022
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 6:50 PM
Shabbat Ends: 7:44 PM
Torah Message:
Freedom of Kosher Speech
“Remember what the L-rd, your G-d, did to Miriam on the way, when you were leaving Egypt.” (24:9)
When Miriam criticized her brother Moshe unfairly, Hashem punished her with tzara’at, a serious leprous-like skin affliction that covered her body.
The Torah, for some reason, connects Miriam’s punishment with leaving Egypt. What does one thing have to do with the other?
The captivity of the Jewish People in Egypt was more than physical bondage. On a deeper level Egypt represented the enslavement of the power of speech. Egypt not only enslaved the bodies of the Jewish People, but it put in chains the major weapon of the Jewish People – speech. Thus, the Torah writes that the Jewish People “cried out” to Hashem. It never writes that they “prayed.” For in Egypt, speech itself was bound.
Passover- April 21, 2022
This Shabbat:
Thursday Holiday Candle Lighting:7:12pm
Friday Candle Lighting: 7:13
Holiday/Shabbat Ends: 8:11 PM
Torah Message:
The Power of Silence
“Any person shall not be in the Tent of Meeting when he (Aharon) comes to provide atonement in the Sanctuary…” (16:17)
The Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, would come into the Holy of Holies only once a year, and his first service in that awesome place and on that awesome day was not to seek forgiveness for the people for the sins of spiritual contamination, of rebellion either through desire or even for thoughts of atheism, or for that matter, any sin between man and God. Rather, it was to seek atonement for gossip and slander — the sins that destroy the cohesion of society, that break the bond between one person and another.
Mezora- April 8, 2022
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 2:02 PM
Shabbat Ends: 7:59 PM
Torah Message:
Fit to Print
“This will be the torah (the law) of the Metzora…” (14:2)
It always fascinates me how exactly the same amount of news takes place every day. The proof for this is that every day the newspapers contain exactly the same number of pages.
In 1887, Adolph Ochs, the new proprietor of the New York Times, coined the phrase, “All the news that’s fit to print”, which would be better phrased as “All the news that fits, and if it doesn’t fit, I’m sure we can add a little bit here and there.”
Pekudei- March 4, 2022
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 5:35 PM
Shabbat Ends: 6:31 PM
Torah Message:
A World of Kindness
“Betzalel ben Uri ben Hur of the tribe of Yehuda did everything that Hashem commanded Moshe. With him was Oholiav ben Achisamach of the tribe of Dan.” (38:22-23)
Imagine a world where everyone looked the same.
Same eyes. Same expressions.
Same height. Everything the same. Wouldn’t that be a great world? We’d all get along so well!
And yet, Hashem created the exact opposite: a world where everyone is different from everyone else.
We’re all different heights. We all have different interests. We all have different personalities, different character traits, different strengths and different weaknesses. Plus, we all have different opinions.
Vayakhel- February 25, 2022
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 5:29 PM
Shabbat Ends: 6:25 PM
Torah Message:
Churchill and the Jews
“These are the things…” (35:1)
The relationship between Winston Churchill (1874–1965) arguably the greatest Englishman of the twentieth century, and the Jewish People is a subject of debate. Churchill opposed anti-Semitism (as in 1904, when he was fiercely critical of the proposed Aliens Bill severely restricting Jewish immigration from Czarist Russia). However, in “Zionism versus Bolshevism,” an article written by Churchill in the Illustrated Sunday Herald in 1920, he makes a distinction between “national” Jews — who Churchill said supported Zionism — and “international” Jews — such as Karl Marx, Trotsky, Béla Kun, Rosa Luxemburg and Emma Goldman, who Churchill said supported a Bolshevist “world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality.” The article was criticized by the Jewish Chronicle at the time, calling it “the most reckless and scandalous campaign in which even the most discredited politicians have ever engaged.” The Chronicle said Churchill had adopted “the hoary tactics of hooligan anti-Semites” in his article.
Ki Tisa- February 17, 2022
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 5:22 PM
Shabbat Ends: 6:19 PM
Torah Message:
Never Forget
“Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, ‘When you take a census of the Children of Israel according to their number, every man shall give an atonement for his soul…’” (30:11-12)
Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, Rosh HaYeshiva of the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, suffered from Parkinson’s disease for 28 years. Rabbi Nochum Stillerman visited Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel’s home shortly after the latter became Rosh Yeshiva and there was a bottle of soda on the table. Wanting to honor his guest, Rav Nosson Tzvi tried to pour his guest a drink. Seeing the great difficulty that this caused him, Reb Nochum said he wasn’t thirsty. “If you don’t want to drink it, that’s your business, but I have to pour my guest a drink,” said Rav Nosson Tzvi.
He tried to lift the bottle and pour the drink, but his hands refused to cooperate. Reb Nochum was so disturbed by the sight of the Rosh Yeshiva struggling to pour a cup of soda that he blurted out: “Rosh Yeshiva, why do you deserve this?”
Tetzaveh- February 9, 2022
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 5:16 PM
Shabbat Ends: 6:13 PM
Torah Message:
Weapons of Mass Distraction
“I shall rest My Presence among the Children of Yisrael and I shall be their G-d.” (29:45)
At the end of the section on Torah prohibitions in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvot, the Ramban adds a list of mitzvot that he believes the Rambam should have also included. The second of these is the mitzvah not to forget the events at Mount Sinai. The Ramban lists this as a negative mitzvah, a “Don’t do.” Meaning, so to speak, “Don’t spoil the situation as it stands.” This is difficult to understand, for it suggests that the experience of Mount Sinai is something current right now and we must not do anything to destroy our awareness of it. The Ramban says that we should not “remove it from our consciousness” that “our eyes and our ears” should be constantly and forever at Mount Sinai.
Mishpatim- January 28, 2022
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 5:02 PM
Shabbat Ends: 6:00 PM
Torah Message:
It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over
“Everything that Hashem has said — we will do and we will obey.” (19:8)
The “Sunday Dollars” are a well-known piece of Jewish folklore. The Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l used to give out thousands of dollar bills to those who came to meet him on Sundays. Once, a young boy and his father came to get a dollar bill from the Rebbe. The Rebbe placed a crisp dollar bill into the hands of the father and then the son. As they were walking away, the Rebbe called them back and asked the young boy if he liked sports. “Sure!” said the young boy. The Rebbe asked him which sport he liked. “Baseball,” was the reply. The Rebbe asked him what team he followed and the boy said, “The Dodgers.” The Rebbe asked him when the last time he saw his team was. “Oh, it was about a month ago, but we didn’t stay to the end. It was the bottom of ninth, with two outs, and the pitcher was up to bat. We were seven runs behind. The pitcher is a weak hitter and it was clear what would happen, so we left and went home. “And what did the players do?” inquired the Rebbe. “Well, I guess they played on till the end of the game.” “They didn’t leave?” asked the Rebbe. “No, well, they couldn’t leave, they are the players. I’m just a supporter.” The Rebbe said, “A Jew always has to be a player, not a supporter.”
You can go through life in two ways: You can be a supporter, and when things aren’t much fun you can quit, or you can go through life as a player and never give up until it’s over, because “Everything Hashem has said, we will do and we will obey.”
Yitro- January 21, 2022
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 4:55 PM
Shabbat Ends: 5:54 PM
Torah Message:
Does Shabbat Like You?
“Remember the day of Shabbat to make it holy.”
May I ask you a personal question? How’s your Shabbat? Does every Shabbat make you feel suffused with holiness? Does every rock and building and tree whisper to you “Shabbat!” Do you feel so much closer to G-d than on the rest of the week?If the answer to one or more of these questions is no, then you should know you are part of a very large majority.
Many people find Shabbat a burden: You cannot watch the TV. You cannot go to the ball game. You cannot go shopping. You cannot do this. You cannot do that. When is it going to be dark already?
Vaera- December 31, 2021
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 4:37 PM
Shabbat Ends: 5:36 PM
Torah Message:
What’s Your Name?
But with My Name, Hashem, I did not make Myself known to them.” (6:3)
Moshe had ten names: Moshe, Yered, Chaver, Yekutiel, Avigdor, Avi Socho, Avi Zanuach, Tuvia, Shemaya andHalevi. Of all these names, the only one that Hashem used was Moshe, the name he was given by Pharaohs daughter, Batya.
Why, of all Moshe’s names, did Hashem use the one name given to Moshe by an Egyptian princess? What was so special about this name?