by Rabbi Margie Cella The story of this week’s parashah is a familiar one to many of us: God instructed Moses to send twelve men to scout the land of Canaan. While there, they cut down a branch...
by Rabbi Margie Cella The parashah begins with God’s command to Aaron to light the lamps of a golden menorah. The Levites are consecrated in place of the firstborn, and given...
by Rabbi Margie Cella At 176 verses, Naso is the longest parashah in the Torah. It begins with another census of the Leviim, including a delineation of their specific jobs. Next there is the...
by Rabbi Margie Cella Two years after leaving Egypt, God instructed Moses and Aaron to take a census of the men of fighting age (twenty and up) by tribe and family. Each tally is noted; the total is 603,550....
by Rabbi Margie Cella Parashat Bechukkotai, which concludes the Book of Vayikra, Leviticus contains a series of blessings and curses; which ones we receive will depend on whether we are obedient to...
by Rabbi Margie Cella Parashat Behar describes the shmita, sabbatical year, occurring every seven years as a sabbath for the land, when nothing is to be harvested. After seven cycles of...
by Rabbi Margie Cella Parashat Emor begins by delineating the laws governing the cohanim, the priests: they may only defile themselves to bury parents, siblings (brothers, or sisters...
by Rabbi Margie Cella Parashat Kedoshim contains the Holiness Code: God instructs the nation, “you shall be holy, for I am holy.” This is followed by a listing of mitzvot whose observance God...
by Rabbi Margie Cella After the death of his two sons, Aaron is warned that he may go into the holy of holies only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, when he is to wash and don his priestly garments,...
by Rabbi Margie Cella The centerpiece of the seventh day’s Torah reading is Shirat haYam, Moses’ song of praise after the people of Israel experienced God’s deliverance from Pharaoh and his army of...
