by Rabbi Margie Cella At 176 verses, this is the longest parashah of the year. After commanding Moses and Aaron to take a census of the Levites according to their clans, and describing the ritual...
by Rabbi Margie Cella Two years after the deliverance from Egypt, the nation is getting ready to leave Mt. Sinai to begin the journey to Canaan. In preparation for the departure, God commands Moses to...
by Rabbi Margie Cella This parashah, the last in the book of Vayikra, begins with God promising many future blessings for the nation, if they follow the laws and the commandments:...
by Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields Parashat Behar continues the discussion of being holy, as it relates to land. We read about the Sabbatical, Shemittah, and allowing the land to rest. This often...
by Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields The name of our Torah reading this week, Emor, means speak. God tells Moses to speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron. There are many different instructions...
by Rabbi Margie Cella In this parashah, God commands that we be holy because God is holy. This is achieved through the observance of God’s mitzvot, dozens of which are delineated in this portion....
by Rabbi Margie Cella Moses seeks assurance that God will accompany the nation on the journey when they leave from Sinai. Though God denies his request to see the divine presence, God shows Moses a cleft...
by Rabbi Margie Cella We learn of the purification ritual for a leper who has been healed. Two live birds were needed. One was slaughtered, the other dipped in its blood before being set free. After another...
by Rabbi Margie Cella This week’s parashah begins with the description of the purification ritual for a woman following childbirth. If she gave birth to a boy, she was ritually impure for seven...
by Rabbi Margie Cella This week’s parashah describes the events of the eighth day (Shmini means “eighth”) of the consecration ceremony for the priests. Moses told Aaron and his sons to bring...
