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Apr 14, 2018, 1:01 AM

Nine Days of Redemption

Amidst the challenging news about the conflicts at the Gaza border and the potential deportation of asylum seekers from Africa, a recent trip to Israel included a moment of awe and wonder. I had just visited with a dear...

William Hamilton

Apr 13, 2018, 6:41 PM

From headwinds to higher ground

According to a survey released on Thursday, 41% of millennial Americans (ages 18-34) believe that fewer than two million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. The same percentage of Americans (all ages) cannot say what Auschwitz was. And 52%...

Apr 13, 2018, 4:42 PM

Jewish Leadership in Depths and at Summits

On Parshat Shemini, Shoah and Atzmaut by Gidi Grinstein and Ari Afilalo A fundamental tenet of Judaism is that the Torah, with its elaborate mechanisms of interpretation, can provide an answer to every human condition. This system allows for the evolution...

Apr 12, 2018, 3:48 PM

When Weakness Becomes Strength (Shemini, Covenant and Conversation 5778)

Have you ever felt inadequate to a task you have been assigned or a job you have been given? Do you sometimes feel that other people have too high an estimate of your abilities? Has there been a moment...

Apr 12, 2018, 10:17 AM

‘Caustic Soda’ Parashat Shemini 5778

Torah readers just love Parashat Shemini. It is a veritable treasure trove of cantillations. It contains one word “Hashem spoke to Aharon, saying.” This verse is so striking that some hold that it merits a special tune. Why is Aharon...

Apr 4, 2018, 4:07 PM

Shmini – The Sound of Silence

When any two things, seemingly totally irrelevant of each other, are placed together, one has no choice but to naturally look for the connection. At first glance the dramatic and somber story of the death of Aharon’s two sons, Nadav...

Ben-Tzion Spitz

Apr 4, 2018, 11:26 AM

Shmini: Fatal Alcohol

All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and bad. -- William Penn Two sons of Aaron the High Priest,...

Ariel Ben Avraham

Mar 25, 2018, 12:12 AM

Parshat Shemini: A world of difference (II)

“And that you may establish difference between the sacred and the profane, and between the impure and the pure.” (Leviticus 10:10) Goodness is what makes a difference between right and wrong, positive and negative, true and false, useful and useless,...

Apr 30, 2017, 5:28 AM

A reprove deserved

Some men walk before God. Some men walk after God. My esteemed rabbi, Eliyahu David, walks WITH God. He is a modest man but his greatness is manifest through his drashot, his personal interaction with his people, and his...

Apr 26, 2017, 11:25 PM

On Being Attacked Last Friday by Hilltop Youth, and Aish Zara

After being attacked on Friday, I didn't have time to write a dvar Torah (commentary) on last week's Torah portion. Sunday was filled with interviews and hours with the police. I preferred not to write about the attack on...

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