Three Inspiring Life Lessons from the Sukkah
By Rafi Weinstein Today is the first day of the seven-day holiday known as Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). Though the Torah commands: “You shall live in booths seven days” (Leviticus 23:42), growing up in New York my family barely spent time in the sukkah...
Baking Bread Temple Style
Shavuot is an annual Jewish holiday, one of the three Biblically mandated pilgrimage festivals when, in Temple times, Jews ascended to Jerusalem. It is observed after the Jews complete a seven-week count beginning on the second day of Passover: You must count until...
Why is a Blemished Priest Disqualified from Temple Service?
After designating the descendants of Aaron as the kohanim (priests) in perpetuity, the Torah then delineates specific physical blemishes that disqualified, either temporarily or permanently, individual kohanim. Just as animals brought to the altar had to be free of...
What Can We Learn From the Story of the Blasphemer?
Leviticus (chapter 24) relates the story of a fight between an Israelite man and a half-Israelite man. The half-Israelite man was the son of Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, from the tribe of Dan, and his father was an Egyptian. In the course of the fight, the...
