by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 24, 2023 | Psalms, Light Unto the Nations
Rabbi Haim Yosef David Azulai ben Yitzhak Zerachia (Jerusalem 18th Century), commonly known as the Hida, taught that the eight verses of Psalm 67 were inscribed on the golden Menorah (candelabra) that stood outside the Holy of Holies in the Temple. The first verse was...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 22, 2022 | Covenant, Justice, Light Unto the Nations, Responsibility
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Every year, just before Rosh Hashana (Hebrew New Year), I ask myself why I should work so hard at repenting. How bad were my sins really? I look around and figure that I am no worse than any of my neighbors. And then I read the Torah portion...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 9, 2022 | Chosen Nation, Va'etchanan, Israel, Light Unto the Nations
God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky or, alternatively, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. In fact, Jews are rare. Today, Jews represent a mere .2% of the world’s population. In the words of Mark Twain: If the...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 14, 2022 | Antisemitism, Balak, Light Unto the Nations, Messiah
There are two ways to verify the “truth” of the Bible (though, as we all know, the Bible is true whether we prove it or not). One way is to search back in time through archaeology or historical evidence to verify whether events described in the Bible actually...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 12, 2022 | Beha'alotcha, Israel, Leadership, Light Unto the Nations, Temple
I often find myself walking around my house, turning off lights in empty rooms. Why waste electricity if there is no one there to benefit from it? Interestingly, a similar question arose thousands of years ago, in the Temple itself! In the eighth chapter of Numbers,...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 16, 2022 | Isaiah, Israel, Kindness and Compassion, Light Unto the Nations
It was only three weeks ago that Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking a massive humanitarian crisis in the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. Even before the invasion, as news spread that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was coming soon, Israel365...
