By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Dani is a member of our small synagogue and every Shabbat, when we gather together after morning prayers, he jumps up and gives a speech on the weekly Torah portion. It isn’t nice to say, but his speeches drive...
There are few commandments in the Torah that seem as violent and as ruthless as the rules that are set out for dealing with a city that has been led astray (Ir Hanidachat). In this situation, the majority of the people in a specific city...
In Leviticus, God prohibits Israel from eating blood in the strictest terms. This prohibition also includes hunting and eating from the carcass of a dead animal (Leviticus 17:10-16), and the punishment for one who violates this is karet....
In a divine tour de force, God brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt with miracles and wonders including the ten plagues and the splitting of the sea. Never before had men witnessed such direct proof of God’s actions. Nonetheless,...
The Book of Maccabees is a collection of four volumes that recount the history of the Maccabees, the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, and the Seleucid dynasty. They do not appear in the Jewish...
This week’s portion begins with the commandment to conduct a census among the Children of Israel through the donation of a half shekel.  Other commandments follow, but the focus of the portion is the story of the Golden Calf.  It has...
