Increase Your Merit on this Jewish New Year
By Chaim Barzel The Torah portion of Nitzavim (Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20) is customarily read in the synagogue on the Sabbath before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. The portion discusses teshuva (usually understood as repentance from...
The Unlikely Connection Between a Captive Woman and the Hebrew Month of Elul
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...
The King’s Torah
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Since I was a young boy, I have loved reading books. I became intimately familiar with every book in my parents’ library, treating each like a dear friend. Each book had its special place on the shelf and the...
The Portion of Nitzavim
This week’s portion is one of the shortest in the Torah, with a mere 40 verses (next week’s Vayelech has only 30). Even when the two are combined, which happens most years, they number fewer verses than most other single portions. The...