Retaking the Temple Mount: An Unexpected Way
Going up to the Temple Mount is, for me, an exhilarating and spiritually uplifting experience. I sense the holiness, the ineffable power of this holy site. I close my eyes, and I can see my forefathers and foremothers walking in this very...
Why do we Light Up an Empty Room with the Menorah?
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 Shewbread: A Reminder That God Provides Our Physical Sustenance
By the time we read the Torah portion of Emor (Leviticus 21-24), the Tabernacle has been built along with all of its necessary utensils. The Kohanim (priests) stand at the ready in the Biblically mandated clothes. But some necessary...
Does Being the Poor Man’s Sacrifice Make the Meal Offering Less Desirable?
The meal offering was characteristically brought by the poor as it was less expensive than a meat offering. Itl offering consisted chiefly of fine flour, olive oil and frankincense. The grain could either be raw and mixed with oil, or...
Why We Read About the Silver Half-Shekel Before the Month of Adar
Shabbat Shekalim is the last Shabbat preceding the beginning of the Hebrew month of Adar*, or the 1st of Adar itself if the month begins on Shabbat. In synagogues, the Torah portion describing the bringing of the silver half-shekel is...
Hiram: The pagan who built Solomon’s Temple
Every Shabbat, after the Torah is read in the synagogue, an additional reading is made which is taken from the Prophets. This reading is called the haftarah and is thematically linked to the Torah reading. When the Torah portion of...
The Holy Half-Shekel
In the beginning of the Torah portion of Ki Tisa (Exodus 30:11-34:35), God commands the Children of Israel to take a census by collecting a silver half-shekel from every male over the age of 20. Every year, each Jewish male over the age...
The Incense Altar: Linking the Physical and the Spiritual
After instructing the Children of Israel about the priestly garments, God then describes the golden altar for offering incense. Similar to the Ark of the Covenant, the altar for the incense was made of acacia wood covered in gold. Rings...
The Enigmatic Breastplate
Perhaps the most enigmatic element of the clothing of the High Priest was the breastplate, known in Hebrew as the choshen, which was attached to the ephod, or apron, of the High Priest. Made of cloth (wool dyed blue, purple, and crimson)...
The Parochet Curtain: Separating Between the Holy and Holy of Holies
In the Tabernacle, and later, in the Temples in Jerusalem, a curtain, called a parochet, separated the “Holy” from the “Holy of Holies.” The only person who passed through this curtain was the Kohen Gadol (high priest) on Yom Kippur, the...