temple
What is the Secret of Tisha B’Av?
Reading is magical. Reading can take you places you have never been and show you things you have never seen. It is almost as good as being there and reading fanatics know that in many ways, reading is better than watching a movie. It goes...
Nine Days: Mourning with a Purpose
My rabbi once told me that God created the world because he loves stories and the best stories are about people. But some stories take generations to tell. The Bible graphically illustrates this. The covenant that God made with Abraham...
Did God Abandon His People When He Destroyed the Temple?
What do you like to hear first, the good news or the bad news? Jeremiah is known as the prophet of destruction and rebuke. Indeed, he was given the unenviable task of warning the Jews of the impending destruction of the Temple and...
Today is the Seventeenth of Tammuz: What Does that Mean?
There are many days that are auspicious, commemorated for a powerful event that happened on that date, earning them personal or even national significance. Birthdays and national holidays are like this. The same is true for sad days...
Mourning My Temple: Why We Are Still Crying 2,000 Years Later
My son had his blanky; the blanket he used in the crib when a baby. Over the years, we tried to replace it but to no avail. Now that he was ten years old, we had given up on replacing the now-tattered piece of cloth. I tried...
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...