Parsha

Parashat Tazria-Metzora: Turning lemons into lemonade

These parashot deal at length with a unique phenomenon described in the Torah – tzara’at, which are marks or changes that appear on the walls of a house, on clothing, or on the body.

|ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
'Spirituality can grow without diminishing anyone,' says the writer.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY was an American social reformer and women’s rights activist between 1900 and 1906.

Your Investments: The smart way to handle an inheritance portfolio

"Modern invention has banished the spinning wheel, and the same law of progress makes the woman of today a different woman from her grandmother." - Susan B. Anthony

|ByAARON KATSMAN
A pile of books.

Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei: Wisdom of the wise

“Give to the wise, and he will become yet wiser.”

|ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
Like the red heifer's ashes, the destruction of Iran's instruments of death can become the catalyst for cleansing. A woman walks on the street following an Israeli and U.S. strike on a police station, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 3, 2026.

Purification by fire: The red heifer and Iran

The struggle against the Iranian regime is not simply another round in an endless regional rivalry. It is a confrontation with a force that has sown instability and death for decades.

|ByMICHAEL FREUND

Parshat Shmini: Purity of the soul, restraint and humility

Kashrut is a significant part of Jewish identity. The basic principle of kashrut is that what a person puts into his body affects not only his physical health but the purity of his soul as well.

APRIL 8, 2021ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
OU kashrut supervisor at work in a food manufacturing company

Parashat Vayikra: New understandings of ancient practices

With this particular book of the Bible, its focus on the sacrificial system becomes a stumbling block for many trying to derive meaning from its text.

MARCH 23, 2021ByMICHAEL M. COHEN
‘And he shall cut it into its pieces; and the priest shall lay them, with its head and its suet, in order on the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar’ (Leviticus 1:12). Vayikra, Leviticus 1:1-5:26, is read on March 20.

Hand, mouth or mind

There are ways to convey God's blessing even without touching.

MARCH 21, 2021ByLEVI COOPER

Parashat Vayikra: ‘But I didn’t mean it!’

Four reasons, two medieval and two modern, that will help us understand something deep about the Torah and our tradition.

MARCH 18, 2021ByDAVID WOLPE
A 1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible,was unveiled at the Museum of the Bible on November 8, 2019.

Parashat Vayikra: Standing before God

By offering a sacrifice, a person expresses the maximum nullification he can feel: giving life to God.

MARCH 18, 2021ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
YEMENITE TORAH scrolls

The Golden Calf Sin: How did it really happen?

Ceremonial transitions of power and authority of an elite might be two lessons learned from the events of the Golden Calf.

MARCH 5, 2021ByGOL KALEV
PRAYING DURING the priestly blessing at the Kotel, Sukkot 2018.

Parashat Ki Tisa: Why break the tablets?

By smashing the tablets, Moses was making a declaration to all of Israel: Even the handiwork of God, which you might think of as inviolable, is nonetheless just another thing.

MARCH 4, 2021ByDAVID WOLPE
Marc Chagall’s ‘Moses Beholds All the Work,’ from The Story of Exodus (1966)

Parashat Ki Tisa: Sin, compassion and leadership

It is not difficult to imagine the depths of Moses’s disappointment, frustration and torment.

MARCH 4, 2021ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
'The adoration of the Golden Calf’ by Nicolas Poussin

Parashat Mishpatim: The soul and the law

We went from philosophy to the budget.

FEBRUARY 11, 2021ByDAVID WOLPE
An illustration of a unicorn in the 14th century Duke of Sussex Bible, held in the British Library

Parashat Mishpatim: A thief's dignity

Why is it that someone who steals an ox is fined five times the value of the theft, whereas someone who steals a lamb is fined only four times the value of the theft?

FEBRUARY 11, 2021ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
YEMENITE TORAH scrolls