PARSHA POSTS: TZAV

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May 6, 2024, 8:19 PM

Judaism’s unique proposition

Always particularly inspired by the Torah readings at this time of the year, it reminds me that Judaism has a very distinct view of the world, a very distinct view about what being Jewish means, and about what doing...

Apr 2, 2024, 12:05 AM

Healing the Trauma of October 7th – Shabbat Parah 5784

Last week, I led a group of Temple Emunah members and friends on a short solidarity mission to Israel. A friend asked me to bring a small package. When I got to the hotel, I put the package in a cute...

Mar 30, 2024, 12:00 PM

An offering of Ashes: The Ability To Change and Elevate The Past

A peculiar ritual is described at the open of parshas Tzav. The priests in the Temple are commanded to begin each day by removing a portion of the ash that had accumulated on the altar from the previous day’s...

Mar 30, 2024, 10:04 AM

To understand the Jewish vision study Rambam

Hours before being killed, Rabbi Elisha Lowenstern takes a break from fighting and studies the daily section of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah in Gaza.

To study Torah is to listen in on a 3,000-year multilingual, multinational, and multi-ethnic conversation within which Divine wisdom is transmitted and explored. It is exhilarating to jump between the centuries and continents as one explores the history of...

Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Mar 30, 2024, 12:45 AM

Spinoza, the Alter Rebbe, and the Eternal Fire

Parashat Tzav וְהָאֵ֨שׁ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֤חַ תּֽוּקַד־בּוֹ֙ לֹ֣א תִכְבֶּ֔ה וּבִעֵ֨ר עָלֶ֧יהָ הַכֹּהֵ֛ן עֵצִ֖ים בַּבֹּ֣קֶר בַּבֹּ֑קֶר וְעָרַ֤ךְ עָלֶ֙יהָ֙ הָֽעֹלָ֔ה וְהִקְטִ֥יר עָלֶ֖יהָ חֶלְבֵ֥י הַשְּׁלָמִֽים׃ The fire on the altar shall be kept burning, not to go out: every morning the priest shall feed wood to...

William Hamilton

Mar 30, 2024, 12:43 AM

A Share in this Mitzvah

Once upon a time, about a century ago, a certain gentleman made his way from house to house, collecting support for the Jewish National Fund. Local villagers willfully put coins in his blue and white JNF box. One day...

Mar 29, 2024, 2:40 PM

The word or perhaps more precisely the command appears for the first time in the so named portion of this week. - Tzav- command. This year the call is rather superfluous if not disconcerting, as it has dominated our...

Mar 29, 2024, 2:20 PM

Clothing Makes the Man and Woman: Parshat Tzav

I’ve been thinking a lot about clothing lately. It’s that time of the year! Now, in the transition between Winter and Summer (there is no real Spring or Fall in Israel), I usually think about when to switch over...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Mar 29, 2024, 2:17 PM

Does treif really mean non-kosher?

In Parhsat Tzav, Vayikra 7:24, we read: The fat of a neveilah (an animal that died) and the fat of a treifah (an animal that had been torn to death) may be put to any use; but you shall not...

Mar 29, 2024, 11:16 AM

The various meanings of the root k-r-b (קרב) and their relevance to our lives today

The first section of Leviticus—the third book of the Torah which we read at this time of year— deals almost exclusively with the laws relating to sacrificial worship. The Hebrew word for sacrifice is "קׇרְבַּן" (korban) which derives from...

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