Shabbat Shekalim

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Rebecca Sassouni

Mar 2, 2025, 6:40 PM

Our Daughters, Our Sons, Our Torah: Shekalim

Shavua tov! This is the first of occasional posts on my new Times of Israel Blog. I expect to write about the nexus between secular and religious experience. I had some incredible “Godwink” experiences yesterday that I write to...

Feb 28, 2025, 1:18 PM

Justice for Queen Athaliah: Parshat Terumah and Shekalim

Writing about parshat terumah is always very difficult for me. I have problems with what is often called the Edifice Complex. I have no problem with the idea of contributions (terumot), but I do have problems with all the...

Feb 28, 2025, 7:39 AM

Is the Love Delusion Shattering Marriage?

(Pixabay)

The very cornerstone of our existence, family, is slowly shattering. Once a universal expectation, it now seems a precarious privilege, reserved for an alarmingly shrinking few. How did we plummet to this abyss, where lifelong marital happiness is no...

Kenneth Brander

Feb 25, 2025, 12:31 AM

Haftarat Parshat Shekalim/Terumah: Giving and Receiving

This week’s learning has been dedicated for the refuah shleimah of Moshe Kranzler – Moshe Ben Maryam Yehudit When I was a student at Yeshiva University, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin was honored at the annual RIETS (rabbinical school) dinner for his...

Mar 14, 2024, 5:22 PM

The Torah’s Secret to Disarming anti-Semites

Together, we are Unbreakable History is repeating itself today in the most stunning way. The exact same nation that was threatening to destroy us 2380 years ago in 356 BCE, is attempting the same horrific genocide today. And for the...

Richard H. Schwartz

Mar 21, 2023, 6:49 PM

Jewish Environmental Teachings Useful for an “Environmental Shabbat”

This year, Earth Day (April 22) falls on a Saturday, providing an excellent opportunity to turn the day into an “Environmental Shabbat.” I am working with others to encourage rabbis all over the world to give sermons and/or classes...

Feb 22, 2023, 10:18 PM

What Israel’s former Prime Minister told me

We stand at the precipice of history—our survival depends on our choices today! At a magnificent dinner in a private home, Chana and I had the good fortune of meeting the former Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett. He told...

Mordechai Silverstein

Feb 14, 2023, 3:12 PM

Kindness Builds God’s World

לזכר אפרים יצחק יעקבסון ז"ל - איש תורה ומעשה The role of Parshat Mishpatim in the rabbinic tradition points to the significance of the “mitzvot bein adam l’havero – the mitzvot governing the relationship between people” for Jews. God’s reputation...

Feb 24, 2022, 2:11 PM

Are you wealthy?

In Johannesburg, we have beggars positioned on most intersections. One eccentric character has hung out in our neighbourhood for as long as we've lived here. He loves gaudy clothes and sunglasses, wears earphones that don't plug into anything, and...

Mordechai Silverstein

Feb 21, 2022, 11:05 AM

On the Precipice of Evil (2 Kings 11:17-12:17)

This Shabbat begins the cycle of four special Shabbatot which precede Pesah. The first of these, Shabbat Shekalim, deals with the special Jewish half shekel tax which was collected for a variety of needs in the Temple. The special...

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