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Danielle Sobkin

May 18, 2025, 11:08 AM

The Language Crisis Nobody’s Talking About

(via social media)

“You said you would.” It’s a phrase I’ve come back to more times than I’d like to count. It’s small—just four words—but it carries the full weight of disappointment, betrayal, and memory. It’s what you think when someone makes a...

Reuven Chaim Klein

May 17, 2025, 11:05 PM

Mammon, Blood Money, and Movable Money

Even though back in ancient times, they may not have had all the complex financial instruments that we use nowadays, people were certainly well-aware of the concept of “money,” and its use as legal tender. In this essay, we...

May 16, 2025, 5:25 PM

Emor: Holy Days

'Above the Clouds' by Taylor Van Riper (2017)

Within the passages of Emor, the Jewish calendar takes shape, G-d laying out a yearly cycle constructed around pillars of holiness, the ’מועדי ה, ‘the fixed times of G-d’ (Leviticus 23:2). These fixed times consist of the festivals of...

Ben-Tzion Spitz

May 14, 2025, 11:17 PM

Meat, Wine and Divine Intentions (Emor)

"Meat and Wine" (AI image by author)

Joy in Judaism is not hedonic; it is redemptive, cathartic, and spiritual.— Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik The Talmud (Pesachim 109a) teaches that there is no true celebration without meat and wine (apologies to my vegetarian friends). In Leviticus Chapter 23,...

May 14, 2025, 9:58 PM

‘Death and Taxes’ Parashat Emor 5785

The most pertinent part of the Portion of Emor to the modern Jew is the second half of the portion, which takes a deep dive into the Jewish calendar. The first half of the portion is largely concerned with...

May 13, 2025, 6:22 PM

The Priest and the Path of Radiant Integrity

The Priest and the Path of Radiant Integrity A Metaphysical Commentary on Emor: Leviticus 21:1–15 (First Aliyah) "… the supernal soul of man is eternal, it therefore shares an affinity with God. So too the soul is incorporeal and it also...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

May 13, 2025, 5:21 PM

The Omer connects us to Israeli agriculture

In Parshat Emor, we learn about the Omer offering. The mitzvah of the Omer takes place when the Jewish people are in the Land of Israel as we see in Vayikra 23:10: “Speak to B’nai Yisrael and say to...

Reuven Chaim Klein

May 10, 2025, 10:31 PM

Roses are Red – shoshanah, chavatzelet, vered

On the 9th of Iyyar in the year 2017, my grandmother Rose (Roszi) Klein passed away. She was born in 1928 in the Hungarian town of Bonyhad to Meir and Devorah Kuttner. After surviving the horrors of the Holocaust and...

May 9, 2025, 12:30 PM

Love Is Not Enough (Acharei Mot-Kedoshim)

The opening chapter of Kedoshim contains two of the most powerful of all commands: to love your neighbour and to love the stranger. “Love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord” goes the first. “When a stranger comes...

Ben-Tzion Spitz

May 8, 2025, 12:09 AM

Jewish Demonology (Acharei Mot – Kedoshim)

'Demon' (AI image by author)

I don’t believe in ghosts. But I’m afraid of them.— Edith Wharton Demonology hasn’t exactly been a hot topic in Jewish learning circles for the past few centuries. Still, belief in demons was once widespread—even mainstream—until relatively modern times. The...

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