Timeless Torah

Man must be occupied, but not preoccupied with his labor. After all, as Albert Reichman the religious multi-millionaire developer admitted: the reason for his phenomenal success is, “5% brains, 95% mazal.”  read more »

Though the borders of space and time have moved outward at speeds once hardly imaginable, the laws of geometry still hold true. Regardless of how distant the circumference, the immutable and immeasurable Sanctuary (holy space) and Shabbat (holy time), must be at the core of our hectic lives.  read more »

The building of the desert Sanctuary was Creation in reverse. Creation is Hashem hiding His spirituality under dull gold, while the Sanctuary underscored that the glitter of gold cannot hide G-d.  read more »

Man accomplishes many things solely by dint of Divine assistance. Still G-d repays him as if he had done everything on his own! This is G-d’s “kindness.  read more »

Judaism with its invisible G-d obviously had a negative attitude towards representational art as images, icons, and statues were all associated with idolatry. So why is Betzalel shaping religious artifacts into objects of beauty?  read more »

Personality Turnover  read more »

All around the world, Jewish communities in Europe, South America, Australia and in our very own Sunshine State will be heading to their synagogues this Shabbat to read the two final portions of the book of Exodus and shake their heads in puzzlement about the situation in Israel.  read more »

Now that the Second Tablets had been brought down from Sinai, the construction of a Sanctuary that would house this Testimony of Law became crucially relevant. This was especially true after the aberration of the Golden Calf. In light of the nation’s spiritual weakness, they understood the need for a Temple that would remind them of the Divine presence in their midst.  read more »

After this week’s customary reading of the Biblical portion, there will be an additional Torah scroll that is unfurled. It is from this second Sefer Torah that we will hear of the ancient requirement that every Israelite was to contribute a half-shekel as “a ransom for his soul”. This mandated donation atoned for the sin of the Golden Calf. In actual practice, the collected monies were used to acquire the public offerings brought upon the Altar and also for the upkeep of the Temple itself.  read more »

Let’s learn a little kaballah.

The two commandments in the Bible of building the Sanctuary and resting on the Shabbos are placed side by side to teach us that the former gives way to the latter. The Talmud observes that the connection between these two mitzvohs is not happenstance. Indeed according to the Sages, the thirty nine malachos (forms of constructive actions) which are forbidden on the seventh day of rest actually parallel the thirty nine types of labor that were necessary to build the Mishkan.  read more »