Shemini – The Abominable Eight’s Missing Member
The nachash, the snake, makes two appearances in the parsha. Actually, one is better described as a conspicuous non-appearance and the other is one where it is described in words but not by name....
Author: Avi Shafran
My Father’s Matzo
A Pesach -themed piece of mine appeared in the Boston Globe and can be read here. If you’re denied access, just let me know ([email protected]) and I’ll happily share a PDF.
Tzav – The Import of the Ashes
An interesting Midrash is cited by Rav Yosef Nechemia Kornitzer (1880-1933), a great-grandson of the Chasam Sofer who served as the av beis din of Cracow before World War II. The Midrash is found...
Vayikra – A Phenomenal “Fat”
Among the eimorim, the portions of non-olah animal korbanos that are burned on the mizbe’ach, in contrast to the animal’s meat, which is eaten, is the cheilev she’al hak’layos – the “fat atop the...
Pekudei – One Thing Leads to Another
It’s intriguing that, just as Chazal place importance on being masmich geulah litfillah – placing a reference to redemption immediately before prayer, i.e. the amidah (Berachos 4b, 9b) – we find something similar in...
Two Purim Pieces
My Ami column for the Purim issue can be read here. And a piece I wrote for Religion News Service is here. A happy and meaningful Purim to all! AS
Parshas Ki Sisa – Wealth Recycles
A famous palindromic word in the Torah is venasnu, in the second pasuk in the parsha. It means “and each man must give,” in the context of contributing the machatzis hashekel, which the Torah...
Tetzaveh – When Obscenity is Apt
The imperatives of civility and refined speech are strongly stressed in the Talmud and in halacha. Yet, like all ideals, even those have their limits. An exception – the only one – to the...
Terumah – Sanctifiers
The word mikdash in the pasuk “They shall make for Me a mikdash so that I may dwell among them” (Shemos 25:8) should, by reason, be mishkan, as various meforshim point out. It is,...
Mishpatim – A Puzzling Prohibition
There’s something puzzling about the law prohibiting a judge to take a bribe (Shemos 23:8). The law, of course, is aimed at ensuring that a decision will be made without prejudice. As the pasuk...
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