Yitro 5774-2014
“Jethro’s Blessing” by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, joins the People of Israel after they had been delivered from the…
Devarim 5774-2014
“Moses: The Lonely Leader” by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This week’s parasha, parashat Devarim, opens the fifth book of the Torah, the book of Devarim, also known as Deuteronomy. Much of…
Kee Tisah 5776-2016
“Moses Pleads on Behalf of the People of Israel” by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This week’s parasha, parashat Kee Tisah, features the infamous sin of the Golden Calf. The Al-mighty…
Tzav–Passover 1 5778-2018
“Making Holiness Contagious” by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Tzav, we are reintroduced to the laws of the Mincha, מִנְחָה , the meal offering, that were…
Sukkot 5780-2019
“A Sukkot Story: Devotion to a Festival” (Updated and revised from Sukkot 5761-2000) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald The famed Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin records the unusual story concerning…
Weekly Message,Tazria,Metzorah
Tazria-Metzorah 5780-2020
“Challenging the Stereotypes: Purity and Impurity in Childbirth” (edited and revised from Parashiot Tazria-Metzorah 5761-2001) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In the first of…
Love in the Liturgy
Most people would identify prayer as a vertical endeavor: Mortals communicating with God. Yet, as we will learn, there is a beautiful custom to begin our prayers by thinking horizontally,…
Closing Eyes
Can you murder a dying man? There is an interesting passage in the Talmud that states:“Our Rabbis taught, ‘He who closes [the eyes of a dying person] at the point of death is a murderer.…
Wash and Dry
The miracles of modern science have made us aware of the vast world of micro-organisms that previous generations never knew existed. We now know that there are good bacteria that help us…
“He Was the Best Man We Had”
(Quote by David Ben Gurion) In early 1948, knowing that the untrained and disorganized Jewish fighting forces could not withstand a true battle for the Promised Land, David Ben…