Posts Tagged ‘vayikra’

vayikra

March 20, 2015
By bethmordecai
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Parashat Vayikra (ויקרא) — All for One and One for All

Parashat Vayikra 2015/5775 (Triennial II) -- All for One and One for All The first verse of this week's triennial Torah portion (Leviticus 3:1) speaks of the "zevah sh'lamim korbano," the offering of the sacrifice of well-being. This sacrifice is the third of six sacrifices described in the early chapters of Leviticus (burnt, grain, well-being, sin, guilt, and thanksgiving). The key Hebrew root embedded in the offering of the sacrifice of well-being is "sh-l-m" meaning peace or wholeness. The rabbis in the Sifra, a 3rd century CE midrash on Leviticus, teaches us that because it contains the root "sh-l-m," the well-being sacrifice contains within it all of the other sacrifices so that TOGETHER they bring peace/wholeness to the world AND that[...]

Category : Online Learning Online Parashah Class
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vayikra

March 7, 2014
By bethmordecai
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DAY 615: Reflecting On the Purpose of Becoming a Bar or Bat Mitzvah

Dear Hevreh, If you take a look around the internet or ask a number of Jewish leaders, you might get the feeling that a bar or bat mitzvah (plural = b'nei mitzvah) is not such a good thing. Too much time focused on the party, too little emphasis on the meaning of "coming of age," too much memorization of random words and phrases in Hebrew of uninspiring Torah and Haftarah portions. If you listen to enough of the noise about b'nei mitzvah you might get the impression that they signal the decline of Jewish life.    I admit that I often agreed with these sentiments, perhaps because when I became a bar mitzvah I wanted to do and lead much more of the ritual service than my peers, including reading all of [...]

Category : Bar and Bat Mitzvah Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Shabbat
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vayikra


By bethmordecai
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Parashat Vayikra (ויקרא) — The Secrets of the Torah

2014/5774 (Triennial I) -- The Secrets of the Torah There is something strange in the first word of this week’s Torah portion Vayikra, which also is the Hebrew namesake of the fourth book of the Torah called Leviticus. The final letter, the aleph, is smaller than the other letters. Why is that? Is it a typo, a scribal error? Or is there something more to this aleph ze-ira (small aleph) than simply its small stature, something that hints at the secrets embedded within each word and each letter of the Torah. We’ll figure it out together during this week’s class.   

Category : Online Learning Online Parashah Class
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