Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Balak How goodly are your tents, o Jacob, Your dwellings, o Israel! (Bemidbar 24:4) How goodly are your tents, O Jacob – Two tents of Jacob's multitude. These are tents of men and tents of women. Your dwelling, O Israel – 'Dwelling' is the gathering of the people's leadership which exits in two forms; the assembly of those appointed to deal with public needs in worldly matters, and the gathering of the great scholars of Israel...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Chukkat "And Moshe lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their cattle drank" (Bemidbar 20:11) The Striking of the Boulder- Response Out Of Desperation or Fulfillment of God's Command? Have we the right to investigate the feelings of Moshe our teacher at that moment? What was in the heart of 'the servant of God' – about whom God himself testified "in...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Korach And they assembled against Moshe and Aharon and said to them, "You have too much! For all the community are holy, and in their midst is the Lord, and why should you raise yourselves up over the Lord's assembly?" (Bemidbar 16:3) For all the community are holy, and in their midst is the Lord, and why should you raise yourselves up over the Lord's assembly. It seems to me that the proper interpretation is that...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Shelach But mighty is the people that dwells in the land, And the towns are fortified and very big, And also the offspring of the giant we saw there. (Bemidbar 13:28) "But" – the word 'effes' indicates a deficiency or cancellation of something preceding so here the intent of the scouts was to say of what benefit is the fact that the land flows with milk and honey, all this is nothing and...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Behaalotcha Or two days or a month or a year, when the cloud lingered over the Tabernacle to abide over it, the Israelites would camp and would not journey onward, and when it lifted, they would journey onward. By the lord's word they would camp and by the lord's word they would journey onward. (Bemidbar 9:22-23) By the Lord's word they would camp – The purpose behind their encamping and travelling by the word of the...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Nasso FROM the age of THIRTY YEARS and upward; to the age of fifty years you are to count them. ALL who enter to join-forces with the working-force, to serve the serving-tasks in the tent of appointment. (Bemidbar 4:23, E. Fox translation)) All who enter the work-force –The meaning of tsava is a group of people gathered together to fulfill their appointed function. All who join-forces with the working-force mean...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Behukotay "And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people." (Leviticus 26, 12) "And I will walk among you" – I will stroll with you in the Garden of Eden as one of you and you shall not become shocked because of Me; but will you not fear Me? "And I will become your God" (Genesis, 3, 8) The phrase 'and I shall walk among you' should not...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Behar By the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy from your fellow, and by the number of years of yield he shall sell to You. The larger the number of years, the more you shall pay for its purchase and the smaller the number of years, the less shall you pay for its purchase. (Vayikra 25:15-16) By the number of years after the Jubilee shall you buy – this is the simple meaning...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of work; it is a Sabbath unto the LORD in all your dwellings. (Leviticus 23, 3) Shabbat. Means rest, cessation and stoppage from work, and in my opinion it includes study and investigation, from 'I returned and saw under the sun', 'For after I turned back I repented' which is...