Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Kedoshim A Jew who went through the Shoah, a Jew who lived through five wars: the War of Independence, the Sinai War, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and the Lebanon War, aside from the War of Attrition – is allowed to fear another war.  (Harav Amital, of Blessed Memory: "To Hear the Cry of a Baby" – quoted in: Moshe Maya – A World Built, Destroyed, and Rebuilt, p. 20)   Blessed is the...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Kedoshim YOU SHALL NOT STEAL. YOU SHALL NOT DENY FALSELY. YOU SHALL NOT LIE, ONE MAN TO HIS FELLOW. (Vayikra 19:1)   You shall not steal – This is formulated in the plural in order to teach you that one who sees and remains silent is a thief, just as is the person who took possession of the stolen goods. (Hizkuni on Vayikra 19:11)   You shall not steal – …if...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Kedoshim You shall faithfully observe all My laws and all My regulations, lest the land to which I bring you to settle in spew you out. You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. For it is because they did all these things that I abhorred them… You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and I have set you apart from other...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parashat Kedoshim YOU SHALL RISE BEFORE THE AGED  AND SHOW DEFERENCE TO THE OLD; YOU SHALL FEAR YOUR GOD: I AM THE LORD.  (Vayikra 19:32)   "You Shall Rise Before The Aged And Show Deference To The Old" –An Expression Of Human Dignity One must rise before one who is very old, even if he is not a wise man; even a young man who is wise must rise before a very old man, but he...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Kedoshim OUR CHALLENGE: RESPECTING NON-JEWS WHILE REMAINING DIFFERENT FROM THEM by Shira Leibowitz Schmidt When new styles of modern women's fashions reached the Jewish communities of Galicia in the early 19th century, the hassidic women began to be swept along with the prevailing trends. Rabbi Haim Halberstam (b.1793) was asked the following question ("she'elah"): Is it permissible for a Jewish woman to wear the kind of stylish headdress ("mitznefet") worn by the Gentile women?" The "mitznefet" was a kind of hair covering which, along with...