This week we mark the beginning of Adar Rishon, or Adar 1, the additional month of a Jewish leap year. Measuring and marking the passage of time is a universal human preoccupation. At least forty different calendars are in use around the world today. The most widely used systems are the solar calendar, based on the cycle of the sun, and the lunar calendar, based on the cycle of the ...
Read MoreHarry Rothenberg explains that this week, the phrase "On the Wings of Eagles..." can only be referring to a team in Philadelphia. View this video directly on VIMEO
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The Ten Commandments were inscribed on two tablets. On the first tablet were five statements about the relationship between a person and his or her Creator (G-d and parents). The second five focus on the relationship between a person and his or her peers. The design of the tablets teaches us, that in order to be complete, people must cultivate proper relationships with their peers just as much as they ...
Read MoreThe relationship between man and his fellow man is equivalent to the relationship of G-d and His people. View this video directly on Vimeo.
Read MoreWhat do Batman and Two-Face have to do with the wood that Jacob the forefather planted in Egypt for descendants to use for the Mishkan? Harry Rothenberg makes it all perfectly clear in this short video. View this video directly on VIMEO
Read MoreRabbi Becher explains who planted a forest of Acacia wood in Egypt, which gave hope to the Jewish slaves. View this video directly on Vimeo.
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This week we begin the month of Adar, in which the festival of Purim falls. We are enjoined to begin rejoicing already at the beginning of the month. The Purim story begins about 900 years after the Exodus from Egypt. The Jews had been living in Israel continually, since they first entered with Joshua. For 410 years, King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem had been the focal point of Jewish spiritual ...
Read MoreIn Exodus 25:8, G-d promises the Jewish people that if they build the Tabernacle, He will dwell amongst them. But isn't G-d already everywhere? And now that the Tabernacle and the Temples have been destroyed, where does G-d reside? View this video directly on Vimeo
Read MoreThe Real Test is Inside Rabbi Becher discusses why is the inner gold "more pure" than the outer gold of the holy ark? View this video directly on Vimeo
Read MoreRabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch devotes almost an entire volume (Vol. III) of his Collected Writings to the symbolism of the Sanctuary. I would like to share with you just a few insights. We note that all the dimensions of the Tabernacle, the portable Sanctuary constructed in the Sinai desert, were whole numbers except for the Holy Ark, where every dimension is a fraction, and the height of the table of ...
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