Flags and Tribes

This Shabbos we will be continuing reading about the various tribes, their duties, their encampment, flags and donations to the Mishkan.  This division into tribes was also seen earlier at the crossing of the Red Sea, where G-d took the unified waters of the sea and split them into multiple parts to create paths, one for each tribe. I think that one idea behind these divisions it that Hashem demonstrated ...

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Question: What is the Jewish Calendar? Answer: Its Complicated

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 moon.  Because of its orbit around the earth, the moon alternates between being fully exposed to sunlight (full moon) and ...

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Rabbi Mordechai Becher’s VLog – In Memory of my Mother – Parshat Nasso 5779

In this week's parsha, G-d commands the priests to bless the Jewish people. Jewish parents then took this blessing for themselves and used it to bless their children every Friday night. On the anniversary of the death (Yahrzeit) of his mother, Trudy Becher alov hashalom, Rabbi Becher looks at the blessing that a parent gives a child, and the blessings that his own parents in Australia gave to him as ...

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Clothes Maketh the Man or Woman (or do they?)

It is almost impossible to avoid media discussions about the clothes of the latest members of the British royal family.  A segment of a talk show is dedicated to this, newspaper articles, blogs and twitter feeds dwell on the most minute details of the royals’ fashion choices.  So, I thought that a few words may be in order regarding Judaism’s attitude to clothing, modesty and beauty. He has told you, O ...

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