The Three Weeks

The Seventeenth of Tammuz begins a three week period of mourning that culminated with Tisha B’Av, the Ninth of Av.  The Mishnah states: Five things happened to our ancestors on the 17th of Tammuz — The First Tablets were broken, the daily offering ceased, the walls of Jerusalem were breached, the evil Apostomus burnt a Torah scroll, and an idol was set up in the Sanctuary. The first calamity to occur on ...

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Everlasting Covenant of Peace

G-d promised Pinchas that he would have a covenant of peace, and that “his children after him will have the covenant of the priesthood forever” (Bamidbar 25:13).  Rabbi Yosef Karo explains that G-d was promising Pinchas that his descendants would be righteous, and that despite all the exiles and persecutions that would occur in future, his family line would survive throughout history.  The promise also included a guarantee that his ...

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