This Shabbat, we celebrate the Shabbat before Pesach known as Shabbat Hagadol (the Great Shabbat), on which our Torah reading continues through the book of Leviticus, the book dedicated to outlining the Jewish code of holiness.  As we know, the entire book of Exodus which was read for so many weeks prior and which we will recall again as we sit at our Seder tables next week, was devoted to the establishment of the covenant between our ancestors and God.  As we make our way through the book of Vayikra, we find the details of how that covenant will manifest through the human/divine Read more...

The highest praise a rabbi hears is that her or his sermons and classes are always relevant, by which the generous congregant means that the topics always pertain to the lives of the people in the synagogue and are not arcane or archaic in content.  But another way to translate that praise is to hear it as saying that the rabbi didn’t stretch the congregant’s sense of what pertains to modern living.  If “relevant” means, “something the congregant already has an interest in,” then a rabbi who restricts teaching to those areas simply prevents the congregant from a broader interest i Read more...

For the second week in a row, our Torah  presents a detailed account of the sacrifices offered first in the Mishkan in the wilderness and later in the Temple of Jerusalem.  Sin offerings, guilt offerings, burnt offerings, and thanksgiving offerings, each with their own regulations and procedures, claim Jewish attention as the central means for Biblical Jews to atone for wrong-doing and to renew themselves as children of God.    Read more...

Traditionally, the Book of Va-Yikra (Leviticus) was known as Torah Kohanim, "the Teachings of the Priests." Its contents are directed to people who would be ministering in the TempleinJerusalemand its topics pertain to priestly sacrifice, ritual and purity. Read more...