Explore sources appreciating water. With Hebrew-English sources and discussion questions. Great for adult learning programs.
This content originated at http://canfeinesharim.org/community/sukkos.php.
(has
1 attachments)
Read More
by Rabbi Yonatan Neril [1]
Water and rain are deeply tied to the holidays of Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret. In the time of the Temple, on Sukkot the High Priest in Jerusalem would perform an elaborate ritual involving the raising of water from the spring below the Temple. On Shemini Atzeret, at the beginning of Israel's rainy season, we recite a special blessing for rain. We pray that the Divine bring beneficial rain, which falls at the right time to nourish our crops and fill our reservoirs. Sukkot is thus an important time to appreciate and protect our water ...
Read More
By Candace Nachman
As we enter the Hebrew month of Elul, each Jew has an opportunity for internal reflection. Elul, the month immediately preceding Rosh Hashanah, is a time for each of us to work on our own spiritual growth. In an age when our localized actions have global ramifications, it is time for each of us to sit back and reflect on how our actions affect the environment and those with whom we share this earth.
During the month of Elul, we read parshat Shoftim, a good time to review the mitzvah of bal tashchit. Literally meaning “do not destroy&rd...
Read More
By: Rachel Neiman
There is a debate in the Gemara, (Rosh Hashana, 10b), as to whether the world was created in the month of Tishrei or the month of Nissan. Clearly, we have come to accept the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer that on the first of Tishrei, when we celebrate Rosh Hashana, we are not only commemorating a new year, but the birth of the earth. In the mussaf prayer on Rosh Hashana, after the various blowings of the shofar, we repeat the refrain, "Hayom Haras Olam," "Today is the birthday of the world."
However, in the ...
Read More
By: Yonatan Neril
Tekiah, teruah, tekiah: the central commandment on Rosh Hashanah is to hear the shofar blasts. What is so special about these three blasts? How do they relate to this being a period of tshuva-repentance-and self-reflection? How do they relate to the world we live in?
Rabbi Moshe Teitlebaum, z'l, the previous Satmar rebbe,1 likens the three notes of the shofar to three stages of a person's actions. The first note-- tekia- hints at a simple sound, without distortion, because a person is born righteous, a Divine part ...
Read More
By Drew Kaplan
View a Printable Verison | View a Source Sheet
Since Yitzhak went to the field to pray in this week’s Torah portion, the world has not been the same. The Talmud offers two sources for our requirement to pray three daily prayers; one is the prayers themselves of the three forefathers of the Jewish people. Avraham is credited with instituting shaharit, the morning prayer; Yitzhak grants us minhah, the afternoon prayer; and Ya’akov gives us ma’ariv, the evening prayer. The Talmud cites a verse from the Book of Genesis to establ...
Read More
By Udi Hammerman
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
Shemot, the Hebrew title of the Book of Exodus, means “names”, suggesting how significant the issue of identity will be as the saga of Jewish slavery, redemption and revelation unfolds. Shemot opens with a list of the names of the Children of Israel as they came down to Egypt, counting each individual within those families: “Now all those descended from Jacob were seventy souls, and Joseph, who was in ...
Read More
By Dr. David Goldblatt
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
Divine chastisement, brought in the form of affliction and suffering, can be an effective, if undesirable, instrument for individual and social learning. The ten plagues that G-d visits on the Egyptians and their Pharaoh in this week’s portion Va’era (as well as in next week’s portion Bo) publicly demonstrate G-d’s power to both Egypt ...
Read More
By Rabbi Shaul David Judelman
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
The original Jewish geography, according to our mystical tradition, has three components- Place, Time and Soul (Olam, Shanah and Nefesh). These are the basic dimensions in which we exist and interact with our world. Environmental thought often dwells in the realm of place, as clearly the physical world has inherent ecological import. Therefore, when we ...
Read More
By Yonatan Neril
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
The Ten Commandments given in this week’s Torah portion Yitro culminate with the command not to covet: “You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or whatever belongs to your neighbor.”[1] The 19th century Torah ...
Read More
By Rabbi Norman Lamm, PhD
View Printable Version l View Source Sheet
In this week’s Torah portion of Mishpatim, G-d commands the Jewish people concerning the laws of borrowing and guarding property.[2] The relations between G-d, people, and nature may be clarified by referring to the Halakhah (Jewish law) concerning the relationships between owner, material, and artisan. The Mishnah discusses the case of a man (owner) who gave some material to an artisan to fashion it. The artisan, instead of repairing, spoiled the object. The law is that the artisan must ...
Read More
By Ariel Shalem
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
The Mishkan (Sanctuary), the traveling “House of G-d” built by the Israelites in the desert, is an elaborate structure built of royal and expensive materials. Reading the passages that describe its construction, one could easily be led to ask, “What does ...
Read More
By Shimshon Stüart Siegel
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
The Torah portion Tetzaveh continues the instructions for the building of the Mishkan, or Sanctuary, which were begun in last week's portion, Terumah. The Mishkan is the center of the Israelite camp, the locus of the Divine Presence ...
Read More
By Shimshon Stüart Siegel (with research by Yonatan Neril)
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
Parshat Ki Tisa opens with G-d commanding Moses (Moshe) to take a census of the Children of Israel by collecting a half-shekel coin from each adult. The silver from these coins is to be used to make the ...
Read More
By Yonatan Neril
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
Our Torah portion this week, Vayakhel, begins with Moses (Moshe) assembling the entire community of Israel and commanding them in the mitzvah that many say is the essence of Judaism: "These are the things that the Lord commanded ...
Read More
By Rabbi Shlomo Levin and Yonatan Neril [1]
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
This week’s Torah portion of Vayikra describes the various voluntary and obligatory sacrifices that ...
Read More
By Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
And that which is left thereof [from the meal-offering] shall Aaron and his sons eat; ...
Read More
By Candace Nachman
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
In this week’s Torah portion, Shemini, the Jewish people are given the laws concerning fish ...
Read More
By Ora Sheinson
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
Rabbi Judah said in the name of Rav: Everything that the Holy One, Blessed Be, created in G-d's world -G-d did not create a single thing in vain. (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 77b)
In Genesis, G-d looked at all that G-d created and saw that it was very good.[1] Since then, the vast diversity of life on the planet has not gone unnoticed by Jewish Sages. Explicitly because the Torah ascribes G-d’s intention as well as G-d’s satisfaction to the existence of every ...
Read More
By Noam Yehuda Sendor
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
Before the sin of Adam and Chava (Eve), the Earth provided sustenance not through the plotting and plowing of people, but rather through prayer. In the Talmud (200 C.E.-~500 C.E.), the Sage Rav Assi expounds that the vegetation would not break through the Earth until Adam came along and prayed to G-d to have mercy on the Earth. The rains fell and the Earth sprouted.[1] The removal of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil can be interpreted as a decision to derive pleasure ...
Read More
