Pesach Day 1 (Shabbat) Ex. 12:21 – 12:51; Num. 28:16-25 Rabbi Baht Weiss A week before Passover I engaged in one of my favorite activities, putting on a gray wig and beard, grabbing a wooden staff (stick) and walking down to our preschool classrooms to perform my role of Moses. It is always a great […]
Metzora 5782 (Shabbat HaGadol) Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33 Rabbi Baht Yameem Weiss This week’s Torah portion Metzora speaks about contamination that can affect people’s homes. Leviticus 14: 34-36 says, “When you enter the land of Canaan that I give you as a possession, and I inflict an eruptive plague (nega tzaraat) upon your house in […]
Tazria 5782 (Shabbat HaChodesh) Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59 Rabbi Gary Pokras Once, a friend who is a Methodist minister asked me how I would handle a crisis of faith so deep that it would challenge my commitment to Judaism. I remember thinking for a while before answering his question with another question, which is what […]
Shemini 5782 (Shabbat Parah) Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47 Rabbi Gary Pokras Things start to move quickly in Shemini: the altar and the priesthood are dedicated with pomp and ceremony, and then later, Aaron’s sons are consumed by Divine fire for not following the laws of sacrifices. With all this drama, it is understandable that […]
Tzav 5782 Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36 Rabbi Gary Pokras Command Aaron and his sons, saying: “This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering which will remain upon the altar all night to the morning, and the fire of the altar will burn on it.” [Lev. 6:2] The burnt offering, […]
VaYikra 5782 (Shabbat Zachor) Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26 Rabbi Gary Pokras To put it mildly, the book of Leviticus is a challenge. The entire book completely abandons the narrative of the Exodus from Egypt, leaving it to the next book of the Torah to pick up. Instead, the book of Leviticus focuses almost exclusively on […]
Pekudei 5782 Exodus 38:21 – 40:38 Rabbi Gary Pokras This is it. The end of the book. The mishkan, the holy sanctuary, has finally been completed. I don’t have to tell you that it hasn’t been easy. Just two Torah portions ago we worshipped the Golden Calf – while Moses was up on the mountain […]
Return to Community of Action The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Background: Since its inception in 2017, Strong Schools Maryland has built a sprawling network of tens of thousands of individual grassroots supporters focused on securing the 2020 passage and 2021 veto override of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a law dedicating financial resources and critical […]
VaYakhel 5782 Exodus 35:1 – 38:20 Rabbi Jack Luxemburg The first word of this Torah portion gives the portion its name, Vayak’heil. It begins the opening verse: וַיַּקְהֵל מֹשֶׁה, אֶת-כָּל-עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל–וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם: אֵלֶּה, הַדְּבָרִים, אֲשֶׁר-צִוָּה יְהוָה, לַעֲשֹׂת אֹתָם And Moses gathered (vayak’heil) all the legions of Israel and said to them, “These […]
Ki Tissa 5782 Exodus 30:11 – 34:35 Rabbi Gary Pokras Ki Tissa is an odd portion, reminiscent of the children’s song “one of these things is not like the other ones.” The two portions before Ki Tissa and the two portions after are all focused on the design and construction of the mishkan, where […]
