Noshing Across the Nation

Children, Israel, Food, Torah – things I love and talk about often!

Category: Torah

  • Women’s Simchat Torah

    Simchat Torah in my shul is pretty happy with lots of dancing on the ground floor, and lots of women watching from above. Normally, this arrangement is fine with me. I, actually like to be on the second floor, where on a regular Shabbat we don’t have many women, and I can see and hear…

  • וְזֹאת הַבְּרָכָה – And this is the Blessing

    We are approaching the end of the Autumn Holy Days, the last two parashot in the Torah before starting anew with “In the Beginning”. This week is the final blessing Moshe gives to the nation, the “stiff-necked people” he had to deal with for over 40 years. He has the strength and the desire to…

  • קוּמִי אוֹרִי, כִּי בָא אוֹרֵךְ; וּכְבוֹד יְהוָה, עָלַיִךְ זָרָח. Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

    This week’s Haftarah brings me back to Jerusalem, of course. Jerusalem, as a city of prophets and a place for G-d’s vision to come alive, a city with blood, tears, hopes and joy all intertwined with each other in one giant ball of cosmic energy too tight and ready to burst out. It always seems…

  • Life after Pardes in Jerusalem

    Well, every good thing comes to an end, and I am firmly settled back in the land of the USA, the city of New York, the supposed “center of the world” or so it deems itself. For me, of course, this phrase does not ring true. The only real center of the world is Jerusalem,…

  • חֻקַּת – Laws

    Reading this Parshah, everyone always speaks about the red heifer – פָּרָה אֲדֻמָּה I want to talk about the people leading the nation, and their tragedies. This is a Parshah, where both Miriam and Aaron die and Moses makes that tragic mistake that costs him his entrance to Eretz Yisrael. א  וַיָּבֹאוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל כָּל-הָעֵדָה מִדְבַּר-צִן, בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן, וַיֵּשֶׁב…

  • Korach קֹרַח

    This is a Parshah about leadership. Leadership לשם שמים – for the sake of heaven, and leadership for the sake of oneself. It is also about holiness – קְדֻשָּׁה‎. Are we all holy? Is there one role more holy than another? What is an individual’s place in society? It is also about wisdom – wisdom to act…

  • Beha’alotecha

    A few takes on this week’s Parshah come from some of the sources I like: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Take the Levites from among the Israelites and purify them.’” (Numbers 8:5)  Parashat B’ha-alot’cha describes the final preparations for leaving Sinai: the purification of the Levites, the order of the tribes, and the trumpet calls to signal the people (Num. 10:11-28).…

  • Bamidbar

    “Do not on any account enrol the tribe of Levi or take a census of them with the Israelites.”  (Numbers 1:49)  Below are the words of Dr. David Ackerman: Parashat Bamidbar opens the fourth book of the Torah, also called Bamidbar, in the wilderness of…  In Bamidbar, God orders Moses to prepare the Israelites for their wilderness trek by conducting a conduct a census…

  • Acharei Mot – אַֽחֲרֵ֣י מ֔וֹת

    Tomorrow is my dad’s Yortzait according to the Hebrew date. Fittingly, the Parshah for the week is Acharei Mot – after the death. I have written a lot about this, and there’s nothing to add today. The pain and the emptiness stay with us, the good memories last much longer, thankfully. Looking back, I get to realize…

  • Tazria-Metzora

    This is a hard Parshah for me as, actually, most of the Parashot in Leviticus – Vayikra. I am going to bring you another commentary from a source that is not that well-known (I think). I subscribe to a newsletter by a Rabbi Ben Zion Spitz, the former Chief Rabbi of Uruguay. He brings an…