Machon Har Tsion

“See, I place before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing that you will heed the commandments of The Compassionate One your God that I command you today, and the curse, if you do not heed the commandments of The Compassionate One your God, and turn aside from the way that I command [...]

This week we read the final two portions of the Book of Numbers Matot Heads of Tribes and Masei Marching Stages. The 40 year journey from the Exodus out of Egypt through the Wilderness of Sinai have reached the very frontier of the Promised Land.

But they are not the same Children of Israel. [...]

This week’s Torah portion Hukkat The Law spans nearly the entire 40 years of wanderings in the Wilderness of Sinai. It begins with the law of the holy cow, the red heifer whose ashes provide purification after contact with death. This is one of those laws whose meaning is not obtainable to human [...]

This week’s Torah portion, Korach, reports the most serious mutiny faced by Moshe Moses during the 40 years of wandering in the Wilderness of Sinai before the Children of Israel entered the Promised Land. Korach, first cousin to Moshe and a prominent member of the tribe of Levi, took with him another 250 men [...]

This Shabbat we begin the 4th of the 5 Books of Moshe Moses BaMidbar In the Wilderness. The English name Numbers is derived from an older Hebrew name which means mustering or taking a count. This week’s Torah portion, also called BaMidbar, begins with a recording of a census.

Moshe receives the following charge [...]

This week we reach the final two portions of Leviticus, the third of the 5 books of Moses – Behar On the mountain and Behukotai In My statutes.

Behar talks about the creation of a just society in which we actively prevent our brethren becoming destitute, help those who become impoverished and do not allow a [...]

This dvar Torah teaching is dedicated to the raising of the soul of my father Yaakov ben Yeshayahu Halevi (Jack Kelter) whose yarzeit anniversary of passing was this week on the 12th day of the month of Iyar.
Pesach Passover marked the beginning of what Sir Isaiah Berlin called “negative liberty”, freedom in the sense of [...]

This week we reach the moral center of the entire Torah with the double portion Acharei Mot –Kedoshim After the Death-Holy Ones. Chapter 19, the beginning of Kedoshim, starts:”Be holy for I, the Lord you God am holy.”

In real life society of widespread corruption, including in the Holy Land, it is tempting to succumb [...]

This week we read a double Torah portion Tazria When She Produces Seed which refers to the period after childbirth and Metzora Biblical Leper a disease that does not occur in our times. Both portions deal with ritual impurity and in both cases a period of social separation is required as part of the [...]

When we love another passionately we feel impelled to give to our loved one. Sometimes, however, what we have to give is not that which our loved one wants or feels comfortable with receiving. The loved one may feel uncomfortable with the intensity, the tempo, the frequency or the way that the gift [...]