This Shabbat is known as Parashat Hachodesh. We take out a second Torah and read from it the portion that gives us the great responsibility – commandment, even – of setting a calendar. This portion is always read in anticipation of Passover. We do so to reinforce in our minds the connection between freedom and

On Shabbat Parah we take out a second Torah and read about the red heifer whose ashes were used to purify those who came into contact with death. The Talmud also describes the red heifer as atonement for the sin of the golden calf, which the people worshipped after they thought Moshe had abandoned them.

There is a Talmudic tradition that the descendants of wicked Haman, who sought to destroy the Jewish people, ended up studying Torah in the city of Bene Berak. This teaches us, explained Rav Kook, that we should never become vindictive even toward our greatest foe. How much more so when people with good intentions upset us,

The book of Vayikra – Leviticus opens with: God called to Moshe and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting…The Rabbis say this verse teaches that God is, as it were, well-mannered.  He did not abruptly begin a conversation with Moshe but first he called him and only then did he begin to speak to him. Vayikra

Moshe shall dress Aaron...and consecrate him, that he be a priest to Me. And Aaron’s sons he shall bring forward and anoint them as he anointed their father...Moses did as all that the LORD had charged him, thus he did. Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk claimed that this act was the true measure of Moshe’s