Parsha Beha’aloscha 5772 — Aaron HaKohen’s Enthusiasm and Constancy and the Aleinu Prayer

by Moshe Burt

Our Parsha notes:

“And Aaron did so, toward the face of the Menorah he kindled the lamps, as Hashem had commanded Moshe.” (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 8, posuk 3 translation as rendered in the Artscroll Chumash, page 775)

Many commentators including Rashi and the S’fas Emes, as cited by by R’ Zelig Pliskin in “Growth Through Torah”, note that this posuk expresses the epitomization of the enthusiasm and constancy of Aaron HaKohen’s Service in the Mishkan as a paradigm for B’nai Yisrael to emulate. read more

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Parshat Naso 5772: Unity, Fairness, and Honesty Between Jews; Toward Ger’im, Ba’alei Teshuva and Olim Chadashim

by Moshe Burt

This year, our Parsha Naso falls out on the Shabbos after Shavuot, but the lessons regarding national unity as expressed by the Kohanim in the Birchat Kohanim, and fairness, honesty in dealings and interelationships between all types of Jews are pertinent for all-time, not just as paradigm for Mattan Torah.

The importance of these common threads in carving out national unity would, or should extend to the nuture and acceptance of Ba’alei Teshuva into the observant community, as well as to an attitude of respect, acceptance and cooperation by an indigenous Jewish kehal, be it on a national level or a local one, for new arrivals — be they Ger Tzaddikim or Olim Chadashim. read more

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Parshat Bamidbar 5772: 600,000 Jewish Neshamot in Bamidbar — But What About the Levi’im?

by Moshe Burt

Our Parsha Bamidbar deals with the numbers crunching of the census taken “on the first of the second month, in the second year after their exodus from… Mitzriyim.” (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 1, posuk 1)

This author addressed the transference of the Kehuna (priesthood) from the first-borns to the Kohanim in vorts on Parshat Ki Tisa in successive years.

But the Kehuna was not all that was taken from the first-born after the Eigel Zahav — the golden calf. The census of our parsha Bamidbar reveals that Hashem kavei’yokel (as He is) transferred, replaced, or as the word is used in the parsha — “redeemed”, the Kedusha of the first-borns through the Levi’im. Our parsha states (Artscroll Chumash rendering of Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 3, posukim 11-12): read more

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Parsha Bechukotai 5772: The Tochocha and Measuring a Jew’s Connection With His Home — Eretz Yisrael

by Moshe Burt

Our Parsha Bechukotai is but another in the series of Parshiyot usually paired with the one it preceeds as a doubleheader, in this case Parsha Behar.

Therefore, yet another opportunity exists to emphasize, in another way, the connection between the Jew and Eretz Yisrael.

In Parshat Behar, Hashem instills in us to parallel the laws of Shabbos: six days you shall work and you shall rest, refrain from all
manner of avodah on the seventh day… to keep it Holy, just as in emulation of Hashem’s creation of the universe; with the laws of
Shemittoh: ‘I will command My blessing during the sixth year and it will provide produce for three years’ we see beyond the Hatam Sofer’s explanation that:
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