365Shorts

Why are the offspring contaminated by a Kohen’s marriage to a non-virgin? Because the woman had her soul intertwined with somebody else before the marriage to the Kohen. There was a time before. So even if there is love, it is not the spiritual energy (of religious monogamy) needed to represent Hashem. How does it… Continue reading Emor

With Azazael we see two goats which die. One before Hashem and one off a cliff. In our world, everything dies. Azazael is just reminding us that there are two ways to die. One is with your life being dedicated to Hashem and timeless Kedusha and the other is just hurled over a cliff. We… Continue reading Achrei-Mot Kedoshim

Hugely controversial area. Why does a girl result in longer impurity? Some say girl brings more eventual death – but it isn’t true. Genghis Khan had many more kids than any woman – all of whom eventually died. I think it is about the woman’s own death. She has undergone an enormously dangerous process. Why?… Continue reading Tazria-Metzora

Why did they have to atone now, and not before the prior revelation at Har Sinai? Surely they sinned with the calf – but surely they also sinned in Egypt. They were a nation before – they’d been referred to that way prior to slavery. One answer is that they hadn’t sinned collectively. With the… Continue reading Shemini

Changing garments. In Oregon, we emphasize informality but old British shuls are very formal. They divide things up. Why does this Parsha repeat the sacrifices of the previous ones. It is addressed to Kohanim, but the Kohen parts could have just been tacked on sentences in the previous Parsha. Perhaps the concept is division. Perhaps… Continue reading Tzav

You have to bring offerings from your flock? Why, because you create Kedusha through the conversion of your creative effort into spiritual value, not from some random animals. Your flock is all that will do. In this reading, almost nothing is ‘most holy.’ Only grain offerings are put into this category. Why? These offerings are… Continue reading Vayikra

I have discussed how the Para Adumah is used to recall the time before death and risk. The time when we there was no loss of potential needed to drive us to make the good. The Para is never worked because mankind didn’t need labor in order live. It is red like Adam or the… Continue reading Chukat

Raise their heads. It has a double meaning as mentioned before with Joseph’s dreams. But it also reveals what we’re doing here. Why are all these names and numbers recorded? What does it have to do with us? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps the merit of being in this ‘census’ is that these people’s names and their… Continue reading Bamidbar

If we look at ancient models of civilization we see two archetypes. The bottom up model (Aristotle, individual liberty systems, organic growth etc…) and the top-down model (Plato, the Republic, Communism, central control etc…) where people have jobs assigned to them. The Torah has both models. The people and creativity occupy the bottom-up model –… Continue reading Naso

The Levi shaves his entire body. This is a massive difference from the Nazir who grows his hair. Why? These are two distinct paths to holiness. The Levi is designated as Holy by Hashem. As part of this, they lose part of their individuality in order to fit Hashem’s designation and serve as holy flight… Continue reading Beehalotcha