Immediately after the Sotah, comes the law of the Nazirite. The Nazirite is someone who chooses to be extra religious and take upon himself a solemn vow to do something more than is commanded. The Torah gives as an example, letting one’s hair grow long and not drinking wine or spirts. We all do this sort of thing. ‘If I…
Author: Jeremy Rosen
Blessing of the Priests
The Torah then goes on give us the famous blessing the Priests would give the people in the Temple, a blessing for closeness to God and peace. May God bless you and protect you May God’s presence brighten your life and be kind to you May God look favorably upon you and give you Peace. The Torah specifies that they…
Silence
The fourth book of the Torah, Bamidbar, literally means “desert.” It covers the main events of the forty-year period of wandering through Sinai and the Arava into what is Jordan today, before reaching the East Bank of the River Jordan. In mystical terms words have significance on many different levels. The most obvious example is the Hebrew root SFR which…
Numbers
It seems strange that a crucial book of the Torah should be called BaMidbar, in the desert. The simple answer is that the books of the Torah were not originally given names and when somewhere some two thousand years ago, the rabbis decided to do so, they simply used the first Hebrew noun of the book as an easy handle.…
Perseverance
This book covers the forty years that the Children of Israel spent in the wilderness until the old generation died out and a new one was ready to march into the land. It starts with all the pomp of organizing the Israelites into units and subdivisions, administered by its hierarchies, given their positions and marching orders in preparation for the…
Charlie Gard and Life
You may have read about the battle in London over the final days of life for a baby called Charlie Gard. He was born with a form of mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome that causes increasing muscle weakness and brain damage. There is no known cure. The doctors in Great Ormond Street Hospital in London diagnosed this fatal condition. They put…