Shmini
The Eighth Day
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Shmini
There are a lot of different ways to live your life. Each culture and each minority group develop their own style of dress, their own arts and music, their own language and forms of expression, their own values and etiquette. Perhaps every culture and nation has some aspects of their culture that...
Achievement Fatigue
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Shmini
A strange thing happened to me after I ran my first marathon: I fell to pieces. I don't mean physically, though I was VERY sore for a few days. For a few weeks, I lost my focus at work, was irritable at home and felt a little depressed and out-of it. I could not seem to muster enthusiasm for...
Spiritual Momentum
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Shmini
When you find a typo in a document, it can usually be ascribed to insufficient proofreading or sufficient illiteracy. However, when the Torah misspells a word, as it does in this week's portion, we should be on our guard for deeper meaning. At the end of a long section dealing with the kosher laws,...
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Sh'mini
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Shmini
In many ways Judaism is a religion of moderation. Parshah Sh'mini makes clear we are permitted, even encouraged, to partake of some things, while others are forbidden. We are allowed to eat beef and poultry and fish, but we are not creatures of prey who feast on anything we find. Indeed, such...
My video divrei Torah on parasha shmini from Youtube.com by Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg
Posted by Jonathan Ginsburg | Tags: Shmini
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6nrjC4r1zM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkxPBJtwW8g
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Shmini
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Shmini
Parshah Shmini is chock full of information about the laws of kashruth: what we are permitted to eat, and what we are not. Once you get past the rules for meat (cows, yes; pigs, no) and sea creatures (tuna, yes; lobster, no; swordfish, maybe), there are some rules that may not be as familiar. "All...
Pork is a bridge to nowhere
Posted by Jonathan Ginsburg | Tags: Shmini
Some called it a bridge to the future. Others called it the bridge to nowhere. On Friday, Alaska decided the bridge really was going nowhere, officially abandoning the project in Ketchikan that became a national symbol of federal pork-barrel spending. The $398 million bridge would have...
