Shabbat Re’eh: Adding or Subtracting

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Shabbat Devarim: The books of the bible

Why do we call the fifth book of the Torah that we start this week Devarim but non-Jews ( and some Jews) call it Deuteronomy? Read more

Perth’s Carmel School educator selected to embark on empowering learning journey

Carmel School’s Teacher of Jewish Studies, Hebrew and Food Technology, Shohan Taub, has secured one of only ten available Australian scholarships for the Torah L’Am course. Read more

Torah and bible burning in Stockholm was never going to happen

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Shabbat Behar & Behukotai – The Good the Bad and the Ugly

The book of the Torah called Vayikra or Leviticus, is also called the Book of Purity. Read more

Shabbat Tazria & Metzorah: Healthy in body and mind

The chapters of the Torah that we are reading now are concerned with health and what happens when our bodies do not function effectively or normally. Read more

Shabbat Vayikra: Sacrifices

At this time of the year, the Torah readings are all to do with sacrifices. I shall confess that the thought of killing animals does not fill me with any great enthusiasm. Read more

Shabbat Vayakhel Pekudei: Repetition is Good

It is an interesting phenomenon that the major events of the Torah that play a crucial role in the life of the people from a philosophical point of view are repeated in slightly different ways. Read more

Shabbat Ki Tisa: What does God look like?

The dominant theme of the Torah this Shabbat is the episode of the Golden Calf. Read more

Shabbat Vaeyra: Hard Hearts

Moses and Aaron are locked in a power struggle with Pharaoh, who seemingly holds all the cards.  Read more

Shabbat Vayehiy: Favouritism

As we come to the end of the Book of Bereishit (Genesis), we can look back and see a thread in the narrative of human beings grappling with the moral and spiritual challenges that we all face. Read more

Shabbat Vayeytzey: Dreams and Fears

Jacob flees his parents’ home because he fears that Esau will kill him for taking the blessing from Isaac. Read more

Shabbat Toldot: Deception

The Torah is very clear about deception. “Do not deceive or lie to each other”( Leviticus 19.11). Read more

Shabbat Eykev: Bread is not enough

It is a strange sentence. “I provided you with the Manah so that you should know that a person does not live on bread alone.” And then, the Torah goes on to extoll the physical richness of the land the Israelites are coming to and how it will provide all the food they could want. Read more

Shabbat Shelach Lecha: Grasshoppers

Moses was instructed by God to send men to go on a tour of the Land of Canaan. Read more

Torah hidden in 1941 Iraqi riots presented to a Samarian synagogue

Over eight decades after Yitzhak witnessed as a boy the Farhud, the anti-Jewish riots in Iraq, he has presented an ancient Torah scroll saved from the riots to the synagogue at Havat Yair in Samaria, where his grandchildren live today. Read more

Shabbat Kedoshim: About sex

The part of the Torah we read this week, Kedoshim,  contains more moral and ethical laws than any other part of the Torah, that you will be familiar with. Read more

Shabbat Acharei Mot: Arrogance

Previously in Leviticus Chapter 9, the two sons of Aaron, Nadav, and Avihu had watched and participated in the dedication of the priests and the tabernacle. Read more

Failed priests and prophets

There seems to me to be a permanent state of conflict in all religions between religious authority and individual spirituality or mysticism. Read more

Shabbat Pikudei: The Messiah

The term Mashiach is usually associated with the apocalyptical idea of a Messiah who will change the world to make it a more peaceful and honest place. Read more

Shabbat Vayakhel & Shekalim: Amazons and the Oral Law

There are many ways of looking at the Bible, as history, theology, literature, and archeology. Read more

Shabbat Ki Tisah: Idolatry

The focal point this week is the Golden Calf, and the betrayal of  God at the very moment God is trying to impose standards on the Israelites through a constitution from Sinai. Read more

Shabbat Tetzaveh: Who needs Priests?

The Torah goes into intricate detail in the Books of Exodus and Leviticus about the priests, their role in the Tabernacle ceremonials, their benefits and tithes, and their special rules of behaviour. This week, the Torah talks about the Priests’ clothes and oracles. Read more

Shabbat Mishpatim: What happpened at Sinai?

One of the challenges to traditional Judaism comes from academic analysis of the Torah as if it were either a Book of History or literature that one can decipher from a rational, point of view. Read more

Shabbat Vayigash: Failed priests

When Pharaoh accepted Yosef’s interpretation of his dreams and his advice to Pharaoh on how to prepare for it, he was given the opportunity to prepare for the approaching catastrophe. Read more

Shabbat Lech Lecha: No one is Perfect

Abraham is the first, full character study in the Torah. Read more

Shabbat Ki Tavo

Why do we do things in life? Is it to get some kind of reward? Read more

Weekly Torah. Shabbat Shoftim Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9

Who is Responsible? Read more

Torah for Shabbat: Shabbat Nachamu, The Shabbat of Comfort after the Ninth of Av.

As Moses continues his speech to the children of Israel, he repeats two core texts that underpin the whole of the Jewish way of life. Read more

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen: Shabbat Balak

It seems strange that the whole Parsha we read this week should be named after a Midianite/Moabite King, Balak, and be devoted to a non-Jewish magician Bilam.
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