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  Part 2 MAKAS B’CHOROS TALKING POINTS THAT MAKE THE PLAGUE UNIQUE AND DISTINCTIVE (1) WHY IS IT THE ONLY PLAGUE THAT CONTAINS THE WORD ‘MAKEH’? Since all of the plagues were makos, it would not be unreasonable to name them all as ‘Plagues’—e.g. Makas Dom, Makas Tz’fardei’a, etc. Since the author of the Hagadah […]

To briefly review, in the first two parts of this article I advanced the central thesis that the yearly roster of the special holy-days listed in Vayikra chapter 23 within Parshas Emor might serve as an ‘organizer’ for the kepitlach of Hallel. The seven special times of Emor are: (1) Shabbos; (2) Pesach; (3) Shavuos; […]

Did you ever notice how bizarre everything about the Bris Bein Habesarim is and how unintelligible is most of the symbolim? Everything about it has a surreal quality. Much of it will remain so after this explanation, however we will employ a fascinating Mechilta from Parshas B’Shalach to help us fill in the symbolism of […]

At first blush, Megilas Esther reads deceptively simply, but on further scrutiny many of the pesukim are actually quite hard to translate in a way that ‘makes sense’ in English, without being repetitive and cumbersome. In fact, much of the Megilah—in line with the theme of the entire yom tov –is loaded with hidden irony. […]

Simchas Torah! Surely near the top of everyone’s list for Most Joyous Holiday, vying only with Purim as serious competition. And that starts when we are very young, too small to understand, but caught up in the excitement of the singing and dancing, each child in turn being given his or her moments in the […]

When we check the weekly sedrah reading for Shabbas Chanukah (ie the narrative of the sale of Yosef, in the weekly Parshios of Vayeishev, Mikeitz or Vayigash) looking for some prophetic hint or link to the holiday, we find to our surprise a whole host of phrases that sound familiar to us, not related to […]

To briefly review, in Part I of this article we introduced the concept that the yearly roster of the special holy-days listed in Vayikra chapter 23 within Parshas Emor might serve as an ‘organizer’ for the kepitlach of Hallel. The seven special times of Emor are: (1) Shabbos; (2) Pesach; (3) Shavuos; (4) Rosh Hashanah; […]

Article abstract: Hallel is comprised of six sequential chapters within Tehillim recited on most holidays in joyous praise of God. Surprisingly, examination of the tone and content of those chapters reveals that they cover quite a disparate range of topics, and many parts do not seem to be particularly joyous. To explain this curious observation, […]

It’s about time. Megillas Esther is all about time. It’s all over the entire sefer, the whole book is chock-full of times. Everywhere you look in the Megillah, there is another referent to time. A gala extravaganza planned for the third year of the reign of King Achashverosh (1:3) 180 days from the start of the festivities until the slamdunk grand […]