T he primary focus of our parasha, Tazria, is the illness known as tzaraat . In his commentary on the Torah, the Rashbam presents the unique nature of this disease: All of the sections dealing … more

I created a program several years ago called ParshaDrama, in which I go to a school and present the weekly Torah portion to different grades through a combination of storytelling and dramatics, … more

There was a time when I would only go out of my way to listen to speakers who were older and more experienced than I. Recently, however, I changed my preferences and began to seek out rabbis and … more

I t was the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, that translated tsara’at, the condition whose identification and cleansing occupies much of Tazria and Metzora as … more

Years ago, I had the opportunity to take a long-overdue vacation with my family in Walt Disney World. For our children, who had just spent the better part of a year dealing with the day-to-day … more

He was an old man, and in many ways came from a very different world than I. And yet he taught me more than anyone else ever did. One of the things he taught me was that no one suffers as much as a … more

Shemini tells the tragic story of how the great inauguration of the Tabernacle, a day about which the Sages said that G-d rejoiced as much as He had at the creation of the universe, was overshadowed … more

Whenever I come across the word “v’nikhrita” (and he/she/they will be cut off from the Jewish people) in the Torah, I marvel over where such a notion stands in the 21st century … more

L ike much of sefer Vayikra, our parasha, Tzav, focuses on the korbanot . Accordingly, the second verse presents the mitzvah of the korban olah: “Command ( tzav ) Aharon and his sons, … more

T he world did not know that he was a mystic. He was an accomplished diplomat, who knew how to deal with people in positions of great power. Some characterized him as a shrewd, and even manipulative, … more