Torah Tidbits
Must One Honor Abusive Parents? by Rabbi Ephraim Sprecher, Dean of Students, Diaspora Yeshiva
“Honor your father and your mother” (Sh’mot 20:12) and “Your mother and father shall you respect” (Vayikra 19:3) are the Torah sources for children’s responsibility to their parents. Parents are due this respect because, “There are three partners in a person, G-d, the father and the mother. When a person honors his father and mother, G-d says, ‘I consider it as if I had dwelt among them, and they had honored Me also.” (Kiddushin 30b)
Continue ReadingIMPURITY AND TAHARA; GALUT AND GEULA by Dr. Meir Tamari
Yechekiel’s message of national impurity and purification in the haftara together with Parashat Para’s spiritual cleansing of the ultimate impurity of tumat meit, make clear the concepts of galut and geula, of exile and redemption. They are therefore the perfect preparatory introduction to Nisan, Spring Season, Renewal, and Pesach, Zman Cheiruteinu.
Continue ReadingAliya by Aliya Sedra Summary
[P> X:Y (Z)] and [S> X:Y (Z)] indicate start of a parsha p’tucha or s’tuma. X:Y is Perek:Pasuk of the beginning of the parsha; (Z) is the number of p’sukim in it.
Continue ReadingWhen Son and Mother Meet
Ki Tisa contains the story of the EIGEL HAZAV, the golden calf. The son of the cow. Parshat Para is the mitzva of the PARA ADUMA, the red heifer, the figurative mother of the calf.
Continue ReadingTTriddles
are Torah Tidbits-style riddles on Parshat HaShavua (sometimes on the calendar). They are found in the hard-copy of TT scattered throughout, usually at the bottom of different columns. In the electronic versions of TT, they are found all together at the end of the ParshaPix-TTriddles section. The best solution set submitted each week (there isn’t always a best) wins a double prize a CD from Noam Productions and/or a gift (game, puzzle, book, etc.) from Big Deal
Continue ReadingDivrei Menachem
In this day and age when the fate of democratic governments depends on a small number of marginal votes or when the survival of a regime rests on the mad excesses of an idiosyncratic despot, it might be worth spending a minute to reflect on the opening words of our parsha.
Continue ReadingGenetic Information
We will continue discussing Prof. Borochowitz’s lecture at the recent Puah Annual Rabbinic Conference held in Jerusalem. He is an expert in genetics and he discussed the possibilities of genetic testing today.
Continue ReadingTook a Long Time to Come Down the Mountain
When once asked about my most scary memory, the first thing that popped into my head was an episode that happened when I was about nine or so. My mother took me to a special event at the library. Like all the other parents, she left and told me she would be back to pick me up when it was over.
Continue ReadingParsha Points to Ponder
1) Why does the Torah use the unusual term TISA to describe the counting of the Jewish people instead of the usual TIFKOD (30:12)?
Continue ReadingCHIZUK and IDUD for Olim not yet Olim respectively
This week’s Parsha opens with the command to conduct a census of the people of Israel. Each and every individual is to contribute half a shekel to the building of the Mishkan. In the joint effort to achieve the national goal, all are required to equally share in the shouldering of the burden. (Possible ramifications to current events are left to the readers’ imagination.)
Continue ReadingVebbe Rebbe
The Orthodox Union - via its website - fields questions of all types in areas of kashrut, Jewish law and values. Some of them are answered by Eretz Hemdah, the Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, headed by Rav Yosef Carmel and Rav Moshe Ehrenreich, founded by HaRav Shaul Yisraeli zt"l, to prepare rabbanim and dayanim to serve the National Religious community in Israel and abroad. Ask the Rabbi is a joint venture of the OU, Yerushalayim Network, Eretz Hemdah… and the Israel Center. The following is a Q&A from Eretz Hemdah…
Continue ReadingWord of the Month
A weekly feature of Torah Tidbits to help clarify practical and conceptual aspects of the Jewish Calendar, thereby better fulfilling the mitzva of HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem…
Continue ReadingIn This Issue of Torah Tidbits
- Lead Tidbit
- Guest Article
- Candle A Day
- Gold from the Land of Israel
- Aliya-by-Aliya Sedra Summary
- Sedra Stats
- Vebbe Rebbe
- Portion of the Portion
- Oz Torah
- Parsha Points to Ponder
- TTriddles "Report"
- Person In The Parsha
- Word of the Month
- Chizuk and Idud
- Divrei Menachem
- "From Machon Puah"
Recent Torah Tidbits
- Issue 1043 - Shabbat Parshat B’har-B’chukotai - Shabbat M’vorchim
- Issue 1042 - Shabbat Parshat Emor
- Issue 1041 - Shabbat Parshat Acharei-K'Doshim
- Issue 1040 - Shabbat Parshat Tazri'a-M'tzora
- Issue 1039 - Shabbat Parshat Tzav-Hagadol-Shmini
- Issue 1038 - Shabbat Parshat Vayikra
- Issue 1037 - Shabbat Parshat Vayakhel-P'Kudei-Hachodesh
- View All Issue Archives
Candle Lighting and Havdala
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Sedra Stats
21st of 54 sedras;
9th of 11 in Sh’mot
Word of the Month
Hafsaka (break in the sequence of the Four Parshiyot) between Sh’qalim and Zachor, 88.5% of the time. Between Zachor and Para, 39.5%. Never between Para and HaChodesh. Para is Shabbat M’vorchim Chodesh Nissan (not this year) 28% of the time. HaChodesh is M’vorchim (this year) 72% of the time. The Four Parshiyot span five Shabbatot 72% of the time; six Shabbatot, 28% of the time. Sh’qalim ‘belongs’ to Purim (and a bit to Nissan).
Zachor ‘belongs’ to Purim. Para and HaChodesh ‘belong’ to Nissan.