Category: Oneg Shabbos

The Financial Times headline said it all – ‘Theresa May’s hubris robs Britain of stability’ – The Independent called it ‘astounding arrogance’. No precedent does justice to the speed and depth of Theresa May’s political collapse. When she opted for a general election seven weeks ago, she had a poll lead that was larger than the Labour opposition’s entire share of the vote. The only question was whether her win would be comfortable or majestic.

“ויעש כן אהרן אל מול פני המנורה העלה נרותיה” The meforshim say that the menorah in the mishkon represented the Torah, “For Mitzvah is a candle, and Torah is light.” [Mishlei, 6:23]

Are ‘Early Bird Specials’ against Halachah? As the summer approaches, one cannot open a magazine without coming across an advert for a summer camp or hotel resort. Many of these offer an ‘early bird special’, which entails a cheaper price for those participants who pay early. Is this a problem of ribbis?

There are certain mitzvos in the Torah are very well known for the rewards that they provide. We all know of the arichus yamim promised for shiluach hakan and kibud av’ v’em. Obviously, there are also lessons meant to be learned not only from the mitzvos themselves, but also from the rewards attributed to them. However, in certain cases, what seems to be a reward may not be quite the positive it appears to be at first glance, and the very fact that we receive that reward may indicate a lacking in our own behaviour. The lesson, therefore, becomes even more important. We learn in this

"ויאמר ה' אל משה אמר אל הכהנים בני אהרן ואמרת אלהם לנפש לא יטמא בעמיו" "And Hashem said to Moshe, 'Speak to the Kohanim, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, they are not to become spiritually impure on account of contact with a dead body'".

There is one word, a value, that is entirely missing from public and private discourse in contemporary society. There are no public debates about its identity, relevance and meaning, no academic journals, no conferences. You can’t study it in University (only incidentally as part of theology or religion), there isn’t a single TED talk on this topic. In short, it just simply does not feature at all as part of our cultural milieu.

As Jews we know that though at times we may stray from a path of Torah, our potential remains genuinely good.

In this week’s parsha the Torah explicitly states the sin of Nadav and Avihu which led to their death. Indeed, it is repeated four times in the Torah - each time we are told that they offered an aish zoroh before Hashem. Granted that there is room for different explanations of this aish zoroh – but why do Chazal toil to find so many other sins to attribute to them when the Torah is so specific?

The Chochom – the wise son – asks a detailed question at the Seder. “What are the testimonies, the statutes and the laws that Hashem our G-d has commanded you?” The answer that the Ba’al Haggadah says is to be given doesn’t seem to respond to the points in the question: “You should also answer him, “Like the laws of the Pesach, one must not eat anything after the Pesach afikomen.”” How does that address his comprehensive query?

As Pesach approaches one of the events that is pencilled in to many of our calendars, is ‘kashering’. I am not referring to when one kashers one’s kitchen from chometzdig to pesachdig; but rather to the date when many take their silver bechers or cutlery to shul for hagolas keilim so that they can use it for Pesach.