Rabbi Levin's Blog

  The Jews are in the middle of the desert and Hashem tells them to build a Mishkan (Sanctuary).  They needed many materials like gold, silver, copper, wool, and precious stones.  All of that was no problem.  They had emptied Egypt out of all its riches when they left, in payment for the many years of forced labor. But the walls of the Mishkan were to be made of huge wooden beams.  (For some reason that I can’t fathom, all the English translations say it was acacia wood.  Our sages taught that they were cedar beams.)  Where do you come up with a stockpile of 15-foot beams in the middle of the desert? Rashi tells  a fascinating story.  Our forefather Yaakov (Jacob) saw with prophecy that when his descendants left Egypt, Hashem would tell them to build the Mishkan in the desert.  When he traveled to Egypt to reunite with his son Yosef, he planted cedar saplings there, and told his children to pass along the message to the next generations to take the trees with them when they left Egypt.

What can you buy with half a shekel?  Certainly not a sheep or a bull.  Yet, when the Holy Temple stood, the Jews would contribute a half-shekel coin to a general fund which made them participants in the hundreds of communal offerings that were offered daily in the Temple – including Shabbat and the holidays.  What a deal! This is not the subject of this week’s Parsha, Mishpatim.  But in addition to the weekly Parsha, we read an additional Parsha this week – Parshat Shekalim. This is the first of the four special Parshas relating to Purim and Pesach.   Parshat Shekalim relates the Mitzvah incumbent upon every Jewish household to give a half shekel annually to the Temple to be used for the public offerings.  Because this donation took place during the month of Adar, we read this special portion on the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh Adar.  (If Rosh Chodesh Adar falls on Shabbat, we read it on that day.) The Torah says (Exodus 30:12):  …each one shall give the ransom of their soul… This is w

  How do you define “covet?”   Like most people, when I first learned the tenth commandment - “Do not covet” (in Hebrew “lo tachmod”) – I understood it as desiring something that someone else has.    But I soon realized that it could not be so straightforward.   The Ten Commandments are written twice in the Torah. The first time is in this week’s Parsha, Yitro, when the Torah recounts the Sinai revelation, and the second is in the book of Devarim, when Moshe recounts the story to the nation before his passing.    The final commandment (“do not covet”), is expanded upon in the second telling, Moshe’s repetition of the Commandments (Devarim 5:18), he says: “…you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor shall you desire your neighbor's house…”  The Hebrew word for covet is “tachmod”, but the word for desire is “titavve.”  Two different words.  So obviously, to covet is not to desire.  So what is the meaning of “do not covet?”   Rambam, in his book of laws Mishneh Torah, understan

  Manna from Heaven.  Every night for 40 years the Jewish people would go to bed in the desert without any way to obtain food for the next day.  In the morning, when the dew evaporated, there was a layer of fresh food for them to eat that day.  It was a white substance in the shape of coriander seeds which could be cooked or baked.   Its default taste was like honey glazed doughnuts (without the calories!), but it could taste like just about anything they wanted it to. They were not allowed to leave any over for the next day, and if they did it would rot and become wormy.  The Talmud points out that this caused them to always feel hungry.  When Moshe was recounting the history of their journey in the desert before he died, he said (Devarim 8:16) : “[Hashem] fed you Manna in the desert in order to afflict you (make you hungry).”  The Talmud comments on the seeming contradiction in the verse – fed you and made you hungry, and says that there is a difference between when a person has brea