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» PARSHAH PICKS: What is the Jewish View on Martyrdom?, Kosher Food and more... (Shemini)
 | | |  | Nissan 27, 5772 · April 19, 2012 | General Overview:
| This week's reading, Shemini, is a continuation of the previous week's reading, Tzav, where we learned about the Tabernacle's seven-day inaugural ceremony. This week's reading opens on the eighth day, when G‑d's presence descends upon the Tabernacle. On that day, Aaron's sons Nadab and Avihu die when offering an uncalled-for incense sacrifice. The portion concludes with a discussion about the laws of Kosher and ritual purity. |
 | By Tamar Runyan |  |
|  | | THE PARSHAH | | | Leviticus 9:1–11:47
The eighth dimension . . . The deaths of Nadav and Avihu: 14 reasons, and a mystical explanation . . . Truth vs. Peace . . . What is morality? . . . and simple things, like what to eat and when not to get drunk.
|  |  | | COLUMNISTS | | | Lessons on Torah commentary and Jewish creativity on the topic of applying the ancient to the contemporary.
By Mendel Kalmenson |  | | | | Aaron was eighty-four years old, a venerable sage and a dedicated leader. He'd been primed for his role as high priest and had rehearsed the sacrificial procedure for seven days. Why the cold feet?
By Rochel Holzkenner | | | | | I know that there are religions in which it's a great thing to die for your faith, and doing so makes you a saint or gets you a ticket to paradise. What is the Jewish view? Is a person supposed to die for his beliefs?
By Tzvi Freeman | | | | FEATURED VIDEO | | | Practical Parshah—Shemini
The biblical criteria for determining which animals are kosher, and their practical application today. By Mendel Kaplan | | | | | Topics include: Moses and Aaron as they represent masculine dominance and feminine nurturing respectively, sin as a "spiritual pollutant" and how it brought about the gruesome deaths of Aaron's two sons, the positive lesson we can learn from them. By Chaim Miller | | | | FEATURED AUDIO CLASSES | | | A five minute weekly Torah thought based on the teachings of Chassidut. By Berel Bell | | | | | Parshat Shemini discusses the laws of impurity as it specificlaly relates to food. One of the stipulations for a vegetable to be susceptible to impurity is that it must be completely severed from the ground. If however there is even a small strand that can keep the vegetable sustained, it can not become impure. This class takes a Kabbalistic viewpoint of this concept. By Moshe New | | | | | |
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