Torah and Mesorah

Nation As Family in the Torah

by Rabbi Avi Weiss
Posted on September 21, 2022

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The Study of Kabbalah

Rabbi Zachary Truboff
(Posted on June 2, 2022)
From the Lindenbaum Center for Halakhic Studies

The well-known custom of staying up all night on Shavuot to study Torah originated as a kabbalistic practice with roots in the Zohar. Every Shavuot, the Zohar explains, God marries the Jewish people once again, and the study of Torah beautifies the shechina (divine presence) before the marriage ceremony is to commence.…

painting featuring a giraffe, tiger, and elephant with trees and blue sky in the background. cheerful painting. angel hovers over the giraffe at the back of the line of the three animals.

What Will You Create?

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 30, 2021

The Torah opens with God creating the world during the Six Days of Creation. Then follows Shabbat: va’yakhulu haShamayim, “And the Heavens and Earth, and all their hosts were completed.” Every Friday night, we open kiddush by reciting this verse and the verses that follow.…

young boy in a white t-shirt blowing a shofar with a black background

Atonement and Sacrifice

Rabbi Zachary Truboff
(Posted on September 17, 2021)
From the Lindenbaum Center for Halakhic Studies

In the days of the Beit HaMikdash, one achieved atonement through two key rituals: vidui (confession) and the offering of korbanot (sacrifices). Although each one could be viewed as a separate act, both pieces were fundamentally brought together by the kohen gadol, or high priest, on Yom Kippur. …

Atonement and Sacrifice

Rabbi Zachary Truboff
(Posted on September 14, 2021)
From the Lindenbaum Center for Halakhic Studies

If the Medium Is the Message, What’s the Message?

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on February 11, 2021

When the Children of Israel stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai, they famously declared “נַעֲשֶׂ֥ה וְנִשְׁמָֽע – na’aseh ve’nishma – We will do and we will listen.” (Exodus 24:7). This phrase appears at the end of parshat Mishpatim, after all the laws that followed the Ten Commandments.…