Shiurim Categories: Boston University

The Weekly Dose of Torah Rabbi Avi Heller Director of Jewish Education, Boston University Hillel Behar/Bechukotai 5769 ( May 16, 2009)

The Weekly Dose of Torah Rabbi Avi Heller Director of Jewish Education, Boston University Hillel Emor 5769 (May 9, 2009)

by Rav Avi Heller, JLIC Boston U. Topic: Nadav and Avihu Redux, This week's Weekly Dose of Torah was generously sponsored by Ron and Jennie Offer and family. There's an old (and unflattering) joke that a Rabbi a priest and a minister were arguing about how to distribute a certain sum of charitable donations. The minister suggested that they draw a circle on the ground and throw the money up in the air. Whatever landed outside the circle would go to the poor and whatever landed inside the circle would be divided into the accounts of the church and synagogue. . .

The New York Times, on April 8, 1 897 reported that park policeman Foley arrested a Rabbi Wechsler - though Rabbi Klein escaped - who had illegally convened a crowd of several hundred Jews in Tompkins Square to say the blessing on the sun. Reported the Times: "Rabbi Klein's knowledge of English is slight, while Foley's faculties of comprehension of matters...are not acute. The attempt of a foreign citizen to explain to an American Irishman an astronomical situation and a tradition of the Talmud was a dismal failure." The paper concludes by saying that "the new sun" service had been conducted in this country for 180 years, or since 1717. In 1897, it would have been the 203rd cycle of the sun. Now, we are entering the 207th. Read more. . . .

When looking at the calendar this week, Nadav laughed and said, ?Abba, it?s Cow Shabbat!?

Towards the end of JRR Tolkien?s Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is an apocalyptic showdown between the forces of good and evil...

In the laws of Torah Reading (Code of Jewish Law, Way of Life 147:1), R. Moshe Isserles, the famed Ashkenazic rabbi and Halachic decisor, comments that one should not use an ?old? item in order to cover...

In the yeshiva in Israel where I did much of my Rabbinical studies, there was also a yeshiva program for young men who had just graduated high school. Needless to say...

A teacher of mine once gave us a photocopy from an obscure publication from the early 1950?s. Out of sheer laziness (or, peace of mind) he neglected to trim off a small (unrelated) d?var Torah on the margin of the page. Out of boredom (or, restless curiosity)...

The Ra?avad (R. Avraham ibn Daud, 13th c.) was one of Provence?s great Jewish scholars. In the introduction to his book Ba?alei Nefesh (which is about the relationship between a husband and wife) he describes the motivation for...

My favorite image of OJ Simpson is a commercial he did for Hertz. Some poor woman has forgotten her ID at the checkout counterand is getting on the plane. OJ sprints broken-field through ...

Life of Pi is a beautiful and well-crafted story, with strong overtones of Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. But it also reminds me of the story of our sidra this week, the story of Noach and the Mabbul, the Flood or Deluge.

Wednesday is the holiday of Hoshana Rabba, an obscure and little-recognized moment in the Jewish calendar. Few people are aware that it is one of the holiest days of the year -- a day akin to Yom Kippur. It is the last day of Sukkot and it is the day on which the land of Israel is judged for water.