Have you ever opened a book that was so technical and so outside your realm of understanding that you found it difficult to get through? Like the words were all in English, but you were reading without understanding a thing?  For many people, this perfectly...

With this week's Torah portion the third book of the Torah, Vayikra ("[God] called [to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting]..."), is read. Vayikra is also called Torat Cohanim in Hebrew, which corresponds to the name most commonly known, "Leviticus."...

In the Middle Ages, salt was so expensive it was sometimes referred to as white gold.Perhaps, then, it is not so surprising that as the Book of Leviticus opens to describe for us the sacrifices that the Israelites are to bring to God now that the Tabernacle...

Every October, there is one particular morning when our congregation’s Religious School telephone begins ringing off the hook at exactly 9 a.m. and doesn’t stop ringing all day long.  That’s the day, somewhat arbitrarily chosen, when families of...

“Animal Sacrifice!”  Not exactly a concept that excites modern sensibilities in Western society.  Yet this is what confronts us every year as we begin the third book of the Torah, Vayikra or Leviticus. Setting aside our aversions to the notion for...