Month: June 2025

Korah (קֹרַח – Korah)
^{Numbers 16:1 – 18:32 & I Samuel 11:14 – 12:22}

Korah, Dathan, and Abiram are swallowed up for challenging the legitimacy of Moses and Aaron, while the 250 other rebels, who offered unauthorized incense, are consumed by divine fire. To prevent further dissent, Moses asks each tribal leader to place his staff in the sanctuary; only Aaron’s staff buds, blossoms, and produces almonds — an unmistakable sign of divine choice. In the haftarah, the prophet Samuel, who is also challenged, reminds the people that God is Israel’s only true leader.

Numbers 17:23
וַיְהִי מִמָּחֳרָת, וַיָּבֹא מֹשֶׁה אֶל-אֹהֶל הָעֵדוּת, וְהִנֵּה פָּרַח מַטֵּה-אַהֲרֹן, לְבֵית לֵוִי; וַיֹּצֵא פֶרַח וַיָּצֵץ צִיץ, וַיִּגְמֹל שְׁקֵדִים
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses went into the Tent of the Testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.

In the time of the Second Temple, Magdala — or in Aramaic Migdal Nunaya, “Tower of the Fish” — was a prosperous Jewish city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had up to 40,000 inhabitants, with a market, ritual baths, a fish-salting industry, and several synagogues. One of these yielded the famous Magdala Stone, adorned with symbols of the Jerusalem Temple: a menorah, jars, columns… and, on its upper face, a floral arrangement that some archaeologists interpret as stylized almond blossoms.

The modern locality of Migdal was founded in 1910 by Russian Jewish pioneers from the Hovevei Tsion movement^[1]. Among the founders were notable figures such as Joseph Trumpeldor^[2] and Yossef Haim Brenner^[3]. They established an agricultural training farm called Ahuzat Moskva – “Moscow Estate” – to train Jewish farmers.

^[1] Hovevei Tsion – Lovers of Zion: a proto-Zionist movement founded in 1881 in Russia, aimed at promoting Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel.
^[2] Joseph Trumpeldor (1880–1920): Zionist hero, Russian army veteran, co-founder with Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880–1940, militant Zionist leader advocating for a strong Jewish state in the Land of Israel) and Nahum Sokolow (1859–1936, writer, politician, and Zionist diplomat) of the Zion Mule Corps (a voluntary Jewish muleteer unit that supported the British Army during the 1915 Gallipoli campaign, seen as a precursor to the Jewish Legion). He died defending Tel Hai, a Jewish outpost in Mandatory Palestine, during an Arab tribal attack in 1920.
^[3] Yossef Haim Brenner (1881–1921): major Hebrew writer and pioneer of modern Hebrew literature, assassinated on May 2, 1921, in Jaffa during anti-Jewish riots by Arab assailants, alongside Zionist activists Dr. Yitzhak Vitkin, Dr. Yosef Luria, Avraham Yesod, and Moshe Feinstein, a prominent community leader. They were all buried together in the Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.

Shelach Lekha (שלח לך – Send for yourself)
^{Numbers 13:1–15:41 and Joshua 2:1–24}

Moses sends twelve explorers into Canaan; upon their return, ten of them deliver an alarming report. Frightened, the people refuse to take possession of the land and are consequently condemned to forty years of wandering in the desert. Forty years later, Joshua in turn sends two spies to Jericho, the key to entering Eretz Israel (Talmud, Sotah 34b). Their successful mission leads to the conquest of Canaan. In both narratives, one motif recurs: the cord^[¹]. The blue thread of the tsitsit, and the scarlet cord hung by Rahav at her window.

Numbers 15:38
דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל… פְּתִיל תְּכֵלֶת
Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a thread of blue on each corner fringe.

The method for producing the tekhelet (תְּכֵלֶת – indigo blue) was lost over the centuries. In the 19th century, Mediterranean fishermen reported that their garments turned blue after handling certain sea snails. In 1882, intrigued by these accounts, Rabbi Gershon Hanokh Henikh Leiner^[²] applied his dual expertise in Torah and natural sciences in an attempt to identify the animal used for dyeing the tsitsit. His investigation — mistakenly — led him to identify the common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) as the ḥilazon (חילזון – the biblical snail).

In 1968, Israeli chemist Otto Elsner (1936–2022) demonstrated experimentally that the Hexaplex trunculus produces a blue dye through a photochemical reaction. In 1980, the Ptil Tekhelet team in Israel, led by Rabbi Eliezer Yosef Tavger^[³], succeeded in reproducing this process. The method was validated, and a breeding farm for Hexaplex trunculus^[⁴] was established in Haifa.

Today, several halakhic authorities^[⁵] recognize the validity of modern tekhelet. Figures such as Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, and Rabbi Shlomo Machpud consider the accumulated evidence⁶ strong enough to restore this forgotten mitzvah.

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^[¹] Joshua 2:18 mentions a “cord of scarlet thread” (תִּקְוַת חוּט הַשָּׁנִי); Joshua 2:21 repeats “the scarlet cord” (תִּקְוַת הַשָּׁנִי).
The word תִּקְוָה (tikvah), from the root ק–ו–ה (“to hope” or “to stretch a line”), conveys a sense of active, tension-filled anticipation. In kabbalistic tradition, this thread is associated with protection against the evil eye. Two words, two registers: the text could have chosen the generic hevel (חֶבֶל – simple rope), yet deliberately selects ptil (פְּתִיל) — a twisted, ritualized thread — a sacred reminder of the covenant. And on the other hand, tikvah bears the full weight of longing and redemptive hope.
^[²] Rebbe Gershon Hanokh Henikh Leiner (1839–1891), Hassidic master of Radzin and a pioneer in reviving the search for tekhelet in the 19th century.
^[³] Rabbi Eliezer Yosef Tavger (1948–2022), physicist and Torah teacher. In 1988, he performed the first halakhic tekhelet dyeing in over 1,300 years.
^[⁴] Hexaplex trunculus (also known as Murex trunculus): a marine gastropod identified as the biblical ḥilazon. The Talmud (Menachot 42b–44a) provides clues: “its body resembles the sea” — it lives in the Mediterranean and has an iridescent shell; “it resembles a fish” — it has a coiled, fishlike form; and “its blood is used for dye” — its glandular secretion turns blue under sunlight. About 30 snails are required to dye a full set of tsitsit.
^[⁵] Halakhic authorities:
– Rabbi Tsvi Hershel Schachter (b. 1941), leading Orthodox halakhic authority in the U.S., heads the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (Yeshiva University), author of Guinat Egoz (2007), which discusses tekhelet.
– Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg (1931–2020), former head of the rabbinical court in Jerusalem and director of the Talmudic Encyclopedia.
– Rabbi Shlomo Machpud (b. 1946), prominent Sephardic decisor of Yemenite origin, heads the Yoreh Deah kashrut agency in Bnei Brak, and actively advocates for reintroducing tekhelet as an authentic mitzvah.
^[⁶] Accumulated evidence: Fragments of textiles dyed with tekhelet and argaman (crimson dye from Bolinus brandaris) have been found at Masada and in the Judean Desert. Chemical and spectroscopic analyses confirmed the use of Hexaplex trunculus as a dye source. Phoenician dye workshops have yielded thousands of broken shells. Pliny the Elder (Natural History, Book IX) names eight types of mollusks used for purple or blue dyes and details the manufacturing process.

Beha’alotekha (בהעלותך – when you raise up)
^{Numbers 8:1–12:16 and Zechariah 2:14–4:7}

The parashah begins with the command given to Aaron to light the menorah and the consecration of the Levites. In the haftarah, the prophet Zechariah describes the vision of the menorah and the consecration of the High Priest Jeshua.

Psalm 29:2 (Kabbalat Shabbat ^[1])
הָבוּ לַה’, כְּבוֹד שְׁמוֹ; הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לַה’, בְּהַדְרַת-קֹדֶשׁ
Give the Lord the glory due His name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

Built in 1964, the Maguen David Synagogue in Mexico is an architectural work designed by Mathias Goeritz ^[2], blending modernism with Jewish tradition. Its imposing Star of David, supported by two monumental columns, immediately catches the eye. Inside, the inscription of Psalm 29:2 on the women’s balcony faces a large menorah placed near a semicircular hekhal. Natural light and colorful stained glass windows create an atmosphere conducive to prayer.

Present since the 16^th century with the conversos ^[3] fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, the Mexican Jewish community grew stronger through 20^th century waves of migration ^[4]. Today, it has around 40,000 members and boasts educational, religious, and cultural institutions that reflect its diversity.

^[1] Kabbalat Shabbat: Ritual for welcoming the Sabbath, introduced by the Kabbalists of Safed in the 16th century.
^[2] Werner Mathias Goeritz Brunner (1915–1990), German-Mexican artist and architect, pioneer of emotional architecture, known for emblematic projects like the Torres de Satélite.
^[3] Conversos: Spanish Jews forcibly converted to Christianity under the threat of the Inquisition.
^[4] Two major waves of migration: The first in the early 20th century from Muslim countries, the second between the World Wars from Eastern Europe.

Nasso (נשא – Elevate)
^{Numbers 4:21–7:89 and Judges 13:2–25}

The parasha Nasso addresses the role of the Levites, the Sotah, the purity laws, and the Nazirite vow. It invokes peace and protection upon Israel and concludes with the tribal offerings for the dedication of the Tabernacle. In the haftara, an angel announces the birth of Samson, who is consecrated as a Nazirite from birth.

Numbers 6:24-26 (Priestly Blessing)
יְבָרֶכְךָ ה’ וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
יָאֵר ה’ פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָּ
יִשָּׂא ה’ פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם
May the Eternal bless you and keep you!
May the Eternal make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May the Eternal turn His face toward you and grant you peace!q

In 1979, archaeologist Gabriel Barkay ^[1] led excavations at the site where the Repha’im and Hinnom valleys converge in Jerusalem. During the dig, a young participant uncovered a hidden burial chamber containing more than 1,000 artifacts, including silverware, gold, bones, precious stones, arrowheads, and, most notably, two tiny silver scrolls measuring 2.5 cm long, dating to the late 7th century BCE, during the First Temple period, before the Babylonian exile. These scrolls, known as the Ketef Hinnom amulets, are the oldest known fragments of biblical texts, predating the famous Dead Sea Scrolls by several centuries. They contain an inscription in ancient Hebrew, featuring the Priestly Blessing from parasha Nasso.
Due to their extreme fragility, it took three years of meticulous work to unroll them without causing damage. Their content demonstrates that biblical passages were not only written but actively used in a liturgical and apotropaic (protective) context as early as the time of the prophet Jeremiah.
Today, they are preserved and exhibited in the archaeological wing of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

^[1] Gabriel Barkay (born in 1944 in Hungary) is an Israeli archaeologist specializing in biblical archaeology and the history of Jerusalem. In 1999, the Islamic Waqf, the administrator of the Temple Mount, carried out large-scale construction work without authorization or archaeological oversight, including the expansion of an underground mosque beneath the Temple Mount. These works led to the deliberate and illegal destruction of unique archaeological remains. To salvage what could be recovered, Barkay co-founded the Temple Mount Sifting Project with Zachi Dvira, aiming to sift and study the 9,000 tons of debris removed from the site. This project has led to the recovery of thousands of artifacts covering nearly 3,000 years of history, despite the irreversible losses to archaeological heritage.