Acharei (אחרי – after) Qedoshim (קדושים – saints), Leviticus from verse 16, 1 to 20, 27. After the Yom Kippur ceremony, the text lists sexual prohibitions and proclaims: Be holy to Me, for I am Holy – וִהְיִיתֶם לִי קְדֹשִׁים, כִּי קָדוֹשׁ (Leviticus 20, 24)
Leviticus 16, 24 ורחץ את‑בשרו במים he will bathe his body in water…
After saints: The Mikvah, a purifying bath allowing a rebirth.
Rebirth: Luxembourg’s third synagogue and its mikvah on Avenue Monterey, designed by Victor Engels and René Mailliet, were inaugurated in 1953 by Chief Rabbi Charles Lehrmann. The stained glass windows are by Frantz Kinnen.
Tazria, (תזריע – she will conceive) and Metzor’a (מצורע – person afflicted with tzara’at (kind of leprosy) Leviticus from verse 12, 1 to verse 15,33
The text enumerates the laws of ritual impurity and sets out the purification rites to be performed once the evil has disappeared.
The presence of Jews in Sicily has been attested since the 1st century. In the Middle Ages in Syracuse, the community was mainly devoted to trade. In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Sicily, because the island depended on the Spanish crown1.
The Mikveh of Syracuse2 dates from the 6th century and is located under the Hotel Alla Giudecca3, in the heart of what was once the Jewish quarter of Syracuse
1 Spanish territory in 1492, The Canary Islands, the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and Malta. 2 See the article in french on the Lamed.frwebsite 3 Hotel Judaica.
Leviticus verse 10, 16 ִִִִִִִִִִֵ וְאֵת שְׂעִיר הַחַטָּאת About the expiatory goat
A little over 20 years ago, a young community settled in Bouc (Goat). This town of 15,000 people, located at 8 km from the internment camp and of French deportation, opened in September 1939, in a disused tile factory, in the hamlet of Milles.
Between 1939 and 1942, the camp experienced the internment of foreigners and resistance fighters of 39 nationalities, eventually becoming an antechamber of Auschwitz with the deportation of thousands of Jewish men, women and children in August and September 1942 .
Parshat Tsav (צו – prescribe), Leviticus 6, 1 – 8, 36. G‑d details the function of each offering, then asks Moses to teach the cohanim the rules for eating the offerings and the rules for serving the sanctuary.
For Shabbat Ha-Gadol the Haftarah is read in Malachi (3, 3 to 24).
Malachi 3, 22 זִכְרוּ תּוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה עַבְדִּי אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי אוֹתוֹ בְחֹרֵב עַל-כָּל-יִשְׂרָאֵל חֻקִּים וּמִשְׁפָּטִים Remember the Law of Moses my servant, to whom I served at Horeb statutes and ordinances for all Israel.
The Maran1, is one of the greatest Jewish halakhic decision makers. Between 1523 and 1536, he lived in Nikopol in Bulgaria, where he established the synagogue and the yeshiva “Beith Yosseph”2. It was there that he wrote most of his work Beith Yossef3 (1522-1562).
1 Rabbi Yosef ben Ephraim Karo Zatsa”l was born in 1488 in Toledo and died on the eve of Passover, April 3, 1575 (13 Nissan 5335) in Tfsat. נסמך (Matayim Rabanim Nismakh = recognized by 200 imminent rabbis). 2 Destroyed by the Germans in 1941. 3 The Beit Yossef (בית יוסף – House of Joseph) is a code of law that deals with the practical aspects of Jewish life. At the end of his life, he will make a more accessible summary of it in the שולחן ערוך (Shouhan Arukh – laid table).
Vayiqra (ויקרא – and He called) Leviticus from chapter 1, verse 1 to chapter 5, verse 26. G-d calls Moses and teaches him the prescriptions concerning the offerings.
The alphabet has 27 letters (22 letters and 5 finals). The alef1 is the first letter, the one that allows the other 26 to occur. In a commentary2, Grand Rabbi Joseph Haim Sitruk zl invites children from an early age to begin the study of Torah, with the book of Leviticus (vayikra). In all the Torah scrolls, the א (alef) of vayikra is small in order to show that to be the starting point of transmission, it is incumbent on cultivating humility. The Chief Rabbi of France Joseph Haïm Sitruk zl created, in 1990, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the Center Alef, an Orthodox community center. On March 14, 2021, the first stone of the new premises was laid.
1 The letter alef is composed of 2 Yods and a vav (ייו=10+10+6=26=א) and corresponds to the numerical value of the divine Name. 2March 6, 2014 at the Alef Center
Vayaqhel (ויקהל – and he gathered) – Peqoudei (פקודי – inventories) Exodus from 35.1 to 40.38.
Moshe in front of the assembled people again states the commandment to observe Shabbos. Recalls the obligation to build the Tabernacle, to make the objects of worship and to make the priestly vestments. The book of Exodus closes with the inauguration of the said Tabernacle and the manifestation of divine glory in the completed sanctuary.
Exodus 40, 1 בְּיוֹם-cam הָרִאשׁוֹן, בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ, תָּקִים, אֶת-מִשְׁכַּן אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד The first day of the month, the first month, you will erect the Tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
The portable shrine built by the Children of Israel in the Sinai desert is inaugurated on the first day of the month of Nissan in the year of creation 2449 (1312 BCE). Timna Park, about 30 km north of Eilat, has a life-size replica of the Tabernacle and its furniture.
Ki Tissa (כי תשא – when you take), Exodus 30, 11 to 34, 35.
Exodus 31 2-3 ראה קראתי בשם בצלאֵל בן-אורי בן-חור למטֵה יהודה. ואמלא אתו רוח א-להים בחכמה וּבתבונה ובדעת ובכל-מלאכה. Behold, I have expressly designated Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Yehuda, and I have filled him with divine inspiration, skill, judgment, knowledge, and aptitude for all the arts.
Bezalel (בצלאל – in the shade [under the protection] of G‑d) is the chief architect of the Mishkan. He is the archetype of the best apprentice, the artist par excellence.
In 1977, at the instigation of the Rebbe of Lubavitch, a place of learning and worship, named Bais Bezalel, opened in Los Angeles. In 1996, the center expanded and moved into a building on Pico Boulevard, on the Beverly Hill side.
Tetzaveh (תצוה – you will command), Exodus 27, 20 to 30, 10. Shabbat Zakhor (זכור – Remember), Deuteronomy 25, 17-19 Chida’s Hilula (11 Adar 5783)
The New Synagogue of Livorno is the most famous work of the Italian architect Angelo Di Castro. The shape of the building is reminiscent of the Mishkan. In the center, the tevah is built from marble elements of the old synagogue. The Arch in carved and gilded wood (1708) comes from the Synagogue of Pesaro. The basement rooms house an oratory, Oratorio Lampronti, whose 18th-century furniture comes from the Spanish synagogue in Ferrara.
217 years ago, on Shabbat Zakhor (11 Adar 5766) in Livorno, where he settled in 1780, Rav Chaim Yosef David Azulai, better known by the acronym Chida (חיד”א) died. In 1956 his bones are transferred to Jerusalem.
לכבוד החיד”א, זכותו תגן עלינו Likhvod hachida, zekhuto tagen ‘alenu. Honor to the Chida, may his merit protect us
Terumah (תרומה – contribution) Exodus from 25, 1 to 27, 19
Gd is asking the children of Israel to help build a sanctuary to dwell among them.
The Rema Synagogue (or Remuh), in the Jewish district of Kazimierz1, is Krakow’s only functioning synagogue. It was founded in 1557 by the banker to the King of Poland for his son Mojżesz ben Israel Isserles, known as The Rema2. The inscription above the gate on Szeroka Street announces this to the visitor:
בית הכנסת חדש רמא זצל New Synagogue of Rema, of Blessed Memory
In 1988, during restoration works, polychromes were discovered. In the prayer room, a chair near the eastern wall is, according to tradition, that of the Rema. The holy ark, a work of the late Renaissance, is framed by pillars and overlooked by the Tables of the Law. The alms trunk at the entrance to the prayer hall bears the inscription “gold, silver, copper”.
Exodus 25, 3 וְזֹאת הַתְּרוּמָה אֲשֶׁר אֲשֶׁרוּ מֵאִתָּם זָהָב וָכֶסֶף וּנְחֹשֶׁת and here is the ‘ offering you will receive from them: gold, silver and copper.
The walls of the courtyard bear inscriptions in memory of the Jews of Krakow who perished in the Holocaust. In 1945, the synagogue once again became a place of prayer.
1 The movie Schindler’s Listwas filmed in 1993 in this neighborhood . 2Rem”a (רמ״א)is the acronym of Rabbi Moses Isserles (1520-1572), author of religious, philosophical, scientific and mystical works. His Talmudic code of jurisprudence, titled Mappa (the Tablecloth), is still authoritative today.
Mishpatim (משפטים – laws) Exodus from 21, 1 to 24, 18 Shabbat Sheqalim (שקלים – Sicles) Exodus from 30, 11 to 30, 16 1
Exodus 30, 11 and 12 כִּי תִשָּׂא אֶת-רֹאשׁ בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם, וְנָתְנוּ אִישׁ כֹּפֶר נַפְשׁוֹ לַיי, בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם; וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה בָהֶם נֶגֶף, בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם. When you make a general numbering of the children of Israel, each one of them shall pay the redemption of his person to the Lord at the time of the numbering, that there be no Mortality among them because of this operation.
יג זֶה יִתְּנוּ, כָּל-הָעֹבֵר עַל-הַפְּקֻדִים- מַחֲצִ sex הַשֶּׁקֶל, בְּשֶׁקֶל הַקֹּדֶשׁ: This tribute, presented by all those who will be understood in the count, shall be half a shekel, according to the weight of the sanctuary;
According to the Halakha (Megillah 13b), one must give, before Purim, the remembrance silver of the half shekel given to the Temple. When we acquit ourselves, we must say “in remembrance of the half shekel” (Zecher Lemah’atsit Hashekel – זכר למחצית השקל).
The shekel is an ancient unit of weight as well as a monetary currency. It is equivalent to 180 grains of barley, or about 12 grams2.
Judean half-shekel of the 1st century: Side face surrounding pomegranates, is inscribed Jerusalem3. On the tail side is a cut and the value of the coin.
1 beginning of Ki Tissa 2 in silver this corresponds to approximately 5€ or $5.10 or ₪20 3 in ancient Hebrew script
