This week's parsha

Unless otherwise noted, "This week's Parsha" comprises articles taken from contributors to the Chabad.org website. We show the original author's name here, so that proper attribution is given. For the sake of brevity, footnotes cited in the original author's writings are omitted from this website. If you need to see the citations, please refer to the original articles on the Chabad.org website.

Brotherly Love

Published: 26 April 2011 | Written by Mordechai Wollenberg

This week's Torah portion tells us to "Love your fellow as yourself."

The Talmud relates the story of the budding convert who came to the venerable sage, Hillel, and asked him to teach him the whole Torah whilst standing on one foot. Hillel replied: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the whole Torah -- the rest is commentary..."

Rabbi Akiva considered love for one's fellow "a vital principle of the Torah."

Why did Hillel place so much emphasis on this particular precept? We can understand how it underlies those commandments which apply amongst between our fellow man; but how does it impact on those commandments which apply between mankind and G-d? How is brotherly love related to keeping the Sabbat, or Kosher?

Restraint is Power

Published: 22 April 2011 | Written by Tali Loewenthal

Have you ever felt like losing your temper but at the last moment you managed to restrain yourself? Inner battles of this kind are often associated with traffic wardens and similar representatives of officialdom. Sometimes they are found in encounters on the domestic front as well...

The Parshah of Kedoshim (Leviticus chapters 19-20) starts with the idea that we should be holy. What exactly does this mean? The commenter Rashi explains that the term "holy" implies self-restraint. There are many temptations in life. To be holy means to have the ability to control one's immediate impulses.

Another commentator, Nachmanides, makes the point that this self-restraint may sometimes take a person to a point beyond the simple letter of the law. Jewish law permits a person to eat kosher food: but should one be an out-and-out glutton? According to this view, even if the food is as kosher as could be, restraint is power; it shows that one is truly free as an individual, rather than just being just a slave of one's appetite.

Sobriety in the Home

Published: 12 April 2011 | Written by Rabbi Ben A.

"And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself and for his home" — Leviticus 16:6.

This week's portion describes the special service performed by the High Priest in the Holy Temple on the Day of Atonement.

One of the special confessional prayers that the High Priest pronounced on that day was in order "to make an atonement for himself and for his home." The accepted interpretation is that "his home" refers here to his wife. We learn from this verse that to be eligible to perform the service on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest had to be married. The question is, if the intent of the verse is to tell us that the High Priest must be married, then why is this not stated explicitly rather than referring idiomatically to his wife as his "home"?