What’s In A Name? The Significance of a Hebrew Name: Requested Topic

Hebrew Name Traditions: A Hebrew name is traditionally given to a Jewish baby at the brit milah (circumcision) for boys and at a Torah reading for girls shortly after birth or within the first few weeks after birth. A child’s Hebrew name can be a name that sounds like the baby's secular/English name, or begins with the same …

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Torah Portion of the Week: Parsha Va’era (I Appeared)

Parsha Va'eira / Shabbat, 28 Tevet, 5783 / 21 January, 2023 12 And Moses spoke before the LORD, saying: ‘Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?’ Exodus 6:12 Odd as it may seem, Moses used the word “uncircumcised” (עָרֵל arel) to …

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The Tree of Knowledge: Etz HaDaat

Two stories below from Greek mythology share common threads with the story of the ‘forbidden fruit’ on the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. The rabbinic Midrash on the Forbidden Fruit presents the most famous biblical story of the first humans in an entirely new light. Pandora: Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus were …

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