coming Thursday!
Mishpatim Torah Portion Summary
February 9th, 2010
Yitro Torah Portion Summary
February 1st, 2010Moses’ Father-in-law heard what God did for the Israelites and was in awe of such a powerful Lord.
He and observed Moses settling disputes among the people of Israel and urged Moses to appoint chiefs to govern the people.
Moses explains to the people of Israel that God will make of them a great nation if they commit to following His commandments.
When the people agreed, Moses left for three days and informed them that when he returned from his trek up the mountain, they should be clean and pure.
On the third day, Moses returned and amid smoke and the blasts of shofars, he brought to people of Israel to the foot of the mountain to hear Gods Commandments.
The first commandment stated that there was no other God beside the one, true God, and no one should observe or bow down to idols.
They were told that they should not take the Lord’s name in vein, and that on the seventh day, they and their cattle should rest.
The commandments also instructed them not to commit adultery, murder or commit sexual impropriety.
They were not to steal, bare false witness, or covet their neighbor’s house, wife or belongings.
Upon witnessing this great spectacle, the people of Israel fell back in fear of God, and asked that Moses speak to them on God’s behalf.
The Superbowl is going Kosher
February 1st, 2010This year, for the first time ever, a deal has been struck to provide Jews at the Superbowl with Kosher food!
Kosher Sports Inc., a foods provider to a number of ballparks and stadiums, mostly on the East Coast, will be vending their Kosher foods at Miami’s Dolphins Stadium for both the Superbowl and Pro Bowl in 2010.
Some of the available foods include hot dogs, sausages and salami sandwiches!
Read more about it here.
Tu Bishvat 101
January 27th, 2010Tu Bishvat is a holiday intimately connected to the agricultural cycle of the Land of Israel. Falling in the middle of the Jewish month of Shvat, the 15th day of the month is the New Year of Trees. Today, this holiday is often celebrated by planting saplings and also by participating in a seder-meal that echoes the Passover seder, in which the produce of trees, including fruits and nuts, are eaten.
Ideas and Beliefs
The Bible expresses a great reverence for fruit trees as symbols of God’s bounty and beneficence. Special laws were formulated to protect fruit trees in times of war and ensure that the produce of trees would not be picked until the trees were mature enough and tithes were given from them. In order to calculate the age of trees, both for determining when they could be harvested and when they were to be tithed for the Temple, the Talmudic Rabbis established the 15th day (Tu) of the month of Shvat as the official “birthday” of trees.
Practices
When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, Tu Bishvat served as the day on which farmers offered the first fruits of the trees they planted, after the trees had turned four years old. The following Tu Bishvat signified when the farmers were allowed to begin making use of the produce of the trees they planted, whether for personal or economic reasons.
With the increased concern for the environment in recent years, Tu Bishvat has taken on an additional meaning as a day on which Jews can express and act on their concern for the ecological well-being of the world in which we live. This has led to the rediscovery of the mystical Tu Bishvat seder, now transformed into a celebration of God’s bounty and the environment.
Click here to continue reading Tu Bishvat 101.
Judaism 101 is provided courtesy of MyJewishLearning.com
David Beckham is kind of Jewish
January 25th, 2010Perhaps you’ve heard of him. From what we can tell, he’s a pretty good soccer players. Well, a few years ago, Beckham, the European-turn-American soccer player with a large cross tattoo on his chest, found out that his mother comes from a Jewish family.
Beckham wasn’t raised a Jew, and doesn’t practice any religion these days, but upon finding out that he was “half Jewish” (his words, not ours), he got a tattoo on his arm that reads, “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me,” a quote that some of you might recognize from the Song of Songs (Ani L’Dodi, V’Dodi Li).
Beshalah Torah Portion Summary
January 24th, 2010God led the people of Israel on an indirect route from Egypt, with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night.
After telling Moses to camp by the Red Sea, he planned to have Pharaoh attacked the people of Israel, so that God could save the Jews as the last minute, thus proving his power to them.
As Pharaoh and his army approached, Moses raised his hand and the sea parted for the Israelites to cross.
The Jews crossed safely, but as the Egyptians came after them, the waters crashed down upon them, destroying them all, prompting the Jews to sing and dance.
As the Jews wandered through the desert, they began to question God, for they had trouble finding food and water.
God produced a flaky substance that they called manna, and were instructed to collect a single days-worth of food six days a week, and twice as much on Fridays, so that on Shabbat they could rest.
Some people refused to follow God’s instructions, collecting too much on weekdays, and not enough for Shabbat.
God then told Moses to hit a rock to produce water for the people of Israel, who were constantly questioning Gods authority and commandments.
While in Horeb, the people of Amalek attacked the Jews, and God once again demonstrated his power by enabling the Jews to continue to win as long as Moses held his arms in the air.
Joseph led his people to victory over Amalek as Moses, with the help of Aaron and Hur, held his arms above his head.
Christoph Waltz’s Son is a Rabbi
January 18th, 2010Christoph Waltz, the Golden Globe winner who played a Jew hunter in the movie “Inglorious Basterds” isn’t a Jew, but according to an interview with Quentin Tarantino, the movie’s director, Waltz’s son is a rabbi in Israel.
Bo Torah Portion Summary
January 17th, 2010Moses and Aaron warned Pharaoh about the impending Locust plague, but Pharaoh’s heart was hardened as he would not let the Israelites leave.
Pharaoh offered to let the Israelites leave if they left their animals behind following the plague of three days of darkness, but Moses rejected this offer.
Pharaoh told Moses that if he returned to speak with Pharaoh, he would be killed.
God commanded the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and smear its blood on their doorposts to avoid the final plague — death of the first born.
The Israelites were instructed to then eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs in what became the first Korban Pesach.
That night, the first born Egyptians were killed, causing Pharaoh to finally allow Moses and the Jews to hurriedly leave Egypt.
Prior to leaving, the Jews were instructed to ask the Egyptians for all of their gold and silver, leaving their nation without any wealth.
The Israelites left in such a hurry, that their bread did night have time to rise.
The Jews were then instructed to observe the anniversary of the Exodus by eating unleavened bread for seven days and telling the story of the Exodus.
Additionally, God commanded the Jews to wear tefillin as a reminder of the Exodus.
Worldwide Jewish Population Growth is roughly 0%
January 11th, 2010The global population grows by roughly 1.4% each year, yet in a recent study, the global Jewish population grew by just 0.3%. That means the Jewish population is shrinking, compared to the rest of the world’s population.
Of the 13.3 million Jews in the world, almost 40% live in Israel, and a whopping 46%(6.5 million) live in the United States! In all, 90% of the Jewish population resides in just five countries — The U.S., Israel, France, Canada, Britain and Russia.
Prior to World War II, the Jewish population was over 17 million people. It dropped to nearly 11 million following the Holocaust, and although it rebounded to 12 million within 13 years, it took another 40 years to gain another million people.
What does the future hold for the Jews? One study suggested that by 2080 the Jewish population in Israel would double to roughly 10 million Jews, while the American Jewish population would decline by almost one-third.
Food for thought as you choose between Jdate and match.com to find your beshert 
To read more about these statistics, please visit our source. All statistics are based on a 2001 study. Statistics vary.
Vaera Torah Portion Summary
January 10th, 2010God instructed Moses and his brother Aaron to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.
In order to do so, God first had Moses and Aaron demonstrate God’s power by turning a staff into a snake.
Pharaoh instructed his magicians to do the same, and was thus unimpressed, even when Aaron’s snake ate theirs.
Moses then dipped his staff into the Nile, turning all of the water into blood.
Pharaoh dismissed this aswell, since his magicians were able to do the same.
Since Pharaoh’s heart was stiffened, God then brought frogs upon the land, and then vermin and insects.
With each plague, Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites leave.
However, once the plague was lifted, his heart was hardened.
The Lord then struck all Egyptian livestock with disease, gave boils to all Egyptian people and caused deadly hail to fall upon them aswell.
Pharaoh was impressed with each of these acts, since his magicians were unable to reproduce them, but he remained stubborn and would not let the Israelites go.
