From the Desk of Rabbi Alter

Quite the shortest route for the children of Israel to the Promised Land would have been through the land of the Philistines. However, G‑d wanted to give the newly born Jewish nation the opportunity to throw off the remnants of Egyptian influence, and to educate them in the new ways of

Parshat Metzora describes the consequences of negative speech, loshon hara. “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Whoever made that one up is either naive or deaf. While we might tell our children not to be bothered, the reality is that words

The affliction of tzara’at comes primarily as a result of loshon hara – talking badly about others. The Sages make an amazing statement in the Talmud. They say that to speak negatively about another person is worse than murder. I think everyone would agree that it is terrible to speak negatively

One of the commandments in this week’s Torah portion is to remove the ashes from the Altar. Certain parts of the sacrifices were burned and the ashes were removed by the priests every day before sunrise. This was the only part of the Temple service that was

The leftovers of the Mincha offering were to be given to Aharon and his sons. These were the Kohanim, members of the tribe of Levi. Now, of course, the Levites worked in the temple, but there were so many of them that as a result, there was

Parshat Pekudei tells about Betzalel, the man who supervised the design and construction of the Tabernacle. The name Betzalel literally means “in the shadow of God.” This name alludes to his architectural ability, which came through understanding the code of how God combined Hebrew letters to create

As we conclude the Book of Exodus, we are given a list of all the gifts the Jewish nation gave to build the Temple: “gold, silver … precious gems.” The midrash points out that of all the donations made to the Temple, the mirrors that were used

In the Holy Temple, the clothes worn by the kohanim (priests) were a simple affair – robe, pants, hat and belt. All of them completely white. That was it. Enough to do the job of clothes – cover the nakedness – but no more. Apparently, clothes maketh not the

The command to build the tabernacle (the precursor to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem) is given in a slightly strange way: “Make for me a Sanctuary and I will dwell within you.” It would seem to make more sense to say, “Make for me a Sanctuary and

The first of the Ten Commandments is, “I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt…” The Sages ask: What exactly is this commanding us to do? Surely, it is a statement, not a commandment. As a result, some commentaries answer