12 Lessons

Parashat Hashavua: Gold, Silver, Precious Stones – Closeness to Hashem (part II)
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Adar 5785

The King’s Horse and Chariot
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | 9 Adar I 5784

What is Special About the Aron? (part II)
According to the Ramban, the commandment to build the Mishkan came right after the giving of the Torah and before the sin of the Golden Calf. The point of its being built was to have the Divine Presence dwell among the nation. This turned the one-time event of the revelation of the Divine Presence at Har Sinai into a permanent one that took place in the Mishkan and the Beit Hamikdash. The aron was the part of the Mishkan/Mikdash that was the setting for the revelation, as the mountain had been previously.
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Adar 4 5778

Too Close for Kedusha?
Several years ago on this parasha, we wrote about Shlomo Hamelech’s building of his palace close to the Beit Hamikdash. We explained that this represented his thesis that one should view the holy and the mundane and the Torah and the kingdom as inseparable. When the kings of the Kingdom of Yehuda sinned, the proximity to the Beit Hamikdash became a sore point, as Yechezkel highlighted (see Yechezkel 43:8). Was the approach of Shlomo’s father, David, the same as his son’s? The navi Shmuel (II,5) describes the conquer of Yevus and its transition into the eternal Israelite capital of Yerushalayim. We are told that David turned a fortress known as Metzudat David into his home and built around it, extending the city and building a wall around it (ibid. 7-10). The wall encompassed both the City of David and the Temple Mount, upon which the Beit Hamikdash would be built, and, in between, he left an area called the Milo for sleeping quarters for pilgrims to the Beit Hamikdash. David’s palace was built in the City of David, and, apparently, parts of it have been uncovered in excavations at that site.
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Adar 7 5777

To Sanctify and Uplift
Our parasha includes many p’sukim (46 to be exact) about the inauguration of the Mishkan, which started with the Seven Days of Miluim. This topic is continued in Sefer Vayikra, in Parashat Shemini, after the laws of korbanot are discussed, as well as in Parashat B’ha’alotcha.
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Adar I 8 5776

Choshen Without Mishpat?
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | 5775

Info @bout Dat
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Aadar 5773

Hearing the Sound, but of What
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | 5771

Jerusalem and Tzadok - Eternally Chosen
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Adar 5769

More on Whips and Scorpions
Last week we dealt with the difference in the commandment to erect the Mishkan through donations out of the goodness of people’s heart and Shlomo’s effort to build the Beit Hamikdash through coercion and task masters. We will now continue the theme and see how matters developed.
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Adar 5676

Honor for Whom?
Parashat Tetzave
Parashat Tetzave
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | 11 Adar 5766
