parshat Acharei Mot

In this week’s Torah reading, we learn of a prohibition to slaughter an animal and not bring it as a sacrifice (Vayikra 17:1-7). In Parashat Eikev, the Torah allows one who is at a significant distance from the Mikdash to slaughter an animal and eat it locally (Devarim 12:21).

In these days after the seventh day of Pesach and around the time of the declaration of the State, we will try to explain the connection between two national historical events – “Brit Bein Hab’tarim” (covenant with Avram) and Kriat Yam Suf (splitting of the sea). David Hamelech describes Kriat Yam Suf in Hallel Hagadol as “to cut (gozer) the sea into strips (gezarim), forever is His kindness” (Tehillim 136:13). The use of the word “gozer” brings us to a new understanding of that event. The root of the splitting of the sea starts at the historical event of Brit Bein Hab’tarim. There the Torah used the word “Bein Hagezarim” (Bereishit 15:17) to describe the covenant with Avram.

A brief Dvar Torah on the Parsha, based on R. Samson Raphael Hirsch’s Torah Commentary

A brief Dvar Torah on the Parsha, based on R. Samson Raphael Hirsch’s Torah Commentary