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What does the Hebrew word Pekudei mean? Pekudei, Pekude, Pekudey, P’kude, or P’qude (פְקוּדֵי‎—Hebrew for “amounts of,” the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 23rd weekly Torah portion ( פָּרָשָׁה‎, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It is the 11th and last in the Book of […]

What Is the Mishnah? Published at the end of the second century CE, the Mishnah is an edited record of the complex body of material known as oral Torah that was transmitted in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. Rabbi Judah the Patriarch, also known as Rabbi Judah the […]

URJ bring them home  

Page 97 mishkan T’Filah   The Diameter of the Bomb The diameter of the bomb was 30 centimeters and the diameter of its effective range about 7 meters, with four dead and 11 wounded. And around these, in a larger circle of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered and one graveyard. But the young […]

Haftorah 3 yr cycle (Avram Israel Reisner, 2014) How long must a haftarah be? Megillah 23a reports a baraita that requires 21 verses in the haftarah, parallel to the minimum of seven aliyot of three verses in the Torah reading. That ruling is represented as the halakhah by Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 284:1. But a […]

The Book of Psalms is an ancient anthology of poetic prayers originally written in Hebrew. It is the first book of the third and final section of the Hebrew Bible, known as Ketuvim (Writings). The English term title derives from the Greek psalmos, meaning “song accompanied by a stringed instrument.” In Hebrew, the book is […]

Hebrew Lyrics Transliteration התקוה Kol od balevav p’nimah כל עוד בלבב פנימה Nefesh Yehudi homiyah נפש יהודי הומיה Ulfa’atey mizrach kadimah ולפאתי מזרח קדימה Ayin l’tzion tzofiyah עין לציון צופיה Od lo avdah tikvatenu עוד לא אבדה תקותנו Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim התקוה בת שנות אלפים L’hiyot am chofshi b’artzenu להיות עם חופשי בארצנו Eretz […]

Moshe and Mali are broke and praying for a miracle. Suddenly they find an abandoned sukkot, he is the beneficiary of charity, and two escaped convicts arrive to be their ushpizin. Diving deep into their Orthodox faith, they pray for help. But instead of a miracle, they are sent two devious escaped convicts. Seeing this […]

And who by fire, who by water, Who in the sunshine, who in the night time, Who by high ordeal, who by common trial, Who in your merry merry month of may, Who by very slow decay, And who shall I say is calling?   And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate, Who […]