Monthly Archives: December 2019

Terumah 5780

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NO JEW IS SUPERFLUOUS

In this week’s Parsha, Terumah, HaShem instructs His people to contribute a terumah, a contribution, to the building of the Mishkan. Our Sages point out that the people were being asked to participate in three collections. One contribution was for the material with which to build the Mishkan. This included the gold, the silver, the copper, the different types of wool and so on. The second contribution was for the communal offerings. These include the two daily offerings, the musaf offerings and other offerings that were required of us as a nation. The third contribution was for the production of the silver rings which made up the base of the Mishkan.

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Mishpatim 5780

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HANGING ON THE ‘VAV’

The first letter of our Parsha, Mishpatim, is the letter ‘vav’ which translates as ‘and’. Rashi teaches us that this ‘vav’ indicates that everything that follows is connected to the previous Parsha. This teaches us that just as in last week’s Parsha the Ten Commandments were said at Mount Sinai so too, this Parsha, which deals with the laws governing civil issues of money, was also given at Sinai.

This is very strange! We know that all the mitzvos were given at Sinai, why should these laws be any different?

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