Parasha

Just as a bad word can destroy, a good word can build – and that, after all, is the purpose of creation: “The world will be built with kindness.”

Our portion lists four animals that lack one of the two signs of purity. The midrash associates these four animals with the four exiles the Jewish people have experienced over the generations.

Someone who sins is meant to bring something of himself – his heart and emotions – and to experience a sense of closeness to God and love for Him through the offering.

We know who we are. They cannot fathom it. Our tireless efforts to explain may fall on deaf ears – but we hear, and we know.

Nothing in the Torah is superfluous. From every word – and even from each letter – our sages derived halachic rulings or ethical teachings.

Snippets from Rabbi Nathan Cardozo’s commentary on the ‘Book of Leviticus’

look at the beauty of the Temple, built in harmony and generosity, and let this be the foundation of your own home – built on love and overflowing kindness.

A person can build, act, create, contribute, and make the world a better place. Just as easily, however, the same person can wither, stagnate, and waste his or her life in idleness.