Today, it’s hard for us to understand the meaning of sacrifices. As an animal lover who has two dogs, five chickens and a tortoise, it would certainly be rough for me to participate in animal ...

Why were Nadav and Avihu, two of Aaron’s sons, killed? The Torah states their deaths occurred when they brought an esh zarah (foreign fire) into the Temple (Leviticus 10:1). But what was the nature of ...

Our Torah portion this week, Acharei Mot (After the Death), contains a ritual that bespeaks an ancient stratum of religion, and a deep, tortured chamber of the soul. “Aaron will take two goats, and ...

Yom Kippur is quite properly viewed as a somber day of introspection. The Torah reinforces this perspective when declaring that on the Day of Atonement, we are to “afflict [te’anu] our souls” ...