Category Archives: Jewish Law & Life Cycle

The Mashiach Window

In this class, we re-examine the ancient Star of Jacob prophecy and analyze where we currently stand in the “End of Days” and the messianic process. What might unfold in the coming months and years? What role might AI play in the Final Redemption? Can a global blackout happen soon? And what can we do to hasten the return to the Garden of Eden? Also: What is the prophecy of the “unsheathing” of the Sun? What happened when Adam separated from Eve for 130 years? And why did the Sages tie the sound of the shofar to the cries of Sisera’s mother?

*This class was delivered on July 31, 2025 at the Sephardic Kehila Centre in Toronto, the final class there after two years of biweekly sessions.*

Mysteries & Secrets of Tefillin

At the end of this week’s parasha, Ekev, we read one of four passages in the Torah that speak of the great mitzvah of tefillin. In the list of 613, tefillin is actually two separate mitzvot—one for the head, and one for the arm. Some even say that tefillin counts as eight mitzvot, since we should multiply by four for the four times the Torah speaks of it! (Menachot 44a) Today, the mitzvah of tefillin is one of the best-known practices in all of Judaism, thanks in large part to the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s tefillin campaign starting in 1967, in the days leading up to the miraculous Six-Day War. We find many Jews who are otherwise secular or unaffiliated still laying tefillin every day. Following October 7, demand for tefillin was so high that there were reportedly shortages. Yet, tefillin binding hasn’t always been so widespread and well-known.

The Talmud (Berakhot 47a) suggests that one thing distinguishing Torah scholars (talmidei chakhamim) from the general public (am ha’aretz) is that the latter do not don tefillin. Even in responsa literature from the times of the Geonim (roughly 500-1000 CE), we find Jews asking if tefillin should be worn by all Jewish men, or if it was specifically reserved for great rabbis and Torah scholars. More puzzling still, we find that no other prophet besides Moses speaks of them, and there is no explicit mention of tefillin anywhere in the rest of Tanakh. Nor is there any historical or archaeological evidence of tefillin prior to about two millennia ago. Tefillin may just be the most mysterious Torah mitzvah we have. Where did it really come from, and what secrets does it contain? Continue reading →

How Many Parashot in the Torah?

This week’s parasha is Chukat, and this year it is read independently although it is often read together with the following parasha of Balak. Why is it that in some years we read certain parashot on their own, and in other years they are linked to another? The simple answer is because of the dynamic Jewish calendar. A typical Jewish year has 50 weeks, while a leap year has an extra month of Adar resulting in 54 weeks. The Jewish calendar cycle runs 19 years, and there are 7 leap years within a 19-year cycle that have 54 weeks. Naturally then, the Torah needs to be divided up into 54 parashot so that there is a parasha for each Shabbat in a leap year. (In times past, some communities, especially in Israel, actually read the Torah once over a span of about three years, not one year, splitting the parashot into smaller segments.)

Practically speaking, there will always be some Shabbats that fall in the middle of a holiday, including Pesach and Sukkot, and sometimes others like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Plus, the final parasha of V’Zot haBerakhah is always read on Simchat Torah and not on its own Shabbat. So, in a typical year there are usually no more than 47 Shabbats with a parasha. That means you have to combine the remaining seven (of the 54 total) with another parasha.

When it comes to which parashot should be combined, there are differing traditions, especially among Yemenite and Syrian communities, but the general consensus today links the following seven pairs: Vayak’hel and Pekudei, Tazria and Metzora, Acharei and Kedoshim, Behar and Bechukotai, Chukat and Balak, Matot and Masei, Nitzavim and Vayelekh. Three of these pairs are linked because they are thematically similar, and the other four are linked simply because they are short and adjoining, making them easy to combine into one. (The latter is especially true for the two shortest parashot in the Torah, Nitzavim and Vayelekh with just 40 and 30 verses each, respectively.)

Which parashot are combined in which years also depends on the approaching holidays. For example, parashot are scheduled so that Bamidbar typically precedes Shavuot, while Nitzavim (with or without Vayelekh) typically precedes Rosh Hashanah. Of course, we must have the penultimate Ha’azinu before Sukkot so that the final V’Zot haBerakhah is left for Simchat Torah, and the first Beresheet for the first Shabbat of the year following the holidays.

To summarize, we have a maximum total of 54 parashot, but up to seven can be combined with others, depending on the type of year, to leave us with 47 parashot. But then, amazingly, the Zohar comes in and says the Torah actually has 50 parashot! Continue reading →