By Rav Reuven Tradburks The Parsha begins in the middle of the story. Yosef has just told Yehuda and all the brothers that Binyamin, the thief, will become a slave to Yosef. All the others are free to leave. Our Parsha begins with Yehuda’s long and...
At the start of Chanukah, Shavei Israel had a guest of honor who gave us a wonderful talk about her personal life and her connection to Judaism. This unique and beautiful person is the famous Spanish-speaking actress Sara Mintz, former student of the Machon Miriam...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Yosef ascends from jail to complete control of Egypt. Paro has a dream. The Butler remembers Yosef in jail. Yosef tells Paro of 7 impending years of plenty followed by 7 of famine. Yosef is appointed to manage the hoarding of food...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Parshat Noach describes: the destruction of the world through the Flood, Noah and his family, the story of the Tower of Babel and the introduction of Avraham’s family. The first 2 parshiot in our Torah, Breishit and Noach, are essentially parallel creation stories,...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Day 1. The Torah reading for the first day is Genesis, Chapter 21, v. 1-34. This chapter describes the birth of Yitzchak, the insistence of Sarah to send Yishmael away, and Hagar and Yishmael’s near death in the desert before being saved. It...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks With Parshat Nitzavim we begin 4 very short parshiot that are the conclusion of the Torah. Although this parsha has but 40 verses, the emotional impact is hard to match. The Talmud says that the curses of Parshat Ki Tavo should be read...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks The Parsha begins the conclusion of our Torah. The book of Devarim consists of Moshe’s long speech at the end of his life. His speech is crafted beautifully, a magnum opus of past, present and future. He began with a review of...
Shavei Israel is proud and excited to have appointed a new director-general, Edith Blaustein! While she may be the new director, Edith is not new to Shavei at all. In fact, Edith has been working hard in many aspects of Shavei Israel over the last...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Parshat Ki Teitsei The Parsha contains 74 mitzvot, the most of any parsha in our Torah. It is the third of the parshiot of Mitzvot; Ekev, Shoftim and Ki Teitsei. Moshe began his long address in Sefer Devarim with narrative, reviewing the central...
Rav Reuven Tradburks Parshat Re’eh begins a section filled with Mitzvot. In the next 3 parshiot there are 170 Mitzvot, ¼ of all the mitzvoth of the Torah. In the flow of Moshe’s speech, he is switching from a discussion of how we got to where...
