by Hillel Ontario | Apr 21, 2023 | Uncategorized
This week’s parsha is Acharei-Mot Kedoshim. Chapter 16 details the Yom Kippur service, one of the most important days of the year. Within the long, detailed instructions for the service is a very peculiar ritual. The Kohen Gadol (High Priest) takes two goats and...
by Hillel Ontario | Apr 3, 2023 | Hillel Ontario
The night before the Children of Israel’s departure from Egypt is referred to as leil shimurim, often translated as a “night of vigil.” Rav Nahman and subsequent scholars interpret this phrase, which appears nowhere else in the Tanakh, as a time of...
by Hillel Ontario | Mar 31, 2023 | Hillel Ontario, Weekly D'var
In this week’s parasha, Tzav, focuses on the laws of sacrifices and priestly duties. The emphasis is on the instructions given to the priests regarding the burnt offerings, the meal offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings. These offerings were an...
by Hillel Ontario | Mar 17, 2023 | Hillel Ontario, Weekly D'var
This week’s double portion is Vayakhel-Pekudei, which concludes the book of Exodus. In these final chapters, the Israelites complete the construction of the Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary that they will use to worship God during their travels in the...
by Hillel Ontario | Mar 10, 2023 | Uncategorized
Can money teach us a lesson about equality, even though no two people have the same financial situation? Parshat Ki Tisa presents an opportunity to learn about equality from that which is usually not equal. The Parsha recounts the collection of funds for the Mishkan,...
by Hillel Ontario | Feb 24, 2023 | Hillel Ontario, Weekly D'var
This week’s parsha finds the Israelites in the desert being instructed to build the mishkan, along with all of the required gathering of gold, silver, acacia wood… the list goes on. Most of the parsha consists of directions for where things are to go, what they should...
by Hillel Ontario | Feb 9, 2023 | Hillel Ontario, Weekly D'var
In perhaps one of the most iconic moments in the Torah, this upcoming Shabbat we will be reading Parshat Yitro, which sees the Jewish people receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai; however, I actually want to focus on the namesake of the parsha, a man named...
by Hillel Ontario | Feb 8, 2023 | Hillel Ontario, Press Release, Uncategorized
Toronto, ON – February 8, 2023 – Today, Hillel Ontario is proud to release findings from a student pulse check survey that was completed over the past three months. Beginning in November 2022, Hillel polled hundreds of students to help the organization best meet the...
by Hillel Ontario | Jan 23, 2023 | Hillel Ontario
In their research on listening to survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides, Bronwen E. Low and Emmanuelle Sonntag note listeners’ problematic tendencies towards one of two responses. On the one hand, they can regard the narratives as so unfamiliar and foreign...
by Hillel Ontario | Jan 13, 2023 | Hillel Ontario, Uncategorized, Weekly D'var
In this week’s parashah we learn the story of Moses, from his birth, through his flight from and eventual return to Egypt, to the acceptance of his role as leader of the Hebrew people. After fleeing Egypt, for killing an Egyptian slave master, Moses was living rather...
