Rabbi Zahavit Shalev

Latest from Rabbi Zahavit Shalev

Tu Bishvat: celebrating the hidden growth of new life

Why does the New Year for Trees – which begins on Sunday night – fall at the very time when little seems to be happening outside?

3 min read

Tu Bishvat: celebrating the hidden growth of new life

2MY5848 Jewish men pray during the mourning ritual of Tisha B'Av at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem's old city, early Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. The Jewish holy day of Tisha B'Av, when Jews mourn the destruction of the biblical temples is marked Sunday. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

The day that Jerusalem became a pariah

3 min read

ainting by Jean-Baptiste Vignali, The Martyrdom of the Maccabees (1781),

The martyrdom of a Chanukah heroine

3 min read

A torah (Hebrew scripture) reading. The "yod" - a hand-shaped silver pointer - is used by the reader to mark his or her place in the text.

The sidrah: First Day Succot

1 min read

Parashah of the week: Ki Tetzei

“When a man has taken a bride, he shall not go out with the army or be assigned to it for any purpose; he shall be exempt one year for the sake of his household, to give happiness to the woman he has married” Deuteronomy 24:5

1 min read

August 25, 2023 10:19

Parashah of the week: Ekev

“Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead” Deuteronomy 11:18

1 min read

August 4, 2023 11:35

Parashah of the week: Shelach Lecha

“So the community leadership took him outside the camp and stoned him to death as the Lord had commanded Moses” Numbers 15:6

1 min read

June 15, 2023 15:24

Queen Esther and the Red Rebel Brigade

What is the connection between the climate ‘artivists’ and the story of Purim?

3 min read

March 13, 2022 12:19

Members of the Red Rebel Brigade, an international performance artivist troupe participate in a protest rally during a global day of action on climate change in Glasgow on November 6, 2021, during the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference. - From Paris to Sydney, Nairobi to Seoul, more than 200 events are planned worldwide to demand immediate action for communities already affected by climate change, particularly in the poorer countries in the South. (Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)

Nitzavim

“When such a one hears the words of these sanctions, he may fancy himself immune, thinking, ‘I shall be safe, though I follow my own wilful heart’” Deuteronomy 29:18

1 min read

September 3, 2021 10:56

Ekev

“A land where you may eat food without stint (lo bemiskenut), where you will lack nothing” Deuteronomy 8:9

1 min read

July 29, 2021 18:03

Tazria-Metzora

“This shall be the ritual for the metzora at the time that he is to be cleansed. When it has been reported to the priest, the priest shall go outside the camp” Leviticus 14:2-3

1 min read

April 15, 2021 15:47

Vayakhel-Pekudei

“And the chieftains bought lapis lazuli and other stones” Exodus 35:27

1 min read

March 11, 2021 15:07

Yitro

“Moses went out to meet his father-in-law; he bowed low and kissed him; each asked after the other’s welfare, and they went into the tent” Exodus 18:7

1 min read

February 5, 2021 10:38