Rabbi Claude's Scribbles

  The following verses might constitute the most famous instructions in the entire Torah: Genesis 6: (13) God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them: I am about to destroy them with the earth.   (14) Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make it an ark with compartments and cover it inside and out with pitch. (19) And of all that lives, of all flesh, you shall take two of each into the ark to keep alive with you; they shall be male and female. Until relatively recently, one could probably assume that most young children of nursery age in English-speaking territories knew the story of the flood, if only through learning this song almost by osmosis: "The animals went in two by two Hoorah! Hoorah! The animals went in two by two Hoorah! Hoorah! The animals went in two by two The elephant and the kangaroo And they all went into the ark For to get out of the rain.   The animals we

  I am going to start by playing a word association game with a Jewish twist! If I think of the number 3, the first thought that comes to mind relates to the 3 Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. With 4, you have the matriarchs. 7 is easy, that's Shabbat, the seventh day. 40 reminds me of the number of days that Moses was on Mount Sinai (for each stint) and 70 reminds me of the number of people who went down to Egypt with the convoy of Jacob. 70 however, has a different significance. As always, we look to the Torah to start us on our journey. In Sefer Bamidbar (Numbers), we read the following, regarding the offerings that are to be sacrificed over the Festival of Sukkot (I have not included all of the offerings, as I am only concentrating on the number of bulls): Numbers 29 (12) On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations.—Seven days you shall observe a festival of the Lord.— (13) Yo

  It is a Bracha, a blessing that we recite every Friday night (and on festivals) in Ma’ariv, just before the Kaddish that leads us into the silent Amidah prayer: "Baruch ata Hashem , hapores sukkat shalom aleinu ve'al kol amo yisrael ve'al Yerushalayim -Blessed are You, Lord, who spreads the shelter of peace over all His people and over Jerusalem." On the face of it, this seems like a rather odd blessing. What is the connection between a sukkah, the temporary structure in which we sit (and sometimes freeze in!) during the seven days of the upcoming festival of Sukkot and the notion of peace?   And why do we recite this blessing on Friday nights? The last question is the easiest to answer. We pray for Gd to protect our people and our holy capital at an auspicious time such as on Shabbat or the Chagim. However, this does not explain why we are asking Gd to spread a ‘shelter of peace’ over us. The roof of the sukkah is called the ‘schach’ and indeed th

  There is a famous story, which probably isn't true, but nevertheless, deserves retelling (taken from www.logosconcarne.com): " Cecil B. DeMille (known as “C.B.”), the famed producer and director of cinematic biblical epics such as 'Samson and Delilah' and 'The Ten Commandments', was directing a massive battle scene that involved a vast set filled with thousands of extras and animals.   The climactic scene involved a massive dam bursting and flooding a valley, washing away the battle and destroying the very large, very expensive set.   (Don’t worry, the extras and animals were all stunt extras and stunt animals; no harm came to any person or creature.) Even in the days of Hollywood’s great wealth and indulgence, it would be possible for only one ‘take’.   There was no way to rebuild such a huge set.   (Of course, this was long before the days of CGI, so everything had to be actually built).   So C.B. covered himself by having the final scene filmed by fou