Mr. Shmuel Silberman Learning Center Specialist Who is the greatest student in a school? Is it the person with the highest GPA or SAT score? The one who wins a coveted award? The student admitted to the most prestigious college? From a  Torah  perspective, the basis of determination is none of these. Consider this week’s  parsha, Vayikra.  It speaks about the different ways one can bring a voluntary offering. A poor person has the option to bring an offering of flour ( mincha ), whereas those with greater financial resources can bring birds, sheep, or cattle.   “When a  nefesh  will bring a flour offering…” (2:1) Why does the  pasuk  identify the poor person bringing the offering as a  nefesh ? Rashi says this is because “it’s as if he offered his  nefesh .” More expensive offerings are in no way superior to a flour offering brought with the proper intent. We find a similar idea in a  parsha  we read previously. According ...

Josh Wolff Maimonides Class of 1989 His Palace, Our Passion אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם  אֲשֶׁר מָלַךְ, בְּטֶֽרֶם כָּל יְצִיר נִבְרָא לְעֵת נַעֲשָׂה בְחֶפְצוֹ כֹּל, אֲזַי מֶֽלֶךְ שְׁמוֹ נִקְרָא וְאַחֲרֵי כִּכְלוֹת הַכֹּל, לְבַדּוֹ יִמְלֹךְ נוֹרָא We recite these words every morning (although we are usually still bleary-eyed when we start our  tefillah ), yet the storyline is worthy of inspection. Hashem  (1) ruled our world even before the creation of mankind, (2) engineered the planet however He desires and was all the while called the king, and yet (3) when it was all said and done – ככלות הכל – He alone remains the awesome ruler. This begs the question: What changed after humanity was created, enabled, and empowered to occupy the world? “After all was said and done, He alone will rule as the awesome king.” So to be fair, it doesn’t look like anything really changed from the before to the after. Let’s take a step back. As our  parsha  this week states: וַיְכַ֥ל מֹשֶׁ֖ה...

Rabbi Yaakov Green (’98) Head of School My children and my students know that I love stories. I collect them, tell and retell them, savoring the details and nuanced changes in inflection or illustration that occur in each retelling and new rendition. All our knowledge, and all our people’s heritage, exist in stories.   Jewish heritage and wisdom can, and often does, exist in untold stories and details as well. In this week’s  parsha,  the construction of the  mishkan  commences, led by Betzalel, a master craftsman. (As an aside, I have always enjoyed the fact that in naming the premiere graduate school of arts in Jerusalem, the name Betzalel was chosen.  Mi k’amcha Yisrael! )   We know precious little about Betzalel. However, we know even less about the often overlooked, if not completely forgotten, character of Oholiav. A master craftsman in his own right, he stood side-by-side with Betzalel, directing the wise artisans in the construction of all the ...