Kol Ramah

Hofa'a bassist, 5th year Cantorial student and Ramah historian, Max Silverstone discusses his studies in Israel and recently uncoverred history of Ramah Nyack and Berkshires.

Live recording of Ramah Berkshires concert last night in the Ulam. Featuring the Ramah Berkshires Hofa'a band! Piano – Adam Siegel, Bass – Max Silverstone, Guitar – Jeff Weisz, Drums – Rayaz Khan, Vocals – Lexi Wenger, Landon Braverman. Special Guest Singers – Leilah Rosen, Helene Weintraub, Odeya Buzaglo Harris Cohen – Engineer Musical Direction by Landon Braverman

Listen to the wonderful kids of Tzeirim interviewing the people at the farm of Camp Ramah!

Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky - broadcasted directly from our studio in Ramah Berkshires! This week the double parashah Chukkat-Balak [Numbers 19:1-25:9] allows the Diaspora communities to catch up with Israel. Because the 2nd day of Shavuot was on Shabbat in the Diaspora, necessitating a special reading for the holiday while in Israel it was a normal Shabbat with a re...

Take a listen as Omer and Ben of Radio Kol Ramah get to speak to campers and staff as the buses pull up for the start of Kayitz 2023!

Parsha Talk; with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky Parashat Korach [Numbers 16-18] is one of the few parashiyot [weekly Torah readings] to take the name of a person. The Book of Numbers itself has two others, next week with half of Chukkat-Balak and the following week with Pinchas. Korach, a cousin of Moses and Aaron, leads a rebellion against their authority. Jaccob Milg...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Sh’lach L’kha [Numbers 13-15] neatly divides into two uneven sections: the story of the spies [13-14] and, as Jacob Milgrom describes it in his JPS Commentary on Numbers, a miscellany of laws. The end of the miscellany is the passage on tzitzit, which became well known as the 3rd paragraph of the Shema. There is...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat B’ha’alot’kha [Numbers 8-12], the third parashah in Numbers, covers a lot of ground. To name just a few topics, there is the lighting of the menorah [Numbers 8:1-4]; the ritual purification of the Levites so they might perform their duties with the Tabernacle [Numbers 8:5-22]; the Second Passover [9:1-14], which...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Naso [Numbers 4:21–7:89] is the second parashah in the Book of Numbers. It contains the longest single chapter in the Torah [7, with 89 verses], and at 176 verses, is also the longest single parashah of the year. In fact, it has the most letters, the most words, and the most lines in the Torah scroll of any singl...

Parsha Talk; with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. With the onset of Shavuot Thursday night it is another early edition of Parashah Talk. In the Diaspora [outside the Land of Israel], the 2nd day of Shavuot on Shabbat preempts the weekly Torah reading, so that Israel will be a week ahead for a number of weeks. Our show is devoted to an exploration of Shavuot, which comes...

Parsha Talk - with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. It’s an early edition of Parashah Talk this week. It turns out we all have lives outside of Parashah Talk which affects the day we record. So we open up the Book of Numbers on a Monday, with Parashat Bemidbar [Numbers 1:1–4:20]. There is more to discuss than one might first realize; we hardly got much beyond the first f...

Parsha Talk; with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat B’har-B’chukotai [Leviticus 25-27] concludes the Book of Leviticus. Leviticus is the shortest book in terms of chapters [27], and the fewest in parashiyot [10, tied with Numbers], but takes as few as 7 weeks to read when all of its potentially doubled parashiyot are in fact doubled, as is the case this year. B’h...

Parsha Talk: with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Emor [Leviticus 21-24] further develops the theme of holiness which is at the core of the Holiness Code [Leviticus 17-26]. The parashah begins with restrictions on kohanim [priests], on whom they marry, whom they mourn, what physical characteristics prevent them from serving. Chapter 23 is the Book of Leviticus’...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. This week is another double parashah, Aharai Mot-Q’doshim [Leviticus 16-20], which features a description of Yom Kippur, and in particular the ritual of the goat sent to Azazel, and the beginning of the Holiness Code [Leviticus 17-26]. The Holiness Code develops the idea of holiness as it pertains to the priests and the p...

Parsha Talk; with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. This Shabbat features not only the weekly parasha, Tazria-Metsora [Leviticus 12-15], but also a maftir [Numbers 28:9-15] and haftarah [Isaiah 66] for Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the new month of Iyar whose first day is this Saturday. In addition, it is the Shabbat preceding Yom Ha-Zikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, and Y...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. The parashah this week is Sh’mini [Leviticus 8-11], but we recorded on the 5th day of Passover, the third of the four intermediate days before the concluding holiday resumes on Tuesday evening. So, Passover was still on our mind. We began our discussion by talking about Yizkor; recited on the last day of Passover [and als...

Parsha Talk; with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. While the Torah reading this week, Tzav [Leviticus 6–8], continues with a description of the principal sacrifices from the priests’ point of view [chapters 6–7] and a description of the inauguration of the Tabernacle [chapter 8], we went in a different direction. In anticipation of the upcoming festival of Passover, we d...

Parsha Talk; with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-yiqra [Leviticus 1–5] begins the Book of Levitcus. However, it is quite possible, as we discuss, to read Leviticus as a seamless continuation of the end of Exodus. These first 5 chapters take up the description of the 5 principal sacrifices in ancient Israel. While sacrifice is quite foreign to most of us, an...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-yaqhel-P’qudai [Exodus 35–40], a double portion, concludes the reading of the Book of Exodus in the synagogue. This year it coincides with Shabbat Ha-Hodesh, observed on Shabbat Rosh Hodesh Nisan, or on the Shabbat when the new month of Nisan is announced, as is the case this year. The month of Nisan officiall...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Ki Tissa [Exodus 30:11–34:35] this year coincides with Shabbat Parah, the third special Shabbat before Passover, with a special maftir [Numbers 19] and haftarah [Ezekiel 36:16–38]. The parashah is perhaps best known for the episode of the Golden Calf, perhaps the greatest sin in the history of the Israelite peopl...

Parsha Talk with rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat T’tzavveh [Exodus 27:20–30:10] coincides this year with Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat before Purim [observed Monday night and Tuesday, March 6 & 7], which takes its name from the first word of the special maftir [Deuteronomy 25:17-19], with its call to remember what Amalek did to the Israelites when they left Egypt...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat T’rumah [Exodus 25:1–27:19] begins the lengthy description of the plans for and building of the mishkan [tabernacle, or dwelling-place for God], which will take up most of the rest of the Book of Exodus. We focused on a few verses, in particular 25:8 [And let them make Me a sanctuary that I many dwell among them]...

Welcome to Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. It is an early edition of Parashah Talk, since Eliot is flying to Israel today. Parashat Mishpatim [Exodus 21-24] features the Covenant Code, the first major law code embedded in the Torah. Its literary style, nearly all law, represents a major break from the previous 20 chapters, which have been largely narrat...

Parsha Talk, with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Yitro [Exodus 18-20] is the fifth weekly reading of the Book of Exodus. It features the dramatic revelation at Mt. Sinai and the text of the Ten Commandments. Chapter 18, however, has to do with the organization of the judiciary suggested by Yitro, priest of Midian, whom the chapter identifies no less than 13 ti...

Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky with Parsha Talk. Parashat B’shallach [Exodus 13:17–17:16] features the Song of the Sea [15:1–19], the magnificent poem the Torah records as the Israselites’ response to their successful crossing of the Sea of Reeds, allowing them to put their Egyptian experience behind them once and for all. But, there is so much more in the parashah, inc...