Kol Ramah

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Tetzaveh [Exodus 27:20-30:10] follows closely on T’rumah with the plans for some of the furniture and objects of the Mishkan [Tabernacle] and the priestly vestments. On the face of it, it does not seem to provide material for an interesting discussion, but we persevered and perhaps even prevailed! As with last we...

Parsha Talk - with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Jeremy Kalmanofsky and Barry Chesler. Parashat T’rumah [Exodus 25:1-27:18] begins the Torah’s lengthy disquisition on the building of the Tabernacle, whose plan and construction will take up most of the remaining chapters of Exodus. This week and next the Torah will describe in great detail how the Tabernacle should be constructed, including descriptions of...

Parsha Talk - with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Jeremy Kalmanofsky and Barry Chesler. Parashat Mishpatim [Exodus 21-24] contains the Covenant Code, one of the major pieces of legislation in the Torah. One way of looking at it is to think of it as the prose to the poetry of revelation in last week’s parashah. In Jewish terms it is the halachah [law] to last week’s aggadah [narrative, non-legal material]....

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Jeremy Kalmanofsky and Barry Chesler. Parashat Yitro [Exodus 18:1-20:23, and in some versions enumerated as 20:26] features the Ten Commandments, which is half of a larger unit generally referred to as Revelation at Sinai. When I used to teach Exodus 19 and 20 in high school, I would entitle the unit, “Revelation: There is less than meets the eye”. For many p...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. This Shabbat is known as Shabbat Shirah, after the Song of the Sea [Exodus 15:1–18], which is featured in this week’s parashah, parashat B’shallah [Exodus 13:17–17:16]. For the haftarah [Judges 4:4–5:31], the rabbis chose another triumphant song, the Song of Deborah [Judges 5:2–31], celebrating another event in Israel’s s...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Jeremy Kalmanofsky and Barry Chesler: Parashat Bo [Exodus 10:1-13:16] contains the first commandment to B’nai Yisrael, the commandment to mark what came to be known as the month of Nisan, the month in which Passover is observed, as the first month in the calendar. So important is this commandment that Rashi [1040-1104], the famous Bible [and Talmud] commentat...

Parashat Va-era [Exodus 6:2-9:35] opens with a verse that has intrigued modern critical biblical scholars for generations: God tells Moses that He appeared to the patriarchs as El Shaddai, but did not make his name YHVH [the unpronounceable 4-letter name of God] known to them. How much does it matter by which name we call upon God? The parashah also features the first 7 plagues; the phenomenon of...

Parsha Talk; with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. We began a new book, Sefer Shemot [the Book of Exodus], with parashat Shemot [Exodus 1:1-6:1] and our discussion did not get very far. It seemed that we were just touching on some of the items of interest in chapters 1 and 2 when time was called; we closed with each of us offering an explanation/interpretation of God’s c...

Come join Rabbis Malomet, Chesler and Kalmanofsky for Parsha Talk. Any time one can reference “The Princess Bride” it is sure to bring a smile to one’s face, so we are pleased that Parashat Ve-yehi [Genesis 47:28-50:26] provided us with that opportunity. We spend our time talking about Jacob at the end of his life, there are a couple of deathbed scenes, and Joseph at the end of his life. Genesis b...

Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky with Parsha Tralk. As I (BC) mention early in the program, I found parashat va-yigash [Genesis 44:18-47:27] somewhere between unsettling and disturbing. Our conversation focuses on the character of and characters, Jacob, Joseph, and Pharaoh. The parashah is more than amazing, I understand that each week’s parashah qualifies on that score,...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Jeremy Kalmanofsky and Barry Chesler. Parashat Mi-qetz [Genesis 41:1-44:17] coincides this year with Rosh Chodesh Tevet [the first day] and, of course, Hanukkah. Thirty years ago on this Shabbat, I delivered my senior sermon in the Seminary Synagogue at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. I shared the bimah with my wife, Carol, who led the davening as...

Join Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmonofsky for Parsha Talk - Thanksgiving Edition. Parashat Va-yeshev [Genesis 37-40] is the first of four parashiyot which feature Joseph and his brothers. This week, Joseph is given a technicolor dreamcoat, as it were, which sets in motion the dreams he perhaps carelessly reveals to his brothers, his going forth to see how his brothers are far...

Parsha Talk; with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmonofsky - Parashat Va-yishlach [Genesis 32:4-36:43] is the subject of this week’s Parashah Talk. We discuss Jacob’s encounter with the malakh, the messenger, which results in injury but acquires for Jacob a blessing and a new name. We talk about the disturbing story of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob and Leah, and what befalls...

Parashah Talk, with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky has gone international! Eliot recorded the show in Ottawa, Ontario, where he is visiting his mother, while Jeremy and I were in our customary places in New York City and Long Island. Parashat Va-yetze [Genesis 28:10-32:3] has long been one of, if not my very favorite parashah. Not only was it my Bar Mitzvah parashah [19...

Come join us for Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky's Parsha Talk. Parashat Toldot [Genesis 25:19-28:9] lives up to its opening words וְאֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת יִצְחָק בֶּן־אַבְרָהָם אַבְרָהָם הוֹלִיד אֶת־יִצְחָק, [ve-elleh toldot yitzhaq ben avraham, avraham ho’lid et yitzchak, “these are the generations of Isaac the son of Abraham, Avraham fathered Isaac], for it features the crucial...

Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Jeremy Kalmanofsky and Barry Chesler. The parashah this week, parashat Chayyei Sarah [Genesis 23:1-25:18) pretty much covers the life cycle: There are the deaths of Sarah, Abraham, and Ishmael; the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca; the births of Abraham’s last six sons. We spend a lot of time talking about Abraham, it is our last chance this Torah reading cycle, and some time ta...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky - Parashat Va-yera [Genesis 18-22] begins with the arrival of the messengers of God to the tent of the recovering Abraham [he circumcised himself and all the males of his household at the end of last week’s parashah] to announce the upcoming birth of Isaac to the elderly Abraham and Sarah. It ends with Abraham sacrificing...

With Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Lekh L’kha [Genesis 12-17] marks Avram’s entrance into the land that God would show him, identified as the land of Canaan [12:5]. He has left his father Terach in Haran, giving powerful punch to the command to Avram to depart “your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house”. Chizkuni, the medieval commentator, explains...

With Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky - It is parashat Noach [Genesis 6:9-11:32] on Parashah Talk, which always brings back a flood of memories. As we turn over the story of Noah we do not get much beyond his character and the question of how we should evaluate him. Is he the one-eyed man who sees far in the land of the blind but perhaps not even half as well as the one w...

Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky - Parashah Talk is back for another season! After a couple of weeks to talk about the holidays, we are back to the weekly parashah. This week, the first Shabbat after Simchat Torah, we begin all over again with Parashat B’reshit [Genesis 1:1-6:8]. While the text remains the same, we are a year older, and hopefully wiser, so we look at the...

Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky - The High Holy Day season, which began with Rosh Chodesh Elul, the 1st of the Hebrew month of Elul [this year, August 9, 2021], comes to a triumphant climax this week with Shabbat Chol Ha-Mo’ed Sukkot, whose Torah reading features the 13 attributes [which we discussed in the Yom Kippur edition] and the reading of Sefer Qohelet [the Book o...

Parsha Talk: With Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. We are back with a special edition of Parashah Talk devoted to Yom Kippur. We discuss a range of topics: the haunting music of Kol Nidre, the last shofar blast and the Jubilee Year, the 13 Middot of God [Exodus 34:6-7] which are at the heart of the s’lichot [penitential prayers], the confessions of sins, among others. We...

We have a special edition of Parashah Talk for Rosh Hashanah, whose conversation focuses mostly on the shofar and what it means to us to blow it and to listen to it. Because of the way Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur fall this year we will be back with a Yom Kippur edition in about two weeks. With best wishes for a Shanah Tovah U-m’tukah, a good and sweet year. May we all be inscribed for a year of b...

Parsha alk with Rabbis Eliot Malmet, Jeremy Kalmonofky and Barry Chesler. The last four parashiyot [Torah Readings] of Sefer D’varim [Book of Deuteronomy] comprise fewer than five chapters, whereas the five before this week [Nitzavim, Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20] span 22 chapters. We address this point this week, exploring what Eliot calls parshaology. We mostly discuss just a few verses, the opening o...

Parsha Talk; with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Jeremy Kalmanofsky and Barry Chesler. Parashat Ki Tavo [Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8] features 3 of the passages mentioned in the first 2 mishnayot of Tractate Sotah Chapter 7. There the rabbis list passages which may be recited in any language, since understanding is of utmost importance, and those which must be recited in Hebrew, because the ritual performance is...