Author Archives: Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

Hand in Hand, and more with Emor

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

Shul can be a very relaxing, even soporific experience and so it happened, once upon a time, that Joe-Shmo was a little sleepy during the Torah reading. He woke up just to hear the reader chant the words: “And you … Continue reading →

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Love and Boundaries – Kedoshim

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

We tend to think of “love your neighbor as yourself” as a Biblical commandment that “makes sense”, while, for example, that of “sha’atnez”, the prohibition to mix wool and linen in the same garment, as a “chok”, a law which … Continue reading →

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אך נזכור את כולם – We Remember. Yom Hazikaron.

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

As kids we were taught early on to give up our seat on public bus for an older person, and my mom told us to do just that. But, as the story goes, my brother, about four or five years … Continue reading →

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Achrei Mot Janusz Korczak – something for the Shabbat after Holocaust Memorial Day

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

When my students “stretch my limits”, I think of Janusz Korczak (pronounced – Yanush Kor’chak). Up until I was in my teens or so, Korczak was just a small street, not too far from my home in the Haifa neighborhood … Continue reading →

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Four Shorts and a Fifth for Passover

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

(1) The Passover Haggada is a big on “four”: four cups, four questions, four sons. And yet, each one of these fours, has a hidden, less obvious fifth. The most obvious one is that there is a fifth cup on … Continue reading →

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A Number Greater than 100?

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

Once upon a time, as all stories go, there was a poor thief who came across an exquisite coat, weaved with gold and silver threads. Desperate to get his next meal, he rushed to sell it in the market for … Continue reading →

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Most misunderstood Torah portion award goes to…

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

Tazria must win the ‘most misunderstood Torah portion’ prize. The word itself is untranslatable, and it follows by laws of “purity” and “impurity”, two more concepts we don’t understand. Then… Source: Most misunderstood Torah portion award goes to…

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The middle letter of the Torah is….

Posted on April 2, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

The middle letter in the Torah is in this week’s reading, and is a Vav. It appears in the word gachon (belly) in Leviticus 11:42. A Torah scroll writer is called a sofer”, which literally means ‘someone who counts’. I … Continue reading →

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Holy Trash

Posted on March 26, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

The whole idea of “sacrifices”… I can make sense of it etymologically, finding some meaning in the fact that “korban” (sacrifice) comes from k.r.v., “coming close”, and I do believe that the two are related; that becoming “close” can be … Continue reading →

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These Days of Purim: 3 shorts on a holiday that doesn’t make much sense

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

There is a word missing from Esther 5:1. It says, “and Esther wore royalties’ – ותלבש אסתר מלכות. Shouldn’t it have said, that she wore royal garments? But rather, she wore royalty itself. According to the Malbim (European commentator of … Continue reading →

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