Author Archives: Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

Counting…

Posted on June 4, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

Mother Goose is “counting” her eggs, and while we don’t know if she’s actually “counting”, regardless, we look at it and smile. There’s something about that image that portrays a feeling of care, maybe because counting is an act of … Continue reading →

Posted in life and some, shabbat shalom, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Shabbat La’Hashem

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

Who’s in charge of holiness (k’dusha) in the world? G-d or people? In this week’s reading, we are introduced to the Shmita, the sabbatical year. The Torah Sabbatical year is not about crop rotation. It’s about the land having its … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

2nd Chances? On pesach sheni & my father’s yahrzeit

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

אם תחפשו בגוגל “פסח שני” תמצאו פירושים יפים על ״הזדמנות שניה״ ועל כך ש”לעולם לא מאוחר מדי”, ובכל זאת, האם זה נכון?פסח שני פונה לאנשים שהחמיצו את פסח ראשון. כשהגיע הזמן להביא את קורבן הפסח, הם לא היו זמינים. הם … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

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 →

Posted in four sons, life and some, shabbat shalom, פרשת השבוע לחילוני האדוק | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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…

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment