זֹ֚את חֻקַּ֣ת הַתּוֹרָ֔ה This is the Decree of the Torah. This week’s double portion begins with a unique statement in the Torah. This is THE decree. The term used here, chok, is translated in many ways: statute, decree, law, but none of these terms actually conveys the meaning of chok. It means, it is a…

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Who is rich? He who rejoices in his lot, as it is said: “You shall enjoy the fruit of your labors, you shall be happy and you shall prosper” (Psalms 128:2) – Pirkei Avot 4:1 In this week’s Torah portion, the Kohayns have already been installed (the Miluim) the Levites have been consecrated, and the…

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But if a person should act highhandedly, whether he is a native born or a proselyte, he is blaspheming the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among its people. For he has scorned the word of the Lord and violated His commandment; that soul shall be utterly cut off for its iniquity…

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Speak to the children of Israel saying, any person who becomes unclean from [contact with] the dead, or is on a distant journey, whether among you or in future generations, he shall make a Passover sacrifice for the Lord. In the second month, on the fourteenth day, in the afternoon, they shall make it; they…

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HaShem said to Moshe, “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him; that is, if another man goes to bed with her without her husband’s knowledge, so that she becomes impure secretly, and there is no witness against her, and she was not caught in the act;…

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