Hal Miller

Pesach 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller Shir haShirim asher l'shlomoh [Shir HaShirim 1:1] We have a deep-seated tradition to read the Song of Songs on Shabbat morning during the week of Pesach. Some also have a tradition to read it after the seder. But the entire megillah is impossible to understand in its simple meaning, as would have been typical for any other book of the Canon, so this book is obviously all an allegory. Looking at just the first verse here, what does it mean? There

Shabbat Parashat Tzav - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller This is the offering of Aharon and his sons, which each shall offer to God on the day he is inaugurated: a tenth ephah of fine flour as a meal offering, continually, half of it in the morning and half of it in the afternoon. [Vayikra 6:13] When is this offering brought? The verse first gives us a time frame of "on the day he is inaugurated", but then follows that with "continually". To understand this we must first ask why t

Shabbat Parashat Vayikra - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller You shall salt your every meal offering with salt, you may not discontinue the salt of your God's covenant from upon your meal offering, on all your offerings shall you offer salt. [Vayikra 2:13] Why salt? What exactly gets salted? What qualifies as salting? Sefer HaChinuch draws from our verse both a negative commandment (118) not to bring an offering without salt, and a positive commandment (119) to bring salt with ever

Shabbat Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller And Moshe assembled the entire assembly of the children of Israel and said to them, these are the things that God commanded to do them [Shemot 35:1] Moshe said to the entire assembly of the children of Israel saying, this is the word that God commanded saying [Shemot 35:4] These two verses seem to be nearly duplicates. Why do we need both? Most commentators, based on Shabbat [70a, 97], derive from the first ver

Shabbat Parashat Ki Tisa - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller Aharon said to them, remove the golden rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters and bring them to me. [Shemot 32:2] The entire people unburdened themselves of the golden rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aharon. [Shemot 32:3] The root of the word translated here as "remove" and as "unburdened" is pey-reish-kuf. As with all Hebrew, its meaning is dependent on context. What do