Parsha Pick-Me-Up Yitzchak Sprung

God chose the 7th day of the week and the 7th year of the Shmitah cycle to be special for Him but the special nature of these Sabbaths is dependent upon us.
Take three minutes to listen to the Parsha Pick-Me-Up to learn more.

Our Torah portion begins with our deepest hope and greatest fear: getting credit for our children or receiving opprobrium.

Our verse functions as a sort of warning: don’t turn to false gods, since, in the end, you may come to think that they are real.

Notably, this is not the usual uniform of the High Priest, clothed generally in gold, jewels, and wool. Rashi explains that the gold, reminiscent as it was of the sin of the golden calf, would have been problematic.

Some stupendous humility may be called for in such a case. Perhaps the teacher of all of the priests is not a priest. Then, that teacher will never be able to declare tzara’at, though his students could. A surprising lesson is contained here.
Listen to the Parsha Pick-Me-Up to learn more.

"If a man does well, they say to him, you preceded the angels; if he does not, they say to him: (in creation) the fly preceded you, the gnat preceded you, the snail preceded you." - Reish Lakish
But what does this have to do with the laws of Kashrut and ritual purity?