Lots of offerings this week, as the tribal chieftains help inaugurate the Tabernacle and its altar.
   But there are 12 tribes and only 6 carts to carry the stuff.  Who shared a cart with whom?

   (Click here for source sheet.)

  

Download | Duration: 00:12:23

   This week's reading shows how the Kohathites outrank their fellow Levites of the Gershonite and Merarite clans.  We take a side trip to Joshua 21 to show that this is no coincidence.

   (Click here for source sheet.)

  

Download | Duration: 00:10:00

  I'm reposting this podcast from last year in order to connect it to the JPS Tagged Tanakh for Parshat Bemidbar:
  taggedtanakh.org/ />   Last year's version was in mp4 format, which some people have difficulty playing -- so this is an mp3 version.

  A better name for the Book of Numbers:

 

Download | Duration: 00:10:09

   What does Lev 25:10 mean by saying, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof"?


   (Click here for source sheet.)

  

Download | Duration: 00:11:11

   Why can an animal not be offered to God before it is eight days old?

   (Click here for source sheet.)

  

Download | Duration: 00:11:37

   What's the significance of cleansing the Tabernacle of sin "after the death of" Nadab and Abihu?

  (Click here for source sheet.)

 

Download | Duration: 00:10:10

  So you've just had a baby boy.
  Now ... what was it you're supposed to do ... ?

  Click here for source sheet.

 

Download | Duration: 00:10:48

  This week, Aaron becomes the High Priest.  But first he must sacrifice a sin offering in order to cleanse himself of sin, so that he can make expiation for the Israelites.
  The English translation conceals the culminating moment of this ritual -- but a modicum of Biblical Hebrew grammar will make it clear.

  Click here for source sheet.

Download | Duration: 00:10:02

 

   What does it mean for sacrificial meat to become piggul, and why does this not apply to every sacrifice?

   (Sorry, couldn't get the PDF upload to work this week.)

 
  

Download | Duration: 00:09:50

 
   Do the sacrifices actually "feed" God?  (Click here
for this week's source sheet.)
   With apologies for my cold.

 
   

Download | Duration: 00:11:54

   Note:  R. Ezra Bick of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel made the same point in his comment last week, in more detail:
  
Ezra Bick on Parshat Vayikra