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5779 — Vayakhel: The Role of Beauty in Goodness

Introduction

This week’s Torah portion of VaYakhel discusses once again the Mishkan (tabernacle). In parallel, we are also reading the seasonal Shekalim portion about annual donations to the maintenance of the tabernacle or temple services. These readings raise the problem of spending money on aesthetics rather than on immediate human needs. In this podcast, Rabbi Ancselovits addresses that question by examining the details both of the tabernacle’s laver that was covered by women’s mirrors and of washing hands in the Temple and in life.

Please let us know your comments and thoughts about the podcast, write us at: elmad@pardes.org.il.

For more information about Pardes, visit our website www.pardes.org.il.

Credits
Larry Kluger – Creative Consultant
Arlene Harel – Production Coordinator

Elisha S. Ancselovits

Rabbi Dr. Elisha S. Ancselovits teaches Halakha as Practical Philosophy at Pardes and at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa, and has taught at a range of Orthodox, secular, Israeli and European institutions. He holds rabbinic and judicial ordination (Yoreh Yoreh and Yadin Yadin), a Ph.D. in the history of Jewish law, and an M.A. in Modern Jewish Studies, in addition to graduate studies in Medieval Jewish History.

Elisha has served as a researcher and lecturer in Jewish studies and legal theory at universities across several continents, and is currently a fellow at Emory University’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion. His teaching spans halakha, Biblical and Second Temple law, critical Talmud, critical Zohar, and modern philosophy. Elisha founded Bet Midrash Hukkim Hakhamim, a kollel program mentoring women and men who are emerging rabbis and dayanim.

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