OzTorah

Torah insights by Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple z"l, Emeritus Senior Rabbi of the Great Synagogue, Sydney

OzTorah is a website, weekly email and social media service exploring the timeless teachings of Jewish tradition from a contemporary Australian and global perspective. The website includes insights into the parashah (Torah reading), an 'Ask the Rabbi' forum, and articles on a wide variety of Jewish, interfaith and freemasonic issues.

28/05/2026

We bring children up as Jews from the moment of birth; indeed even before birth a child can be influenced by the spiritual choices made by its parents.

But was the child given a vote about being Jewish? Is not Jewishness something that we impose, as it were, regardless of the child’s own feelings and desires?

Read more: https://oztorah.com/2026/05/a-nazirite-from-birth-naso/

Gersonides explains that God foresaw that Samson would be a sensual, passionate man, who even from birth had to be kept to a strict discipline.

25/05/2026

𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐕𝐒 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐋𝐀𝐖 – 𝐀𝐬𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐛𝐛𝐢

Q. Which takes priority – religious or secular law?

Read more:

Enunciated in the Talmud several times, it does not override religious law but is part of it in situations in which the regime has a direct interest. Thus if the government tells a Jew to put butter on a steak, it is intruding upon religious law and is out of order.

20/05/2026

Our ancestors were caught napping; we have to make up for their lapse.

True, it is not our generation that were at fault, but every generation can be guilty of failing to be ready for a spiritual experience.

Read more: https://oztorah.com/2026/05/why-werent-they-ready-shavuot/

The giving of the Torah was a noisy affair – “thunder and lightning, a heavy cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast” (Ex. 19: 16 – 17).

18/05/2026

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗘𝗡 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗦

The tablets of the Ten Commandments, according to rabbinic tradition, were prepared at the eve of Creation, antedating history and humanity and independent of time and place.

Read more: https://oztorah.com/2026/05/the-shape-of-the-ten-commandments/

Depiction of Moses with the Ten Commandments by Phillipe de ChampagneThe tablets of the Ten Commandments, according to rabbinic tradition, were prepared at the eve of Creation, antedating history and humanity and independent of time and place.

14/05/2026

A Chassidic tale speaks of two men who came across each other in the forest. One said, “Do you know how to get out of this forest?” The other said, “No, but I do know where I have come from, and I don’t want to retrace my steps. Let’s hold on to each other and combine our efforts to find a way out!”

Read more: https://oztorah.com/2026/05/the-world-as-a-wilderness-bmidbar/

In a moral sense the whole human race has frequently faced wilderness conditions. Lost in a maze, mankind stumbled along one path after another, constantly torn by brambles and frightened by bears.

11/05/2026

𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 - 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗮𝗯𝗯𝗶

Q. I know why Judaism disagrees with Christianity and Islam, but what does it say about Buddhism and Hinduism?

A. Read the response:

A. It rejects the negativism of Buddhism, the idea that you and I and the entire universe are nothing: When something in life goes wrong we cannot handle it or respond; we can only withdraw.

07/05/2026

If you do not appreciate freedom, or peace, or health, or family, or any other blessing you may have, it is as if you have lost them.

Read more: https://oztorah.com/2026/05/swallows-freedom-bhar/

The answer is that it is not only servants who need freedom – everyone does. Even if you have freedom, you have to learn how to value your freedom.

05/05/2026

There were two ways of marking the date – reluctant acceptance of the duty to return to Jerusalem, and excited anticipation of the forthcoming yom-tov.

https://oztorah.com/2026/04/the-midpoint-between-the-festivals/

Lag Ba’Omer is generally explained as marking the end of the pestilence which befell the students of Rabbi Akiva in the 2nd century and affected the military revolt against the Romans.

30/04/2026

But if there is a problem of evil, there is also a problem of good. If there is undeserved suffering and we accuse God over it, there is also undeserved goodness.

Read more: https://oztorah.com/2026/04/when-god-gets-it-right-emor/

The building of the sukkah is given a historical explanation: “So that your generations may know that I made the Children of Israel dwell in booths (sukkot) when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Lev. 23:43).

23/04/2026

Holiness is usually defined in spiritual, even mystical terms, denoting a somewhat rarefied life above the ordinary, but this sidra has a more practical approach, interpreting holiness ethically and requiring a life of uprightness and decency.

Read more: https://oztorah.com/2026/04/ordinary-acts-kdoshim/

Today’s sidra, K’doshim, means “Holy Ones”. It opens with God’s command to emulate His holiness and be holy people (Lev. 19:1-2).

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