Aaron L. Raskin

An in-depth analysis of a puzzling Talmudic passage which foretells that Moshiach will be a king and that his ancestor David will be his viceroy.

Rabbi Raskin looks at the hidden meanings of the sizes and numerical values (gematria) of the Hebrew letters in the weekly Torah portion.

The mystical secrets hinted to by the numbers in the dates associated with the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem -- the 17th day of Tammuz, the 9th day of Av and the three weeks or twenty-one days between them.

Before the siege of Jerusalem, G-d commanded the prophet Ezekiel to place an iron pot around a brick symbolizing the city's siege. (Ezekiel 4:3) Iron can be a metaphor for the grave character defect of rigidity or for the deep inner strength of the ...

The Levites' song in the Holy Temple

As a carpenter employs tools to build a home, so G-d utilized the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, the alef-beis, to form heaven and earth. In Letters of Light, the essence of these holy letters is explored, illustrating how the letters ...

The "taamim" (cantillation notes) used for reading the Ten Commandments differ when read alone than when read communally in the synagogue. What is the meaning of this special version of musical notes?

After fighting a war with the nation of Amalek, Moses says (Exodus 17:16) “There is a hand on the throne of G-d [swearing] that there shall be a war of G-d against Amalek from generation to generation.” In this verse, G-d's four-letter name is missing ...

Three times in the Torah the word "ha-shvi-i" (the seventh) is missing a letter yud. (The first time is in this week's portion in Exodus 12:15.) When spelled this way, the word may also be read as "shavua" (oath) or "soveia" (satiated.) What is the ...