An Amazing Hint - Parshat Tetzave

The Rabbi Sinclair Podcast

To kindle the light continually.” (27:20) If you count all the candles we light over the eight days of chanuka it comes to thirty-six. One on the first night, two on the second, together that’s three. On the third night, you’ll light another three, add that to the first two nights, that’s six. If you keep going till the eighth night like this, the number youwillcome to is 36. This is way beit hillel say we should light. Even though we light one candle on the first night and add another one night like beit hillel, the opinion of beit shammai, is that we should start in a blaze ofgloryon the first night with eight candles and work our way down to one on the last night. It says in parshat tetzave – ‘to kindle the light continually” -- ‘light’ in the singular ” if you count backwards from parshat bereishit, if you go back thirty-six parshiot from the beginning of the torah, 36, 35, 43 etc, you’ll get to parshat tetzave, this week’s parsha, in which the torah talks about a ‘lamp’ in the singular . But if you count forward from bereishit, from the beginning of the torah, one two three, adding all the time, the 35th parsha you’ll get to is parshat behalosecha, where it says, “when you kindle the lamps...” lamps in the plural. In other words, if you go back, if you go down, you’ll get to this week’s parsha – lamp in the singular like beit shammai. And if you go forward, adding, going up, you’ll end up with lamps in the plural, like beit hillel.

In 1972, Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair opened SARM Studios the first 24-track recording studio in Europe where Queen mixed “Bohemian Rhapsody”. His music publishing company, Druidcrest Music published the music for The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1973) and as a record producer, he co-produced the quadruple-platinum debut album by American band “Foreigner” (1976). American Top ten singles from this album included, “Feels Like The First Time”, “Cold as Ice” and “Long, Long Way from Home”. Other production work included “The Enid – In the Region of the Summer Stars”, “The Curves”, and “Nutz” as well as singles based on The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy with Douglas Adams and Richard O’Brien. Other artists who used SARM included: ABC, Alison Moyet, Art of Noise, Brian May, The Buggles, The Clash, Dina Carroll, Dollar, Flintlock, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Grace Jones, It Bites, Malcolm McLaren, Nik Kershaw, Propaganda, Rush, Rik Mayall, Stephen Duffy, and Yes.

In 1987, he settled in Jerusalem to immerse himself in the study of Torah. His two Torah books The Color of Heaven, on the weekly Torah portion, and Seasons of the Moon met with great critical acclaim. Seasons of the Moon, a unique fine-art black-and-white photography book combining poetry and Torah essays, has now sold out and is much sought as a collector’s item fetching up to $250 for a mint copy.

He is much in demand as an inspirational speaker both in Israel, Great Britain and the United States. He was Plenary Keynote Speaker at the Agudas Yisrael Convention, and Keynote Speaker at Project Inspire in 2018. Rabbi Sinclair lectures in Talmud and Jewish Philosophy at Ohr Somayach/Tannenbaum College of Judaic studies in Jerusalem and is a senior staff writer of the Torah internet publications Ohrnet and Torah Weekly. His articles have been published in The Jewish Observer, American Jewish Spirit, AJOP Newsletter, Zurich’s Die Jüdische Zeitung, South African Jewish Report and many others.

Rabbi Sinclair was born in London, and lives with his family in Jerusalem. He was educated at St. Anthony’s Preparatory School in Hampstead, Clifton College, and Bristol University.

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