1. What does HaShem mean when he tells Mosheh Rabbeinu, “Speak to the whole congregation of the Jewish People and tell them” ... ? Didn’t Moshe Rabbeinu teach us each of the Mitzvos anyhow? So why this special instruction?
2. What does the Torah mean, “Be holy!”? Does it mean to shokkle more, or quicker, perhaps? Or to daven five times a day instead of three? (But if so, then why don’t we?) How does one “become holy”?
3. Immediately after the instruction, “Be holy!” comes the Mitzvah to fear one’s parents. But how does fearing parents help us to achieve holiness?
4. “What is hateful to you, do not do to your friend” is “the Golden Rule of Mankind,” based on the Possuk, “You shall love your friend as yourself.” This has been corrupted into “the First Rule of Selfishness and Self-Preservation,” namely, “Don’t do to your friend what you don’t want him to do to you.” Can you explain how the slight change makes such a big difference?
5. Many of the various Mitzvos in this Sidra are in fact social laws and perfectly worldly. “Pay your workers on time,” “Don’t oppress the stranger,” “Do not steal,” “Do not disparage a deaf person nor put a stumbling block in front of a blind person,” and so on. So what have these Mitzvos got to do with “being holy”?
6. What does the Torah mean by, “Judge your fellowman with righteousness”? What then?
7. What is the difference between taking revenge and bearing a grudge?
8. Where in this Sidra can you find the root of the expression, “double standards”?
9. Can you think of a rational reason for the Chukkim of Peyyos of the head and the beard?
10. Why, do you think, does the Torah forbid tattooing ? And would there be any difference between tattooing to remember the dead (“For Dad”) or tattooing “Let’s Brexit!” or “Arsenal for the Cup!” ?
11. Why, do you think, does the Torah put together in the same Possuk, “”You shall be holy to Me because I, HaShem, am holy” and “I have separated you from the nations so as to be Mine” ?
12. What is the connexion between the Sidra and the Haftorah?
13. How many points of connexion can you find in the Pessukim of the Haftorah and various Mitzvos in this Sidra?
