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Times and Schedule for Shabbat Shabbat candle lighting: 6:51 PM
Parshat Parah This Shabbat, the Torah reading of Parah (Numbers 19:1 - 22) is added to the weekly reading. Parah details the laws of the "Red Heifer" and the process by which a person rendered ritually impure by contact with a dead body was purified.
When the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, every Jew had to be in a state of ritual purity in time for the bringing of the Passover offering in the Temple. Today, though we're unable to fulfill the Temple-related rituals in practice, we fulfill them spiritually by studying their laws in the Torah. Thus, we study and read the section of Parah in preparation for the upcoming festival of Passover. We also read the section of Parah on Shabbat with the firm faith that Moshiach will come well before Passover and we will again use the Red Heifer process to be able to enter the Third Temple and offer the Korban Pesach, the Passover offering, in purity.
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