A Sense of History

Posted on: August 22nd, 2013

The ancients saw the gods in nature, never more so than in thinking about the harvest and all that accompanied it.

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The Parameters Of Justice

Posted on: August 15th, 2013

Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers -- how is that compatible with the idea that children may suffer for the sins of their parents?

Testing And Prophecy

Posted on: August 7th, 2013

On the face of it, the test is simple: if what the prophet predicts comes to pass, he is a true prophet; if not, not. Clearly, though, it was not that simple.

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How to Give

Posted on: August 1st, 2013

These stories all have to do with the mitzvah of tzedakah whose source is in this week’s parshah.

Greatness Is Humility

Posted on: July 25th, 2013

One of the more unusual aspects of being a chief rabbi is that one comes to know people one otherwise might not.

Philosophy or Prophecy

Posted on: July 18th, 2013

The biblical covenant has the same literary structure as ancient near eastern political treaties.

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Justice And Compassion

Posted on: July 11th, 2013

Shakespeare is expressing the medieval stereotype of Christian mercy (Portia) as against Jewish justice (Shylock).

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Korach: Power Vs. Influence

Posted on: June 6th, 2013

For the first and only time, Moses invokes a miracle to prove the authenticity of his mission

The Hidden Spirituality Of Tzitzit

Posted on: May 29th, 2013

This week’s sedrah, Shelach Lecha, ends with one of the great commands of Judaism – tzitzit, the fringes we wear on the corner of our garments as a perennial reminder of our identity as Jews and our obligation to keep the Torah’s commands.

Leadership Beyond Despair

Posted on: May 22nd, 2013

Tanach, the Hebrew Bible, is remarkable for the extreme realism with which it portrays human character. Its heroes are not superhuman. Its non-heroes are not archetypal villains. The best have failings; the worst often have saving virtues. I know of no other religious literature quite like it.

Torah As A Marriage Contract

Posted on: May 8th, 2013

On the face of it, the connections between the sedrah and haftarah of Bamidbar are slender. The first has to do with demography. Bamidbar begins with a census of the people. The haftarah begins with Hosea’s vision of a time when “the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or numbered.” There was a time when the Israelites could be counted; the day will come when they will be countless. That is one contrast between the future and the past.

The Faith Of The Remarkable Nation

Posted on: April 24th, 2013

In its account of the festivals of the Jewish year, this week’s parshah, Parshat Emor, contains the following statement: “You shall dwell in thatched huts for seven days. Everyone included in Israel must live in such thatched huts. This is so that future generations will know that I caused the Israelites to live in sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your G-d.”

Of Love And Hate

Posted on: April 17th, 2013

At the center of the mosaic books is Vayikra. At the center of Vayikra is the “holiness code” (chapter 19) with its momentous call: “You shall be holy because I, the Lord your G-d, am holy.” And at the centre of chapter 19 is a brief paragraph which, by its positioning, is the apex, the high point, of the Torah:

Reconciliation vs. Vengeance

Posted on: March 20th, 2013

Judaism is less a philosophical system than a field of tensions – between universalism and particularism, for example, or exile and redemption, priests and prophets, cyclical and linear time, and so on.

Two Types Of Community

Posted on: March 6th, 2013

A long drama had taken place. Moses had led the people from slavery to the beginning of the road to freedom. The people themselves had witnessed G-d at Mount Sinai, the only time in all history when an entire people became the recipients of revelation. Then came the disappearance of Moses for his long sojourn at the top of the mountain, an absence which led to the Israelites’ greatest collective sin, the making of the Golden Calf. Moses returned to the mountain to plead for forgiveness, which was granted.

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The Two Awakenings

Posted on: February 27th, 2013

Framing the epic events of this week’s sedrah are two objects: the two sets of tablets – the first given before, and the second after, the sin of the Golden Calf. Of the first, we read: “The tablets were the work of G-d; the writing was the writing of G-d, engraved on the tablets.”

Building Builders

Posted on: February 13th, 2013

As soon as we read the opening lines of Terumah we begin the massive shift from the intense drama of the exodus with its signs and wonders and epic events, to the long, detailed narrative of how the Israelites constructed the Mishkan.

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God Is In The Details

Posted on: February 6th, 2013

Wherever the term “and these” is used, it signals continuity. Just as the commands in Parshat Yitro were given at Sinai, so too were the commands in Parshat Mishpatim. Why are the civil laws in the beginning of Parshat Mishpatim placed in juxtaposition to the laws concerning the altar at the end of Parshat Yitro? To tell you to place the Sanhedrin near to the Temple.

The Politics Of Revelation

Posted on: January 30th, 2013

The revelation at Mount Sinai – the central episode not only of parshat Yitro, but of Judaism as a whole – was unique in the religious history of mankind.

Children Going Further Than Their Parents

Posted on: January 23rd, 2013

The Song at the Sea was one of the great epiphanies of history. The sages said that even the humblest of Jews saw at that moment what even the greatest of prophets didn’t. For the first time they broke into collective song – a song we recite every day.