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The Four Parents

Mar 27, 2015 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Pesah

Let鈥檚 think for a moment, inspired by one of the seder鈥檚 most famous passages, about the four kinds of parents who are found around the seder table: wise, wicked, innocent, and not knowing how to ask.

Restoration

Mar 27, 2015 By Craig Scheff | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Tzav

“What is certain is that you love bringing things back to life. It is a wonderful feeling to identify the undermining factors, eradicate them, and restore something to its true glory.”

Strengthsfinder 2.0 is a popular assessment tool for identifying and applying an individual鈥檚 strengths. The book is based on the premise that we should spend more time in our professional lives building upon our strengths than trying to overcome our weaknesses. The quote above refers to the person who possesses the 鈥渞estorative鈥� talent, the ability to resuscitate and rekindle the vitality of relationships.

Crackers for God

Mar 16, 2015 By William Friedman | Commentary | Shabbat Hahodesh | Vayikra | Pesah

What kind of gift would you give a king? In the interests of both respect and self-preservation, probably the nicest thing you could afford! And if you鈥檇 give this to a human king, how much more would you give to the King of Kings of Kings? And yet the Torah prescribes that any grain offered in the Temple cannot contain either yeast or honey. That’s right: the only appropriate grain offering for God is matzah鈥攖he tasteless cracker that is about to become the source of so much complaining on Passover! Why would the Torah tell us to do such a thing?

The Artist鈥檚 Insight

Mar 13, 2015 By Lilly Kaufman | Commentary | Pekudei | Vayak-hel

From October of last year until mid-February, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, in collaboration with Tate Modern in London, featured a comprehensive exhibition entitled Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs. It was a reassessment of Matisse鈥檚 colored paper cut-outs, which, according to the program notes, 鈥渞eflect…a renewed commitment to form and color, and . . . inventiveness鈥�. Matisse himself said, 鈥淔or me, a colour is a force. My pictures are made up of four or five colours that collide with one another, and the collision gives a sense of energy.鈥� (Sooke, Henri Matisse: A Second Life, pp. 97-98.)

Nediv Lev

Mar 13, 2015 By Michael R. Boino | Commentary | Pekudei | Vayak-hel

We often think of love as something comfortable, something comforting. The truth is, it can be the exact opposite. True, unbounded love from another source can cause us to confront parts of ourselves with which we are uncomfortable: our vulnerability, our self image, our passive role as the recipient of care rather than as a caregiver.

Shattered Tablets

Mar 6, 2015 By Daniel Heschel Silberbusch | Commentary | Ki Tissa

What fascinates me about this moment in the Torah (Ex. 32:15-19) is what we forget because we too well remember how the story ends.

Written on the Heart

Feb 27, 2015 By Eitan Fishbane | Commentary | Shabbat Zakhor | Tetzavveh

The mitzvot are a path of spiritual practice, a cultivation of religious awareness that may open us to the mystery and urgency of the divine voice. Not only legal obligation, mitzvah is a moment of encounter with the ever-renewing Divine Presence as it reverberates through the generations of the Jewish people.

Amalek

Feb 27, 2015 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Shabbat Zakhor | Purim

The Shabbat prior to Purim, known as Shabbat Zakhor, takes its name from the first word of the special maftir (additional Torah reading) for the day, which retells the story of the first post-enslavement attack against the newly freed Israelites:

Remember (zakhor) what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt . . . You shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! (Deuteronomy 25:17-19)

Gold and Incense: For Better and for Worse

Feb 20, 2015 By Stephen A. Geller | Commentary | Terumah

Parashat Terumah begins the long section of the Book of Exodus that deals with the Tabernacle, its furniture and vessels, and the garments of the high priest. The only interruption in this mass of cultic detail is the narrative of the sin of worshipping the Golden Calf and its aftermath in Exodus 32鈥�34. The ritual details continue into Vayikra with the list of sacrifices in the cult. The climax of the entire cultic section is Leviticus 9 and 10, where the Tabernacle is dedicated with elaborate rites.

The Construction of the Tabernacle From the Hebrew Republic (1700)

Feb 20, 2015 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Terumah

The Hebrew Republic (De Republica Hebraeorum in the original Latin) was written in the aftermath of Dutch independence from Spain. Petrus Cunaeus principally drew from biblical and Talmudic sources and from Maimonides鈥檚 Mishneh Torah in order to reconstruct (or, in reality, construct) the development, structure, and challenges of an ancient Hebrew republic, with the intention of providing a model for the emerging Dutch republic that was both religious and practical.

I Can鈥檛 Stand My Neighbor, but His Ox Needs a Hand

Feb 13, 2015 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Mishpatim

A rabbi and an astronomer have the middle and window seats on a long-haul flight while the fellow on the aisle is a champion sleeper. As neither of our sophisticated travelers is taking a stroll anytime soon, the astronomer begins to talk: 鈥淭ell me, rabbi. What, essentially, is Judaism for?鈥� The rabbi thinks a bit, casting about for a reasonable response. He offers a few broad strokes and believes he鈥檚 done about as well as might be expected. The traveler responds, 鈥淎ll these rules and teachings and traditions, rabbi! Can鈥檛 it all be boiled down to 鈥楤e Nice?鈥欌�� The rabbi nods and says, 鈥淎ll these galaxies and black holes and neutrinos and supernovas . . . professor, can鈥檛 it all be boiled down to 鈥楾winkle, twinkle little star?鈥欌��

Law and Justice

Feb 13, 2015 By Martin Oppenheimer | Commentary | Mishpatim

As an attorney, I am fascinated by the code of civil and criminal law contained in Mishpatim. In Egypt, law was made by the Pharoah, who could unilaterally decide the fate of his subjects. All lives and property were forfeit at his whim鈥攁s his subjects learned during the course of the plagues, and when the Egyptian army was decimated at the Red Sea. Conversely, Mosaic law focuses on equality and social justice. The poor, the downtrodden, the stranger鈥攅ven the man whose destitution forced him to sell himself into slavery鈥攚ere required to be treated with dignity under the law.

The Bite of Desire

Feb 6, 2015 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Yitro

Do you covet? I do, and it makes me sad. Perhaps I鈥檓 too hard on myself. We all see things that we want, don鈥檛 have, and wish we did. There is too much in the world that is bright and shiny鈥攐ffering pleasure and excitement鈥攏ot to see it and feel the ache of its absence in my life. And I speak not only of the ephemeral delights that beckon. Even more difficult to contemplate are my fellow human beings whose personal and professional lives leave me despondent when measuring myself against them: scholars who have written books that I haven鈥檛, friends who seem to be better spouses or more successful parents, people who have paid off their mortgages, men who still have all their hair. In short, the list is endless.

Shabbat: A Model Of, and For, the World

Feb 6, 2015 By William Friedman | Commentary | Yitro

In Parashat Yitro, the command to 鈥渞emember鈥� Shabbat (Exod. 20:8) is observed in order to recognize the eternal sanctity of the day on which God rested on the seventh day of Creation. This command is recapitulated in Deuteronomy with significant revision: the Israelites are to 鈥渙bserve鈥� Shabbat (Deut. 5:12) in order to ensure that slaves (i.e., workers) are given an opportunity for rest. What are we to make of these dual aspects of Shabbat, one in which we reenact God鈥檚 primordial resting; the other in which we attempt to achieve a measure of protection for the economically vulnerable?

Where Does Midrash Begin?

Jan 23, 2015 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Bo

In this week鈥檚 parashah we find the first legal passage in the Torah, Exodus 12, which contains laws concerning Passover. Torah as a type of literature is best defined as a combination of law and narrative. In Torah we read not only some laws here and some narratives there, but laws that are authenticated and explained by the narrative, and narrative whose purpose is to motivate us to observe the laws. Since we first encounter law in this week鈥檚 parashah, in a significant way it is here that the Torah begins in earnest.

鈥淲e Were Slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt鈥�

Jan 23, 2015 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Bo

Mount Sinai and a pyramid mirror each other, two halves of a whole. The pyramid is upside down, demonstrating that slavery is unnatural. Servitude distorts reality and ambition. This distortion comes not only from slavery to a human master, but also from when we become enslaved to our own drives鈥攍acking the ability to envision an alternative or to hold fast to hope.

The Song at the Sea

Jan 20, 2015 By 91快播 | Commentary | Beshallah

The centerpiece of Parashat Beshallah is the Song at the Sea. The song gives this Shabbat on which it is read the name Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of Song. It is interesting to note that this is the first recorded instance in the Torah where praise of God is specifically sung rather than spoken. Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, the first graduate of 91快播 and the chief rabbi of the British Empire, wrote in his Torah commentary on Parashat Beshallah, 鈥淲henever Israel has faith in God and in the Divine Mission of Moses, Israel sings鈥� (The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, p. 270).

On Preventing the Hardening of Hearts

Jan 16, 2015 By Danielle Upbin | Commentary | Va'era

After a long walk across the park on a Shabbat winter morning in New York City, services concluded, guests assembled at an Upper East Side apartment. The host of this particular Rabbinical School student gathering held the meal hostage. The ransom was the answer to his question: 鈥淲hy did God harden Pharaoh鈥檚 heart?鈥漈he host had a group of well-educated, eager to answer, soon-to-be rabbis at his disposal. From them, he wasn鈥檛 going to accept any rehearsed responses, such as 鈥淕od had to prove Himself to the Israelites.鈥� Much to the students鈥� relief, this trial was interrupted by the hostess, and the first course was served. It was a meal unfinished, for even as we all said grace after the meal, we remained, as our host, unsatisfied.

Eternity in a Word

Jan 16, 2015 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Va'era

God鈥檚 name YHVH is the verb 鈥渢o be鈥� with the past, present, and future tenses folded into the same conjugation: Eternity or Being in a single word.

Cultivating Compassion & Connection

Jan 9, 2015 By Mona Fishbane | Commentary | Shemot

At the end of chapter two of Shemot, we find the Israelites groaning from their bondage in Egypt: their cry rose up to God. And, our text tells us, God heard their cry (vayishma), remembered the covenant (vayizkor), saw the children of Israel (vayar), and took notice or knew (vayeda). I want to explore with you the relational and ethical lessons we can learn from these verses in our own lives. In doing so, I am inspired by comments in the Kedushat Levi, the book written by the Hasidic Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev. I am grateful to Jonathan Slater and his new book, A Partner in Holiness, for bringing the insights of the Kedushat Levi to my attention.