91快播

Facing Our Past and Looking Toward the Future

May 27, 2016 By Michal Raucher | Commentary | Behar

Recently, the US Treasury Department announced that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, on the $20 bill. Tubman was born as a slave around 1820, ran away in 1849, and returned south repeatedly to usher more than 300 slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad. Her selection for the $20 bill is exciting news, because Tubman will be the first African American and the first woman to appear on federal paper currency. Women and civil rights leaders will be added to the $5 and $10 bills in the coming years, as well. While these changes are long overdue, the question is whether this change is merely symbolic or a further step toward acknowledging our nation鈥檚 ugly history of slavery. 

The Blasphemer鈥檚 Twin

May 20, 2016 By Tim Daniel Bernard | Commentary | Emor

This week鈥檚 parashah ends with a sin:

讜址讬旨执拽旨止讘 讘旨侄谉-讛指讗执砖旨讈指讛 讛址讬旨执砖讉职专职讗值诇执讬转 讗侄转-讛址砖旨讈值诐 讜址讬职拽址诇旨值诇.

The son of the Israelite woman pronounced the name [of God] and cursed. (Lev. 24:11)

Maybe we don鈥檛 need to overthink why a law code seen as given by God would determine that cursing God is problematic, but how severe a crime is this? Evidently, Moses was uncertain: the culprit was detained while Moses checked in with God (Lev. 24:12). Perhaps the negative consequence of this act seems unclear. After all, what harm can possibly come to God through human words?

Normalcy and Covenant

May 19, 2007 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Bemidbar

Numbers always stands in pointed contrast to Leviticus. The overarching order of the book of the Torah that we have just completed 鈥� the routines of sacrifice, the hierarchies of priesthood, the distinctions between purity and pollution, permitted and forbidden 鈥� all this soon gives way to B鈥檓idbar, “in the wilderness,” to challenges of a different sort. The book starts by counting the people and arranging the camp for travel. But soon, we know, all those counted will be held responsible for the spies鈥� rebellion. Moses’ cousin Korah will attempt insurrection. The camp will wander without hope of reaching the Promised Land. We turn from Leviticus to Numbers, aware that the real world awaits us there: the one in desperate need of sacred order. We, like the Israelites, clearly have a lot to learn,

鈥淵ou Shall Fear Your God鈥�: Theological, Moral, and Psychological Implications

May 13, 2016 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Kedoshim

There are many exhortations in Leviticus 19, but only two of them conclude with 鈥�you shall fear your God, I am the Lord.鈥� We will focus on Leviticus 19:14鈥�

You shall not curse the deaf, and before the blind you shall not place a stumbling block; rather you shall fear your God, I am the Lord

鈥攁nd five traditional Jewish interpretations, to examine how the phrase 鈥測ou shall fear your God鈥� informs our understanding of the injunctions not to curse the deaf and not to place a stumbling block before the blind.

Where Is Authority Found?

May 6, 2016 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Aharei Mot

People familiar with the dietary laws of Judaism know that meat from an animal that died a natural death or was torn apart by wild beasts is not kosher. This is stated explicitly in the Torah. Exodus 22:30 reads, 鈥淵ou shall be my holy people: you may not eat meat torn by beasts in the field; you should throw it to dogs.鈥� (The Hebrew word for 鈥渢orn by beasts鈥濃��terefah鈥攔efers specifically to torn flesh in biblical Hebrew.)

Shevi鈥檌 Shel Pesah: Living at the Frontier

Apr 29, 2016 By Lauren Henderson | Commentary | Pesah

On the seventh day of Passover (Shevi鈥檌 shel Pesah), we reached the frontier of our existence: Yam Suf, the Sea of Reeds. We had known slavery intimately, becoming deeply comfortable in Egypt even as we clamored to leave. And after all the plagues and darkness and death, we arrived, trembling, at the water鈥檚 edge, about to surface and breathe the unfamiliar air of freedom for the first time.

Remembering Pesah 1946

Apr 22, 2016 By Avinoam Patt | Commentary | Pesah

Every Passover as we read the Haggadah, we recite:

In each and every generation, a person is obligated to regard himself as though he actually left Egypt. As it says: 鈥淵ou shall tell your son on that day, 鈥業t is because of this that God took me out of Egypt.鈥欌�� (Exodus 13:8)

Seventy years ago, in April 1946, the first Passover in postwar Germany followed the liberation of the concentration camps. The survivors who gathered to form the She鈥檈rit Hapletah, the surviving remnant, felt this transition from slavery in a more immediate sense than any generation of the children of Israel in the 2,000 years that preceded them. 

Beyond the Exodus from Egypt

Apr 15, 2016 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Pesah

Most of us, at one time or another, have asked the question about the Passover seder that the Haggadah attributes to the 鈥渨icked son鈥�: What is the point of all this? At such moments of skepticism, we probably understand why an annual family gathering is worthwhile, we perhaps remember fondly the seders of our youth, and we may even confess to being moved by the rituals reenacted at the seder table year after year: reciting the four questions, dripping wine from cup to plate at the recital of the ten plagues, singing Had Gadya. But really, we ask: Why is the event of Israelite slaves leaving Egypt over 3,000 years ago (if it ever happened in the first place) so important that an entire holiday is devoted to it (not to mention countless daily prayers)?