The Commandment to Be an Upstander
Sep 9, 2000 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
In July, 1994, I returned to Esslingen, the medieval town not far from Stuttgart, Germany where my mother was born. My grandfather ran a boarding school and enjoyed a regional reputation as an innovative educator. The handsome building which housed it still serves as a school, though no longer Jewish, and bears his name, bestowed by the city fathers a decade earlier in a spirit of contrition. That summer, school and city officials commemorated the 50th anniversary of my grandfather’s death in Theresienstadt, and invited me to speak at the event held on the premises of the school in the room which had once been its synagogue.
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How We Serve God
Aug 26, 2000 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Re'eh
Demonstrating uncompromising devotion to God is the theme of this week’s parashah, Parashat Re’eh. Such devotion is expressed through belief, but more importantly, through avodah, meaningful service to God. For the biblical Israelite, service to God meant loyalty to God’s commandments and participation in the sacrificial cult. For Deuteronomy, avodah referred specifically to offering sacrifices to God at a central place of worship: “look only to the site that the Lord your God will choose amidst all your tribes as His habitation, to establish His name there. There you are to go, and there you are to bring your burnt offerings and other sacrifices…” (Deuteronomy 12:5-6).
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Technology and Torahs
Aug 19, 2000 By Joshua Heller | Commentary | Eikev
One of the hazards of dealing with technology is its built鈥搃n obsolescence. The computer that you bought two years ago is suddently too slow, too short on memory to perform even the simplest task. It is true that the frenetic pace of change in today’s society accentuates the problem, but it is a fact of the natural world that every product of human hands has a limit to its useful lifespan.
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Our Nature Is to Be with God
Aug 9, 2000 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
Parashat Vaet’hanan comes in the aftermath of Tisha B’Av, the fast in which we commemorate the destruction of both the First and Second Temples and other tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people. The theme of our asceticism on this day is not only mourning, but more importantly a spur to teshuvah, repentance. This week’s parashah informs our understanding of calamity and its relation to teshuvah. Moses warns the Israelites, “take care, then, not to forget the covenant that the Lord your God conc
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The Relevance of Tish’ah Be’av
Aug 2, 2000 By Joshua Heller | Commentary | Devarim | Tishah Be'av
Next week, Jews around the world will observe Tisha B’av, mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temples and commemorating many other tragedies of Jewish history. The literary centerpiece of the holiday is the book of Lamentations, Eikha, which mourns the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem and the exile of the Jewish people from its land. The book’s refrain is the word “Eikha,” asking the question “How could it be?”–“How could it be that the teeming city lay desolate, that God rejected God’s people?” (Lam 1:1, 2:1, 4:1, 4:2)
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The Treasure of Torah
Jul 30, 2000 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Masei | Mattot
Lists are the most rudimentary type of historical evidence. To us they are lifeless and repetitive, devoid of narrative and significance. Yet, for the historian endowed with imagination, they often become the building blocks for first-rate economic, social or political history. Lack of meaning lies in the eyes of the beholder.
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Between Zealotry and Peace
Jul 22, 2000 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Pinehas
This week, we read the first of three “haftarot of rebuke” which precede Tisha B’av. Even though this Haftorah is ordinarily associated with Mattot, Mattot is read as the first half of a double鈥損ortion this year. We read this haftorah a week “early” to be sure we don’t miss it.
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Listening to Our Enemies
Jul 8, 2000 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Korah
On Motzei Shabbat, June 24, 2000, the Conservative synagogue of the Ramot neighborhood in Jerusalem, Kehillat Ya’ar Ramot, was set ablaze. According to the New York Times (Monday, June 26, 2000) this hateful act also involved the defacement of the synagogue “with grafitti that labeled it a place unworthy of worship, and said that a yeshiva鈥搕rained Jew should not be there.” Numerous eyewitnesses saw “apparently religious men, wearing black velvet skullcaps and white shirts, fleeing as the flames raged.” Prime Minister Ehud Barak rightly called this tragic incident “an awful act that causes every Jew to shudder.” Indeed, the flames which marred this synagogue were ignited by sinat hinam, baseless hatred a painful, incomprehensible hatred all too familiar to the Jewish people.
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