…which I slew. Bereishit Rabbah, 44:4 What is going on in these sources? For this we need to borrow a concept from philosophy, namely, the idea of a moral dilemma. This phrase is often used imprecisely, to mean a moral problem, a difficult ethical decision. In fact it means something more specific. Moral problems are often of the form: what is…
…public, is as if he shed his blood”. “One who publicly humiliates another, forfeits his place in the world to come” (Baba Metzia 58b-59a).” “Rabbi Tanchuma taught: Know whom you shame, if you shame your neighbour. [You shame God Himself, for it is written], “in the image of God, He made man” (Bereishit Rabbah 24:7). “When Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah…
Religiously inspired violence has returned to haunt the world. Hostage-taking and hostage-killing, suicide bombings and massacres like the slaughter of schoolchildren in Beslan have become the face of terror in our age. Much has been spoken about weapons of mass destruction. Yet Beslan was achieved by nothing more sophisticated than rifles and explosives. 9/11 was committed using box cutters and…
…that moment left on his soul. The result (since the Torah usually gives us only oblique hints about people’s inner feelings) is that he a curiously opaque. We know less about him than almost any other personality in Bereishit. The Talmud, more concerned with halachah than psychology, draws its own inference from the verse. Isaac’s ‘meditation’ was a prayer. ‘Towards…
It is one of the most dramatic moments in Bereishit, a book full of dramatic moments. Judah has made a passionate plea for Benjamin’s release. Yes, the missing silver cup has been found in his possession. Judah does not challenge the facts. Instead he throws himself on the mercy of the Egyptian ruler, of whose identity he is still unaware….
…too is God’s way of conferring dignity on mankind. It is we who build His home so that He may fill what we have made. In the words of a famous film: “If you build it, he will come.” Bereishit begins with God making the cosmos. Shemot ends with human beings making a micro-cosmos, a miniature and symbolic universe. Thus…
…from departure (A-B) to the beginning of return (B-A). The entire Pentateuch (the five Mosaic books) forms a chiasmus. From the perspective of the Israelites in the wilderness, Bereishit looks back to the pre-history of Israel, while Devarim turns to the future, as Moses’ prophetic vision scans the far horizons of hope and expectation. Shemot and Bamidbar are a matched…
…limits to the gratification of desire, would not be heaven but hell. The story of Cain and Abel explains the peculiar horror Judaism has for murder. Human beings, we are told in the first chapter of Bereishit, are created in the image of God. Therefore murder is an assault not just on humanity but on God himself. The name Hevel(the…
…did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you are the fewest of all peoples. Deut. 7:7 This is not what we have heard thus far. In Bereishit God promises the patriarchs that their descendants will be like the stars of the heaven, the sand on the sea shore,…
…beautiful custom, on Simchat Torah, to move immediately from reading the end of the Torah to reading the beginning. The last word in the Torah is Yisrael; the last letter is a lamed. The first word of the Torah is Bereishit; the first letter is beit. Lamed followed by beit spells lev, “heart.” So long as the Jewish people never…