In Vayakhel we meet, for the second time, the man who became the symbol of the artist in Judaism, a man by the name of Betzalel. Then Moses said to the Israelites, “Know that the Lord has chosen Betzalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and has filled him with a Divine spirit of…
There are times when an ancient text seems to speak more directly to where we are now than to the time when it was first written. Rarely has that been truer than in the case of the famous first comment of Rashi to the Torah, to the words: “In the beginning, God created…”[1] Let us listen to it in its…
Ki Teitse contains more laws than any other parsha in the Torah, and it is possible to be overwhelmed by this embarrass de richesse of detail. One verse, however, stands out by its sheer counter-intuitiveness: Do not despise an Edomite, because he is your brother. Do not despise the Egyptian, because you were a stranger in his land. Deut. 23:8 These are…
Go to Washington and take a tour of the memorials and you will make a fascinating discovery. Begin at the Lincoln Memorial with its giant statue of the man who braved civil war and presided over the ending of slavery. On one side you will see the Gettysburg Address, that masterpiece of brevity with its invocation of “a new birth…
There is an important principle in Judaism, a source of hope, and also one of the structuring principles of the Torah. It is the principle that God creates the cure before the disease (Megillah 13b). Bad things may happen but God has already given us the remedy if we know where to look for it. So for instance in Chukat we read…
There is a verse so familiar that we don’t often stop to reflect on what it means. It is the line from the first paragraph of the Shema, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your me’od.” Deut. 6:5 That last word is usually translated as “strength” or “might”. But…
It is hard to trace with any precision the moment when a new idea makes its first appearance on the human scene, especially one as amorphous as that of love. But love has a history.[1] There is the contrast we find in Greek, and then Christian, thought between eros and agape: sexual desire and a highly abstract love for humanity…
The twenty-sixth chapter of the book of Vayikra sets out, with stunning clarity, the terms of Jewish life under the covenant. On the one hand, there is an idyllic picture of the blessing of Divine favour: If Israel follows God’s decrees and keeps His commands, there will be rain, the earth will yield its fruit, there will be peace, the…
In the course of blessing the Jewish people, Bilaam uttered words that have come to seem to many to encapsulate Jewish history: How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce the Lord has not denounced? From the tops of crags I see them, From the hills I gaze down: A people that dwells alone[1], Not…
In this week’s sedra, we see Isaac as the parent of two very different sons. “The boys grew up. Esau became a skilful hunter, a man of the outdoors; but Jacob was a mild man who stayed at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebecca loved Jacob.” Gen. 25:27-28 We have no…