…Sacks exploring the Universal and the Particular The Universal and the Particular, Yitro, Covenant & Conversation, Family Edition The Universal and the Particular (Mikketz, Covenant & Conversation, Family Edition The Universality of Wisdom, (Yitro, Covenant & Conversation, Main Essay Faith, Universal and Particular, Mikketz, Covenant & Conversation, Main Essay Short Quotes from Rabbi Sacks on the Topic “Judaism embodies a…
…[6] See Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice: Rights and Wrongs (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008); Jeremy Waldron, God, Locke, and Equality (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Nick Spencer, Freedom and Order: History, Politics and the English Bible (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2011). [7] Ex. 19:8; 24:3, 24:7. [8] Mechilta, Parashat Yitro, BaChodesh 2 and Exodus Rabbah, parshat Yitro, 28:2. [9] See…
…are not My daughter, but I shall call you My daughter.” Leviticus Rabbah 1:3 The fourth heroine is Moses’ wife, Tzippora, daughter of the Midianite priest Yitro. The first thing that strikes us about Tzippora is that she was willing to accompany Moses on his return to Egypt, despite the hazards of the journey, the risk of the mission, and…
The year 2001 began as the United Nations Year of Dialogue between Civilizations. By its end, the phrase that came most readily to mind was ‘the clash of civilizations.’ The tragedy of September 11 intensified the danger caused by religious differences around the world. As the politics of identity begin to replace the politics of ideology, can religion become a…
In the course of any life there are moments of awe and amazement when, with a full heart, you thank God shehecheyanu vekiyemanu vehigiyanu lazeman hazeh, “who has kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this day.” Two that particularly stand out in my own memory were separated by almost ten years. The first was the Lambeth…
Immediately prior to the great revelation at Mount Sinai, God instructs Moses as to the nature of the covenant He is proposing to make with the children of Israel. On their willing acceptance of these terms, all else will depend. In the course of this preamble, the Torah articulates what, in hindsight, could be called the first mission statement and…
…way. And that why, again and again and again, God, the prophets say, is not our God only. There are other people who worship God. Any non-Jews who do rather well in the Bible by way of worshipping God? Yitro – gives Israel its first governing system. Malchitzedek – in the days of Abraham – melech shalem – vehu cohen…
…as their highest task to understand why the law is as it is. That is what the Torah means by the word Shema. [1] Gersonides, Commentary to Va-etchanan, par. 14. [2]David Weiss Halivni, Midrash, Mishnah, Gemara: the Jewish predilection for justified law, Harvard University Press, 1986, 5. [3] Ibid., 14. [4] Avodah Zarah 3a. [5] Tamhuma (Buber), Yitro, 16….
…with its detailed rules and regulations, can sometimes seem a let-down after the breathtaking grandeur of the revelation at Sinai. It should not be. Yitro contains the vision, but God is in the details. Without the vision, law is blind. But without the details, the vision floats in heaven. With them the Divine Presence is brought down to earth, where…
…not by God but by Moses’ father-in-law, the Midianite High Priest Yitro. Second is the list of caveats with which the king is to be charged: not to multiply horses, or wives, or wealth (Dev. 17: 16-17). As we know, it was precisely these cautions that King Solomon ignored, and it led to his downfall. In an exceptionally pointed passage…