…Ten Commandments that appear in this week’s parsha have long held a special place not only in Judaism but also within the broader configuration of values we call the Judeo-Christian ethic. In the United States they were often to be found adorning American law courts, though their presence has been challenged, in some states successfully, on the grounds that they…
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…
…or “the blind watchmaker” (Richard Dawkins).[3] Time seems to obliterate all meaning. Nothing lasts. Nothing endures.[4] In ancient Israel, by contrast, “for the first time, the prophets placed a value on history…For the first time, we find affirmed and increasingly accepted the idea that historical events have a value in themselves, insofar as they are determined by the will of…
The Parsha in a Nutshell This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks, available to read in full via the left sidebar The tenth plague is about to strike, and Moshe knows that this will be the last one. Pharaoh will not merely let the people go. He will beg them to leave….
…have been the case if Israel had simply adopted or adapted the practices of its time. Whichever interpretation we take, the implication of Moses’ words is clear. The Torah would have an impact far beyond the boundaries, literal or metaphorical, of Israel. At no time in the biblical era could this be said to be true, but it did come…
…difference not as a threat but as an enlarging, possibility-creating gift. LECH LECHA: Follow the inner voice, as did those who came before you, continuing their journey by bringing timeless values to a rapidly-changing world. VAYERA: First separate, then connect; it is the carefully calibrated distance that allows us to grow as individuals and create stronger relationships together. CHAYEI SARAH:…
…the prospect of joining the gods in the afterlife. No one would have been in any doubt as to why this was so. The feather represented Ma’at, the central Egyptian value that included the concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, justice, morality, and law. Not only was this fundamental to Egyptian culture. It was the task of the Pharaoh to…
…act of defiance against the divinely given order of nature (“The heavens are the heavens of God: the earth He has given to the children of men”). The Torah then says, “But God came down to see the city and the tower . . .” Down on earth, the builders thought their tower would reach heaven. From the vantage point…
…biblically: see Deut. 13:13-19, 1 Samuel 15:13-26, Esther 9:10, 9:15-16. [2] The Midrash is critical of Dina: see Midrash Aggadah (Buber) to Gen. 34:1. Midrash Sechel Tov is even critical of her mother Leah for permitting her to go out to Shechem. [3] Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim 9:14. [4] Arama, Akeidat Yitzchak, Bereishit, Vayera, Gate 20, s.v. UVeMidrash. [5] Sternberg, Meir. The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: Ideological Literature and…
…p. 15. [4] Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Free Press, 1992). After reading this essay, do you think vegetarianism is a Jewish value? After reading this essay, would you say pacifism (the belief that all violence is unjustifiable) is a Jewish value? Is sacrificial worship still relevant today? If not, does it still…