Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

One of my most vivid childhood memories is of my father giving me birthday and/or Hanukah presents.  Not necessarily for the presents themselves, for I have long since forgotten what most of them were, but for the way in which he would give them.  Sitting in his chair in the living room, he would call me to the room.  When I arrived, he would tell me that he had dropped something behind the chair (often his cigarettes though that I would definitely like to forget), and needed me to get it for him.  Read more...

“Great is human dignity, for it overrides a prohibition in the Torah,” is a famous assertion found over and over again the Talmud, holding out a challenge and an opportunity for all of us to prioritize people over rules, and to elevate human dignity over systemic consistency. How easy it is to allow ideology to obliterate human worth, to permit devotion to an ideal to render invisible the individual before us. Read more...

After the long and arduous process of Moses’ unrealized negotiations with Pharoah and his hardened heart, and after all the plagues, this week’s Torah portion, Bo, describes the deliverance from slavery and the beginning of our ancestors' wandering in the desert.  In preparation of their escape from Egypt, the Israelites prepare and partake of the first Passover Seder, consisting of the meat from the commanded sacrifice, matzah, and maror (bitter herbs).  And, as the Israelites experience the first taste of freedom, the Torah introduces what is to Read more...

One of the debates raging through the various contemporary trends within Judaism is the issue of revelation: in what way did God make divine will known at Mt. Sinai, and in what way do we come to know God's will for today? At one extreme are those who claim that each and every word in the Torah is literally God's words.  Not only the words of the Torah, but subsequent prophecies by Israel's prophets, and subsequent rulings by rabbinic sages are all understood as being given by God at Mt. Sinai to Moses and the assembled throng. Read more...

A story is told of a man who possessed a deep faith in God. He was traveling on an ocean liner when the ship sank. The frenzied crew offered him a life vest, which he declined, saying, “God will save me.” They offered him a seat in a life raft, and he said no, insisting, “God will save me.” The ocean liner sank, and the passengers who could departed on the life raft. As he paddled in the water, he was approached first by a Navy frigate, then by a submarine, and finally by a fishing vessel. Read more...