Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

Every year, during the Rosh Ha-Shanah services, we confront one of the Torah’s most terrifying texts. What are we to make of the Akedah, the sacrifice of Isaac, in which the father of our people is called to murder his son as an act of religious obedience?  What are we to make of a test in which killing a beloved child constitutes success and refusing entails ultimate ontological failure?  What are we to do with such a terrible story?  Read more...

“You must not hate an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in their land” (Deut. 23:8) Don’t hate an Egyptian?? For centuries, the Egyptians had enslaved us. They beat and tortured and eventually tried to exterminate us. Four-fifths of the Torah is taken up with our journey from Egyptian oppression to liberation in the Promised Land. Every year since -- for more than three millennia -- we have retold that story, not merely as a matter of history, but through active, personal identification. Read more...

As this week’s Torah portion opens, Moses continues what is his second speech or sermon to the people, beginning “See, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.” As the Torah continues, Moses appeals to the people to choose a life of blessing, a life in the service of God. The narrative then shifts to the actual laws detailing how we are to live in all facets of life: personal, private, public, legal, social, moral and ritual. Eventually, the portion comes to the recapping of the holidays of the year. Read more...

I was 14 or 15 years old (in 10th grade), I was studying Talmud for the first time as a student in the Prozdor program, and I did NOT get it. Or at least, it didn’t speak to me, and I didn’t think it was something I’d return to once the school year was over.  Little did I know. Read more...

He awoke from the nightmare with a scream, as he did every night for almost forty years. His heart was racing, his body drenched in sweat, the taste of ashes upon his tongue. His mind was reeling with vivid images of fiery destruction. His ears were filled with shrieking and wailing. He saw the streets of Jerusalem running with rivulets of blood, the Holy Temple ground into the earth, the lifeless bodies of the priests scattered about the Temple Mount, their vestments torn and desecrated.    Read more...