Teaching Mahshevet Yisrael: The Universalist / Particularist Issue
Feb 14, 2017
Elie Holzer: “Jews, Non-Jews, and Teaching the Hasidic Homily: Hermeneutic Approaches and Pedagogical Deliberations”
Avinoam Rosenak: “Machshevet Yisrael as an Encounter: Jewish Philosophy or Judaism as a Philosophy—Educational Implications”
Read MoreJewish Particularism and Universalism
Feb 13, 2017
Marc Silverman: “‘Free Jews’ and Their Views on Jewish Culture and Its Interface with Other Peoples’ Cultures”
Yossi Turner: “Jewish Learning and the Non-Jew: Toward a New Particularist-Universalist Paradigm”
Read MoreThinkers with an Educational Orientation: Exploring the Universal and the Particular
Feb 12, 2017
Ari Ackerman: “Universalism and Jewish Nationalism in the Educational Philosophy of Mordecai Kaplan”
Daniel Marom: “Jewish Educational Roots and Implications of Zamenhof’s Global Esperanto Movement”
Read MoreThe Blasphemer’s Twin
May 20, 2016 By Tim Daniel Bernard | Commentary | Emor
This week’s parashah ends with a sin:
וַיִּקֹּב בֶּן-הָאִשָּׁה הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית אֶת-הַשֵּׁם וַיְקַלֵּל.
The son of the Israelite woman pronounced the name [of God] and cursed. (Lev. 24:11)
Maybe we don’t need to overthink why a law code seen as given by God would determine that cursing God is problematic, but how severe a crime is this? Evidently, Moses was uncertain: the culprit was detained while Moses checked in with God (Lev. 24:12). Perhaps the negative consequence of this act seems unclear. After all, what harm can possibly come to God through human words?
Read More“You Shall Fear Your God”: Theological, Moral, and Psychological Implications
May 13, 2016 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Kedoshim
There are many exhortations in Leviticus 19, but only two of them conclude with “you shall fear your God, I am the Lord.” We will focus on Leviticus 19:14—
You shall not curse the deaf, and before the blind you shall not place a stumbling block; rather you shall fear your God, I am the Lord
—and five traditional Jewish interpretations, to examine how the phrase “you shall fear your God” informs our understanding of the injunctions not to curse the deaf and not to place a stumbling block before the blind.
Read MoreConsequences as Judgement
Aug 27, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Re'eh
Part of the problem with the theology of reward and punishment (or blessings and curses, as it is couched in the parashah this week) is that we know it to not be true. We have all seen good people live and die tragically, and others deserving punishment living long, happy lives. It is difficult, as sophisticated thinkers, to apply the reward-and-punishment idea in any satisfying way to reality as we know it.
Read MoreOur Capacity for Evil, Our Capacity for Good
Jul 27, 1996 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
On the first anniversary of the bomb blast which erased 168 lives in the Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, the New York Times ran a photograph on the front page of Jannie Coverdale, who had lost two grandsons.
Read MoreLeadership in Revelation
Mar 19, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayikra
Modernity erupted in Jewish history in 1782 in the garb of midrash.
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