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The Original Walking Man

Nov 15, 2008 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Vayera

On the topic of walking, the rock ‘n’ roll references come fast and furious. From Lou Reed’s teasing nudge to “take a walk on the wild side,” to the Rolling Stones’ and Peter Tosh’s advice to “keep on walking and don’t look back,” and from the Grateful Dead’s reflection on “walking around Grosvenor Square,” which leads to the revelatory insight that “once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right,” to James Taylor’s evocation of the “walking man,” who “doesn’t do nothing at all,” but walk, our popular culture sees the very basic human act of walking in very personal and highly symbolic terms.

Mishnah Shabbat 7:2

Nov 15, 2008 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

We have already seen part of the list of thirty-nine forbidden labors of Shabbat contained here in Mishnah Shabbat 7:2. Here is the list in full. At first it looks as if the list is just a compendium of labors commonly performed in the ancient world. On closer inspection, we see that the list falls nicely into four categories of labor. We have already seen that the Talmud (Shabbat 74b) refers to the first of these groupings as sidura d’pat, the order of making bread. We see here that the mishnah also views the labors leading up to the production of clothing (group two), those used in producing scrolls (group three), and those needed to construct shelter (group four), as prohibited by Torah.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 3a, 107a

Nov 8, 2008 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

We are able to understand clearly wrong acts and clearly right acts with ease. Robbing the local grocery is readily categorized as bad behavior in our minds. Helping a less able person across the street is just as readily categorized as good behavior. Many acts, however, fall into a gray area. Is stealing to feed one’s family a bad act? What about exceeding the speed limit to arrive on time at a child’s piano recital or soccer game? There are many acts we can think of that we would describe as technically forbidden, but mitigated by the circumstances.

Taking the Journey with Abraham

Nov 7, 2008 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Lekh Lekha

Five short verses after he (and we) first encounter that Land on which the Jewish future will turn ever after, a famine sends Abraham down to the place where he (and we) spend the remainder of chapter 12 of Genesis, a foreign land where he gets embroiled in a complex interaction with the Pharaoh that foreshadows a great deal of the text and history to come.

Mishnah Shabbat 7:2

Nov 1, 2008 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

These three sources provide us with a window into the spiritual and aesthetic experience that the observance of Shabbat is supposed to create.

The First Mitzvah

Oct 24, 2008 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Bereishit

If the Torah is fundamentally a book of law, a work intended to instruct us on how to live a life that is holy and good, why did the Torah begin with the story of creation? More precisely, why did the Torah begin with the story of Genesis—of God’s creation of the world—and not the first commandment to the Israelites which is to establish a calendar: “This month shall be unto you the beginning of the months,” found later in Exodus 12? This is the first question that Rashi, the central medieval commentator on the Torah, asked on the opening words of the book of Genesis.

Babylonian Talmud Hulin 5a

Oct 20, 2008 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

These two talmudic texts are really two sides of the same coin. Shabbat is often called yesod ha-emuna (the foundation of our faith). The Bible repeatedly refers to it as an eternal sign of the covenant between God and the people Israel, weekly proclaiming both the Divine authorship of all Creation and the exodus from Egypt. One can readily understand the Jerusalem Talmud tractate Nedarim’s claim that Scripture values Shabbat as much as all the other mitzvot combined.

“This Is Water” and This Is Joy

Oct 18, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Sukkot

There is an almost organic progression from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. However, when we get caught up in preparations for the holidays, we risk missing the intended effect. From Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur we work on deconstructing ourselves and our worlds. We stand together and seek to expose our inner selves, leaving us vulnerable and open. The language of Yom Kippur prepares us for this feeling—we are not atoning for our sins as we do at the beginning of Leviticus when the laws of sacrifice are first introduced, but on another level altogether. As we learn during our Torah reading, on Yom Kippur we atone from sin (Lev. 16:30). Through the day we literally achieve a level of purity—during the S’lichot and Avodah services we recite over and over again the verse, “on this day we are purified.” At the end of Ne‘ilah, we are left spiritually lighter.

Singing of Freedom

Oct 9, 2008 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Tishah Be'av | Yom Kippur

Maya Angelou’s celebrated poem, “Caged Bird” (Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing. Random House, 1983) has long inspired me, especially at this time of the year. Grippingly, the poem contrasts “a free bird [who] dares to claim the sky” with “a bird that stalks down his narrow cage,” a creature of limited vision and range. Although the “caged bird stands on the grave of dreams,” he still has longing in his heart.

The Journey of Life

Oct 4, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Shabbat Shuvah | Vayeilekh

There is so much fundamentally wrong with the world today. As Chancellor Eisen wrote in his High Holiday message this year, “On bad days, the problems seem utterly beyond managing. On good days, they call for a degree of judgment, sacrifice, and national unity seldom seen in our country or our world.” My fear is that we have actually become too accustomed to calamity; too proficient at responding to disaster.

The Path to Mitzvah

Sep 30, 2008 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah

The Lesson of the First Fruits

Sep 20, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Ki Tavo

Remarkably, no pedestrian injuries have been recorded to date.

New Beginnings

Sep 13, 2008 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Ki Tetzei

September marks new beginnings. Summer’s over, school years have begun, heavy traffic has returned to the roads, the new cultural season is underway.

A Passion for Justice

Sep 6, 2008 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Shofetim

Next week we mark the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The number seven has biblical weight to it: seven days of creation, seven years of the shemitah cycle. Looking back over seven years has a power to it as well.

How Judaism Is Like an iPhone

Aug 23, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Eikev

Since I am a self-professed “techno-junkie,” it took considerable restraint to wait the year for the second-generation iPhone to be released. Having read every review, followed its development on blogs, and waited patiently, only recently did I purchase my iPhone. Before it was in my hand I knew everything it was capable of, yet I was surprised by one aspect: its simplicity. As an Apple aficionado, I was expecting the attractive design, but after opening the box, I realized that there was one thing missing: a manual. The iPhone expects you to intuit its functions, discover its capabilities, and just use it.

Va-ethannan’s Personal Message to Us

Aug 16, 2008 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Va'et-hannan

But what really draws me to Va-ethannan, I think, is the way it reaches out to each one of us individually, both pleading and demanding to be heard. It addresses us person by person, one-on-one, in the same way we enter into every serious relationship and tremble with each true love.

The Currencies of Justice

Aug 9, 2008 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Devarim

You shall not be partial in judgment: hear out low (katan) and high (gadol) alike. Fear no man, for judgment is God’s. (Deut. 1:17)

Philo, the great first-century Alexandrian Jewish thinker, was engaged in a project that in many ways was deeply modern. He sought to “translate” Judaism for the Greek-speaking world of his day and demonstrate to a highly educated and urbane population that the Torah was a philosophically serious work. Not only could one be a Jew and be a Greek, but in many ways a pious Jew was the truest of Greeks.