After the Revelation

After the Revelation

Mar 8, 2003 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Pekudei

The Book of Exodus begins with God hidden. Not until the children of Israel are enslaved for some time, and cry out in their suffering, does God hear them. Only then does God’s presence become increasingly manifest as the plagues of Egypt come to their fatal conclusion and afterwards God drowns the Egyptian army in the Sea of Reeds. The Israelites receive their most intense experience of God on Sinai, where, as the Torah relates, they see and hear God. To paraphrase Heschel, what they see and hear is not clear; that they see and hear something, is.

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Gleanings Today

Gleanings Today

Mar 5, 2003 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Kedoshim

During a recent visit to Kansas City, I was talking to friends at my former congregation about their recent trip to the New York area. They had been to a wedding reception and marveled at the prodigious sushi bar. I smiled when they admitted to making the classic mistake of those not familiar with New York folkways: filling up on appetizers in the mistaken notion that they are the main meal.

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Whole Bread

Whole Bread

Feb 8, 2003 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Terumah

The weekly Torah readings are moving into territory unfamiliar to our contemporary experience. The Book of Genesis, set mainly in the Canaan and Egypt, mentions places that still exist and people whose names still resonate. The beginning of the Book of Exodus, with its account of the liberation from Egypt, maintains its grip today because that liberation continues to be a focus of Jewish consciousness and celebration.

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The Abolition of the Death Penalty

The Abolition of the Death Penalty

Feb 1, 2003 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Mishpatim

In the closing days of his administration, outgoing IIlinois Governor George Ryan pardoned or commuted the sentences of all prisoners on the state’s death row. The governor’s action sparked a renewed debate about the death penalty in the United States. For Jews, this debate presents the opportunity to review and clarify the stance of Jewish law on capital punishment not only for our own information but in light of public policy discussions now underway.

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Fourth Sons

Fourth Sons

Jan 11, 2003 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Bo | Pesah

I am fortunate to be able to teach to people who know how to ask questions. My students are part of the universe of transmitters and receivers of Judaism. Yet I sometimes wonder about people who are not in my orbit. It is as if a traveler comes to Earth and occupies himself with its inhabitants and their activities, and then looks out into the vast deep darkness of space and wonders who is out there in that domain of silence.

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The Life and Death of Relationships

The Life and Death of Relationships

Dec 14, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Vayiggash

Family reunions come in several varieties. They might be occasions of joy — or sadness. Relationships are revived — or neglected. Change is the only constant.

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Mother Rachel

Mother Rachel

Nov 16, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Vayetzei

Family stories are never objective. They are told with a point in mind. When stories are about someone who has died, the storyteller has free rein; the person is no longer around to object. Often this results in beatification. A late relative is made out to be so saintly that the person would hardly recognize him or herself. On the other hand, stories can demonize someone beyond the bounds of fairness or credibility.

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The Torah’s First Love

The Torah’s First Love

Nov 2, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah

A newspaper reader knows from the headline what the topic of the article will be. Not so with the Torah. The title of each parashah is its first significant word; whether that word tells what will follow is somewhat up to chance. In Parashat No·ah, the title does tells us who will be the central focus of the narrative. In this week’s parashah, the title Hayyei Sarah seems to be irrelevant, misleading and yet, perhaps, fraught with meaning.

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The Lonely and Crowded Path of Monotheism

The Lonely and Crowded Path of Monotheism

Oct 19, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Lekh Lekha

Most Jews have the feeling that Jews are different, to a greater or lesser extent, from the other peoples of the world. Jews have long had a sense of separation from the rest of the world, yet togetherness with each other. Most Jews will say, in response to the question of who was the first Jew, that it was Abraham. It then follows that in order to get a better sense of what makes Jews different from other people­ which is another way of asking what Jewish identity consists of ­ that one needs to look at Abraham, and particularly as his career begins in this week’s parashah.

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“The World Belongs to God”

“The World Belongs to God”

Aug 24, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Ki Tavo | Pesah | Rosh Hashanah

The month of Elul is a time for preparation for the High Holy Days. Some industrious hosts and hostesses are already making tzimmes and putting it in the freezer. Other kinds of preparations are being made, too– studying, thinking about and discussing the themes and meanings of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur so that these holidays are not just repetitions of prior years. Even our weekly Torah readings, seemingly disconnected from anything to do with the High Holy Days, can be read through Elul eyeglasses.

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A Minature Torah

A Minature Torah

Jul 27, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Eikev

Jews who do not call themselves religious nonetheless do a number of things that are religious commandments. This is what we are told by various surveys and it is confirmed by anecdotal evidence. These include lighting Hanukkah candles, attending some form of Passover service, fasting on Yom Kippur and going to synagogue for some portion of the High Holy Days.

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Repeating History

Repeating History

Jul 6, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Masei | Mattot

The philosopher George Santayana wrote that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. His words have been often used and more often misused. The past is not a document that can simply be pulled out of a file. The past is what we remember it to have been. How we remember it depends on how we have told it. The Torah is, among other things, a record of how the Jewish people told, or were told, its past.

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Extremes of Leadership

Extremes of Leadership

Jun 29, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Pinehas

The Torah is a book of contrasts, of frequent and even wild swings between extremes — extremes of points of view and extremes of behavior. For a quick shift between extremes of points of view, one need look no farther than the opening words of Genesis. We see at first nothing but darkness. We hear the words, “Let there be light”, and soon, light is over all.

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Making Peace on High and on Earth

Making Peace on High and on Earth

Jun 22, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Hukkat

Some years ago, during a visit to Japan, I met with a sociology professor at Tokyo University. She mentioned that she had just returned from her first trip to Israel, and I asked what her impressions were. The professor paused for a moment and then said — “The Israelis, they argue a great deal.”

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Vigorous Hands

Vigorous Hands

Jun 8, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

A visitor to Jerusalem is likely to notice a structure more in keeping with the green flatlands of the Netherlands than the golden hills of the Holy City. The windmill established by British philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore was designed to provide sustenance for the Jews of Jerusalem. It sits today in the district called Yemin Moshe, named in honor of Montefiore.

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Honoring Elders

Honoring Elders

Jun 1, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Beha'alotekha

Jews have a reputation for being dramatically argumentative. Opinions are pronounced vociferously. Everyone interrupts everyone else. It is perhaps not widely known that interrupting an elder is not only rude but is prohibited by Jewish law. As a religious system, Jewish law legislates about matters outside the bounds of secular law. Matters that secular society sees as ethical, but voluntary, are seen by Judaism as mandatory.

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What is a Slave?

What is a Slave?

May 4, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Behar

We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt. This is the story at the heart of the Passover Haggadah. Some editions of the Haggadah suggest a song that begins with We were slaves and goes on to say: Now we are free people. However, this song is somewhat misleading. We are not completely free people. The Torah claims that the Jewish people are still slaves: of God.

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Sacred Space

Sacred Space

Apr 6, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Shemini

The writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel are justifiably popular. Many educators, especially but not only in the Conservative movement, teach Heschel’s views on prayer, Shabbat, and God’s place in the lives of the individual and the nation. One of Heschel’s most frequently talked-about concepts is that Judaism holds time to be more sacred than space. In Heschel’s most famous example, the Shabbat has greater holiness than any place or building.

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From Behind a Cloud

From Behind a Cloud

Mar 9, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Pekudei | Vayak-hel | Purim

The Book of Exodus ends on a note of triumph. The liberation from Egypt was followed by the giving of Torah and the building and dedication of the Tabernacle. God forgives the Israelites for their sin with the golden calf — and, in the closing lines of the book, God’s presence, in the form of a cloud, comes to rest upon the Tabernacle. Nahmanides, in his closing comment on this, the second book of the Torah, gives it the title: the book of redemption.

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The Women’s Section

The Women’s Section

Feb 16, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Terumah

A woman of valor–who can find her? In ancient Israel, the place one could not find her was in the Temple, except in a section called the ezrat nashim — literally, women’s territory. Only men served in the Temple as priests and Levites. This was partly a consequence of monotheism. In other ancient religions, with goddesses as well as gods, women would often control thetemples to goddesses.

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