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Fear and Power
Jan 19, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Bo
The final blow is about to fall. The tenth plague, the killing of the first–born of Egypt, is soon to occur. Yet in contrast to the unfolding of the first nine plagues, this one must wait a bit. Two things must happen first: the Israelites must ask their Egyptian neighbors to give them objects of gold and silver, and they must prepare for the first Passover. The Torah explains why the Egyptians would agree to give the Israelites what they request: “The Lord disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people. Moreover, Moses himself was much esteemed in the land of Egypt [literally, was seen as very great] among Pharaoh’s courtiers and among the people.” (Exodus 11:3)
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Forbidden Magic
Jan 12, 2002 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Va'era
In the Torah magic is forbidden–not because it is ineffective but because it does violence to the sovereignty of God. Exodus commands: “You shall not tolerate a sorceress” (22:17). Deuteronomy elaborates: Let no one be found among you . . . who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer, one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead” (18:10-11). The length of the list mirrors just how widespread the practice of magic was in the ancient Near East.
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Being the Stranger
Jan 12, 2002 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Va'era
Parashat Vaera opens dramatically with God’s stirring proclamation to Moses: “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai , but I did not make myself known to them by my nameAdonai . I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings (megureihem ), where they had sojourned (garu )” (Exodus 6: 2-4). God then goes on to make a fourfold promise of redemption. Still, God’s introductory words are striking — linking this promise of redemption to the same promise made to Moses’ ancestors. It is the fulfillment of an ancestral promise. Yet, what is even more profound is the language of Exodus 6:4 — specifically the repetition of the root ger, sojourner.
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Pharaoh’s Rebellious Daughter
Jan 5, 2002 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Shemot
How did she get away with it?! How did the daughter of Pharaoh manage to save the baby Moses, and raise him in the royal court, when her father had decreed that all Hebrew boys were to be killed?
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God’s Human Partner
Jan 5, 2002 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Shemot
At the end of their gripping biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel (unfortunately chronicling only the European phase of his life), Edward Kaplan and Samuel Dresner report that he arrived in New York on March 21, 1940 aboard the Lancastria. For a moment, after reading that tidbit, I wondered if uncannily the Schorsch family had come on the same ship. I dimly knew that the month of our arrival had been March 1940.
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Portraits of Grief
Dec 29, 2001 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayehi
At the end of a tumultuous life, Jacob dies what was once called “a good death.” Two things are granted him: the time to prepare for his death and the comfort of dying in the midst of family. In his 147th year, as his life forces ebb, he exacts a promise from Joseph not to bury him in Egypt, but in the ancestral burial ground in Hebron. He bestows on Joseph an extra portion over that of his brothers by elevating his sons, Ephraim and Menasseh, to a status equal to that of Joseph’s brothers. And he shares with each of his own sons portents of things to come, concluding with the repetition of his wish to be laid to rest in the cave of Machpelah. In short, Jacob dies unwracked by pain, with his wits about him and nothing left unsaid. The final verse of his biography conveys a sense of closure and completion: “When Jacob finished his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and breathing his last, he was gathered to his people” (49:33).
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A Model of Restraint
Dec 29, 2001 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Vayehi
The end of the Book of Genesis also marks the end of the stories of Jacob and Joseph. Though separated for many years, their life—courses moved together. Both were younger sons who gained primacy over older brothers. Jacob, in his last days, is determined to bequeath to his son, Joseph, directly that which he had gotten from his father Isaac stealthily. He begins by adopting Joseph’s two sons as his own, thus giving Joseph the double portion of inheritance that usually goes to the oldest son. Jacob then gives his testament to all his sons.
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The Search for Torah
Dec 22, 2001 By Lauren Eichler Berkun | Commentary | Vayiggash
Imagine that you have just been reunited with your long-lost beloved child. For years, your days were full of grief as you mourned his tragic loss. Now you have not only learned of his miraculous existence, but you have also discovered his incredible success. His political and economic accomplishments will ensure the future safety and security of you and your entire family during a period of hardship and despair. After an emotional reunion, your wildly successful son brings you to meet his boss, the ruler of the nation. When the king asks you how you are doing, what do you say?
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Free Will?
Dec 22, 2001 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Vayiggash
It is commonly accepted that Judaism teaches free choice. Human beings can choose their behaviors and are responsible for those choices. The source for this teaching is traced directly to the Torah:
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The Fortitude of the Jewish Soul
Dec 15, 2001 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Miketz | Hanukkah
This year I will not be celebrating Hanukkah at home. I’m off to Israel on December 6, and will not be back till the seventh day of the festival, just in time to light a full complement of eight candles on the last night in the midst of family. It is hard to capture the beauty of this holiday or any other on your own. Neither synagogue nor prayer begins to exhaust the repertoire of ritual that enlivens the distinctive character of every Jewish holy day. The home is the great aquifer of our Judaism, indispensable but undervalued.
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Lighting the Way
Dec 15, 2001 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Hanukkah
The traditional greeting for Hanukkah, Hag Urim Sameah, Happy Festival of Lights, speaks to the essence of our holiday observance — urim — which is the plural of the Hebrew ‘or’ meaning light. Indeed, rabbinic commentary underscores this plurality of light in alluding to three different and complementary sources of light: a light of creation, a light of revelation, and a light of redemption.
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The Refuge of Judaism
Dec 8, 2001 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayeshev | Hanukkah
In his richly thoughtful one-volume History of the Jews in Modern Times, Professor Lloyd P. Gartner observes that “few Jews in the world of 1950 lived in the city or country where their grandparents had lived in 1880” (p. 213). Like the rest of the world, Jews in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were on the move, to burgeoning cities in the countries where they lived or to lands abroad that beckoned with opportunity. By 1915, the Jewish population in the United States had mushroomed from 280,000 to 3,197,000.
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Legislating Intimacy
Dec 1, 2001 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayishlah
Judaism is not an ascetic religion. It makes no virtue of mortifying the flesh. At the end of Shabbat, a day devoted to the renewal of body and soul, we ask God not only to forgive our sins, but also to increase the number of our children and our financial assets.
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Between Rachel and Jeremiah
Nov 24, 2001 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayetzei
According to our parashah, the world turns on the principle of measure for measure. Our misdeeds are repaid in kind. A noble end can never be justified by ignoble means. The deception that Jacob worked on his sightless father to strip his older brother of the blessing and status of the first–born son is now wrought on him by his uncle. In Laban, Jacob has met his match; if anything, a rival who exceeds him in gall and cunning.
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A Strategy of Inclusion
Nov 17, 2001 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Toledot
The disputes over water rights between Isaac and the King of Gerar have a contemporary ring. Beyond the current Intifada looms the persistent shortage of water that threatens Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians alike. With the Kinneret at its lowest ebb ever and aquifers depleted and increasingly polluted, the region’s bitter adversaries are at least united in their hopes for a rainy winter.
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The Mitzvah of Welcoming Guests
Nov 10, 2001 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
On our honeymoon in Jerusalem, almost ten years ago, my husband and I decided to attend Shabbat morning services at a Conservative minyan in the Baka neighborhood of the city. We didn’t know anyone personally in theminyan , but we had heard the davening was nice, intimate and egalitarian. We were not disappointed.
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Learning Through Torah
Nov 3, 2001 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Vayera
The five books that form the most sacred writings of the Jews are called by various names in various languages. Only the Hebrew name conveys exactly the content and not just the structure of these books. “Torah” means teaching. One of the aspects of the Torah that has made it so compelling for so many people over so long a time is that it not only is a teaching but teaches about teaching. The Torah, in its own terms, is both God’s teaching for human beings and the handbook for people to teach each other.
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The Ongoing Processes of Creation
Oct 27, 2001 By Lauren Eichler Berkun | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
Parashat Lekh L’kha is the story of God’s covenant with Abraham and, by extension, with all future Israelite generations. The climax of this story is the mitzvah of circumcision. Few mitzvot in our tradition have elicited the enduring commitment and unwavering observance of the majority of our people as has the ritual of circumcision. Few mitzvot have yielded the intensity of emotion and fascination which pervades any brit milah.
In the Shadow of 9/11
Oct 20, 2001 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Noah
One of the lessons we have derived from the events of our time is that we cannot dwell at ease under the sun of our civilization, that man is the least harmless of all beings. We feel how every minute in our civilization is packed with tension like the interlude between lightning and thunder. Man has not advanced very far from the coast of chaos.
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Sukkot-A Festival of Water
Oct 2, 2001 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Sukkot
The joy of Sukkot is offset by a pervasive concern about water. As we give thanks for the harvest just completed, we begin to worry about the bounty of the next one. But be mindful: it is the rainfall in Israel of which we speak.
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