Consequences 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.
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Challenging the God of Eikev
Aug 20, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Eikev
Parashat Eikev, for me, is brutal. The crush of the Deuteronomic God, the if-then God of wrath and punishment, is overbearing. The choice that God offers in our parashah is not a choice: “And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers: He will favor you and bless you . . . (Deut. 7:12–13). On the other hand: “If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve them or bow down to them, I warn you this day that you shall certainly perish . . . ” (Deut. 8:19). The God of Eikev infantilizes, expecting that we will respond to an if-then choice, which is not a choice at all but rather a display of raw power.
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When is Fear Positive?
Aug 20, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Eikev
Fears of crisis have filled the news this summer: political gridlock and epic heat waves here in the United States; economic woes on this continent, as well as across Europe; riots in Great Britain; the massacre in Norway; and social upheaval continuing across North Africa and the Middle East.
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Tears at the Moon
Aug 13, 2011 By Vivian B. Mann <em>z”l</em> | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
Throughout my youth, I sat next to my grandmother in the synagogue. When we recited the Blessing Over the New Moon, in which we beseech God for a spiritually rewarding life that knows no physical impediments, my grandmother would cry. Each month, I remember her tears and they deepen my understanding of the prayer.
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Now I Am Old
Aug 13, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Va'et-hannan
There was a time
You would never have said, “Enough!”
A time when your passion
Burned
For me
Confronting Our Own Shortcomings
Aug 9, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Tishah Be'av
It may sound strange that I look forward every summer to observing Tish’ah Be’Av. The saddest day on the Hebrew calendar is also the one I have found most consistently meaningful since my teenage years.
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“On the Road”
Jul 30, 2011 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Masei
Standing at the precipice of the Promised Land, Moshe looks back with the people and relates their journey with the same sweeping overview that Sal Paradise narrates. “These were the marches of the Israelites who started out from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moses and Aaron” (33:1). What follows through the first half of the parashah is a virtual Trip Tik of the journeys of the children of Israel.
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The Blessing for What Goes Into our Food
Jul 30, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Masei
Are blessings over food spontaneous or rote? Do we bless our food out of gratitude for nourishment—or do we use the moments surrounding that most basic animal act of eating for spiritual uplift?
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The Danger of Separation
Jul 23, 2011 By Ute Steyer | Commentary | Mattot
There seems to be great fluidity in using tribal affiliations: the story here switches between Moabites and Midianites, and the tribe who sold Josef as a slave is identified in Genesis as both Ishmaelite and Midianite (Gen. 37). Little importance is put on keeping the records straight on who did what and why. This leads me to believe that this account of the war against Midian is not about revenge at all but something else.
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The Dilemma of the Diaspora
Jul 23, 2011
If you are reading this commentary in North America, beware: the midrash above is a warning directed at you. That perspective, at least, is one long-held rabbinic reading of the initial conflict involving the request from the Reubenites and Gadites to settle in territory outside the Promised Land.
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Justice and Mercy
Jul 16, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Pinehas
The feminist in me adores this midrash: a tannaitic (first- or second-century CE) work acknowledging misogyny and extolling the women in this week’s parashah who appeal to a gender-blind God for mercy. With ever-present news stories of the gender-based gap in wages and job retention, the plea of the daughters of Zelophehad is still relevant.
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Balam: Prophet, Sorcerer, Saint or Sinner?
Jul 9, 2011 By Jonathan Lipnick | Commentary | Balak
Reading Parashat Balak along with Rashi, the medieval 12th-century French exegete par excellence, one quickly discovers how vilified Balaam is in Midrash. But not all biblical commentators side with Rashi. There’s a fantastic chapter by Nehama Leibowitz (1905–1997) in Studies of Bamidbar entitled “Prophet or Sorcerer?” Rabbi Jacob Milgrom (1923–2010), too, has an article on the subject entitled “Balaam: Saint or Sinner?” in his extraordinary The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers.
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God is Gracious, Not Angry
Jul 9, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Balak
So much for fire and brimstone!
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The Perils of Leadership
Jul 2, 2011 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Hukkat
Great leadership is about successfully orchestrating change. Whether within organizations, communities, or other social systems, leadership involves developing a vision of the future and implementing strategies to achieve this vision. Exercising leadership means motivating and inspiring people to change habits, attitudes, and values that hold them back from reaching their goals.
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Both Sides of Forgiveness
Jul 2, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Hukkat
This far into Numbers, we are inured to the Israelites’ complaints. The complaint of Numbers 21 takes place in five quick verses and stands out more for the unusual bit about the snakes than it does for the fact or content of the Israelites’ gripe.
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Identities of Choice
Jul 2, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Naso
We live in an age in which we are all Jews by Choice. Whether born to Jewish parents or not, in 21st-century America our identities are a matter of our own selection.
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Sympathy for Korah
Jun 25, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Korah
I have a great deal of sympathy for Korah and his rebel faction, despite the fact that they made life difficult for Moses, Aaron, and God.
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The Deeper Meaning of Sacredness
Jun 25, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Korah
The antagonist of this week’s Torah portion rises and falls, according to the midrash above, when the logical fallacies in his argument reveal his true intentions. Korah, leading a revolt against Moses and Aaron, challenges the brothers’ leadership as detached from the Israelite people.
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Israel, Evil Speech, and the Spies
Jun 18, 2011 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Shelah Lekha
The other scouts had not in fact stated that it was impossible to defeat the peoples of Canaan, yet Caleb seems to have understood this as being the import of their words. Why so?
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Holding On to Torah
Jun 18, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Shelah Lekha
The metaphor is wonderful: the man at sea is Israel, grasping the tzitzit, with God the Captain of the ship stretching out a hand, holding the other end of the lifeline. As with all metaphors, it is not to be taken literally.
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