Inheritance and Tradition As Sources of Stability
Feb 7, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Beshallah
I cherish the books of my father that are scattered throughout my library. Long gone, he and I still meet on the pages of books he once pored over. Many an interest of mine has been piqued by a rare book from his collection. An heirloom is often a catalyst. He lived in the world of his books as do I, surely a trait I internalized through exposure. When forced to leave Germany afterKristallnacht at age thirty-nine, he was able to take his books with him. They anchored his psyche during the disorienting transition to a new language, culture and society. Though stripped of all foliage, he enjoyed the benefit of deep roots.
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Taking Refuge in Sacred Texts
Oct 19, 2003 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Simhat Torah
Most books that we read we never open again. A classic draws us to revisit it on occasion. Not so the Torah. As we finish reading it yearly in our synagogues, we immediately begin it afresh, without interruption.
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Genesis and Infertility
Nov 1, 2003 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Noah
My aunt and uncle never had children. In a very real sense, my sister and I were their surrogate family. We visited them often, stayed with them in the summers and loved them dearly. In Germany, my uncle had been a textile salesman. When they came to America in 1937, he decided to work with dogs, his lifelong passion, rather than fabrics. Eventually, they acquired a kennel for dogs out in Yaphank, Long Island, and quickly endowed it with renown by dint of hard work. They boarded, bred and even showed dogs.
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The Garments of Adam and Eve
Oct 25, 2003 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Bereishit
When Franz Rosenzweig published his unconventional German translation of ninety-two Hebrew poems by Judah Halevi, he headed his afterword self-effacingly with a plea from a German translator of The Iliad: “Oh dear reader, learn Greek and throw my translation into the fire.”
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Crafting a Moral Compass
Oct 6, 2003 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Yom Kippur
If the liturgy of Yom Kippur is a symphony in five movements, then the leitmotif that unites them is the public confession. From Minhah prior to Kol Nedrei till the Ne’ilah service at the end of Yom Kippur, every Amidah (silent devotion) has at least one confessional prayer. Indeed, five of the six (excluding Ne’ilah) have two: the short version beginning with Ashamnu (we have acted with malice), which lists twenty-four generic types of reprehensible behavior and the long version of Al Het Shehatanu (for the sin that we have committed.), which doubles the number to forty-four generic types. Yom Kippur is utterly distinctive in the annual cycle of Jewish holy days for many reasons; not the least of which is that it is the only time that Jews confess publicly. Far more private is the traditional deathbed prayer of confession whose poignancy is underlined by the fact that it is cast in the first person singular, rather than in the plural like Yom Kippur.
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A Universal New Year
Sep 27, 2003 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
Living in a universe at least thirteen billion years old, we view with mild disclaim an ancient rabbinic dispute over the exact month in which God created it. Not long after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans, two of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai’s renowned disciples expressed opposing views. Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus insisted that God had created the world in the month of Tishrei, while Rabbi Yekoshua ben Hananyah contended that the event occurred in Nisan. Both rejected the Geek view that the cosmos might be eternal and uncreated. For the Torah and rabbinic Judaism, the ultimate reassurance of God’s existence is the miracle of creation, the mother of all miracles (BT Rosh Hashanah 106-11a).
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Moments of Intimacy with God
Mar 14, 2009 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Ki Tissa | Purim
The unknown can be frightening. This week in particular, beyond the unknowns of the economic crisis that grips the world, we encounter insecurity in the Purim story, with God’s hand seemingly absent from directing the narrative. There is an uncertainty that the unknown breeds; we feel it deep within ourselves and struggle to overcome ambiguity through a search for assurance. What is and remains true is that the lesson of the day is consistent with the lesson of history—none of us is immune from the insecurity of the unknown. Even Moshe.
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What God Wants From Us
Apr 7, 2009 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Tetzavveh
What is the book of Exodus about? At first glance, the answer seems easy. As the English title states, it tells the story of the exodus from Egypt, the story of how God rescued the Israelites from slavery by defeating Pharaoh and his armies. A second glance, however, shows that this answer cannot be right.
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