When Jacob Met Esau: Facing Our Fears
Dec 13, 2024 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Vayishlah
The story told in Parashat Vayishlah of the meeting between Jacob and Esau is well known. But a closer consideration of the details of the tale speaks to very contemporary concerns. The overall backdrop to the scene is the pervasive feeling of fear. Esau, Jacob learns, is approaching, and there are 400 men with him. Is it a lavish welcoming party? (This is not unheard of in the Middle East—I myself experienced just such a welcoming party in Egypt when I was traveling there with some American Cabinet officials in 1980.) Or is it a prelude to belligerency? Are the loud sounds they are making just the sounds of 400 excited people from a demonstrative culture, or are those cries of war? Jacob assumed the worst. He didn’t bother asking the messengers who reported Esau’s approach whether the 400 men were armed or not. Jacob reflexively got ready for battle
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Going Out to Meet God and History
Dec 6, 2024 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Vayetzei
In what ways do the Jewish people, the descendants of Jacob, still reside in his “house”? How can we, who bear the name by which Jacob will be called in next week’s Torah portion, become the Israel whom Jacob henceforth struggles to become? I’d like to suggest, using the indispensable categories for Jewish self-understanding contributed by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, that Jacob is party to the “covenant of fate,” while Israel signifies the “covenant of destiny.” The “covenant of fate” is imposed on Jews by history and circumstance, while the “covenant of destiny” is one that Jews are called on to embrace in partnership with God.
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“Ger Vetoshav”: A Lesson on Vulnerabilities and Humility
Nov 22, 2024 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
Abraham rose, as he had to, from his wailing, because there was a necessary and sacred task to perform. And at that moment of needing to bury his dead, an enormity confronted him. Here’s how Abraham put it: “ger vetoshav anokhi”—I am merely a stranger (ger), come to be an alien resident (toshav) here. I have no place; I have no accumulated rights and privileges.
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Can You Spell Check the Tanakh?
Nov 15, 2024 By David Zev Moster | Commentary | Vayera
There is a puzzling word in this week’s parashah: מֵחֲטוֹ “from sinning” (Genesis 20:6). God appears to Abimelekh in a dream and says, “I myself have kept you from sinning (מֵחֲטוֹ) against me [with Sarah].” The word מֵחֲטוֹ is unusual because it should be spelled with an alef, either as מֵחֲטֹא in 1 Samuel 12:23 or as מֵחֲטוֹא in Psalm 39:2. We know there should be an alef because the Hebrew root חטא “to sin” appears 603 times in the Tanakh and has an alef 99.2% of the time. So, is the missing alef of מֵחֲטוֹ a spelling error? It depends on who you ask.
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How Can We Be a Blessing?
Nov 8, 2024 By Cantor Rabbi Shoshi Levin Goldberg | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
I have often pondered the meaning of the expression that a deceased person’s memory should be a blessing or will be for a blessing. Proverbs 10:7 teaches that “the name of a righteous person is invoked in blessing”—זֵ֣כֶר צַ֭דִּיק לִבְרָכָ֑ה . Originally, this likely referred to invoking the name of a well-known righteous person as an exemplar and conduit for our own blessing. The Babylonian Talmud also teaches (Kiddushin 31b) that after the death of a parent, we may continue to fulfill the mitzvah of honoring our parents, and by extension other beloved relatives and friends, by saying “zikhronam livrakhah,” “may their memory be for a blessing.”
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Living With Difference
Nov 1, 2024 By Naomi Kalish | Commentary | Noah
Is the story of the Tower of Babel about human unity, or about human diversity? At the critical point when the Torah transitions from the story of Noah and its universal themes to the particular family of Abraham, the Tower of Babel conveys ambivalence about both unity and diversity. In doing so, it provides us with a model for how we can navigate our own complex social dynamics, especially in times of crisis and trauma.
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God’s Partners in Torah
Oct 25, 2024 By Robert Harris | Commentary | Bereishit
The ancient rabbinic Sages taught that the people of Israel must consider themselves, שותפיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא במעשה בראשית “God’s partner in the work of creation” (BT, Shabbat 119b and elsewhere). Often overlooked is that reading the Torah’s opening (בראשית ברא אלהים…, which I am deliberatively leaving untranslated for now) demands a similar type of partnership. The reason for this is that the opening of the Torah contains impenetrably difficult syntax. Let us consider the very first verse: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ. If we were to translate this verse literally, and absolutely retaining the order of the words, we would understand it along these lines: “In the beginning of, he-created God (did), heavens and earth . . . ” This is a far cry from the affecting cadence of the majestic King James Bible’s translation, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The question is, given the difficult syntax, what does this verse “actually” mean?
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Lessons from Kohelet: If There Is Nothing New Under the Sun, How Do We Solve Our Gigantic Contemporary Problems?
Oct 16, 2024 By Stephanie Ruskay | Commentary | Sukkot
Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) is read during Sukkot, and at this moment I’m finding it to be precisely the wisdom I need. When I feel worried about the many crises we face, the idea that there is nothing new under the sun can be comforting. To me it means we have what we need to address the problem. We need to have humility and consider the tools God has given us and those humans have developed over time. Our main task is to find the right formula. Though breakthrough discoveries and new inventions exist, often what we seek is the right old tool in the proper configuration. It is a question of titration.
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