The Torah’s Slip of the Tongue
Nov 25, 2000 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
There’s a certain delight in catching a person in a “slip of the tongue”, a so-called “Freudian slip”. Unintentionally, the person speaking has let us into his inner thoughts and revealed a concealed, sometimes profound, perception. In our Torah portion this week, we seem to be privy to just such a slip of the tongue – or slip of the text, in this instance – and it leads us to profound insights about the nature of human relationships.
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Heroic Women
Jan 20, 2001 By Joshua Heller | Commentary | Shemot
In first few chapters of Exodus, the Egyptian Pharaoh enacts harsh decrees to curtail the fertility and fecundity of the Jewish people (Exodus1:9), “pen yirbeh” – lest the Jews multiply. His increasingly genocidal decrees are thwarted by increasingly heroic women. Last, and perhaps most daring of all, is Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopts the young foundling Moses right under her father’s nose, even though she knows that all Egyptians have been commanded to kill any male Jewish baby.
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Spirituality in the Laws of Purity
Apr 5, 2003 By Lauren Eichler Berkun | Commentary | Tazria
My spiritual and intellectual journey as a teacher of Torah began with the purity system in Leviticus. Perhaps this was a strange place to begin my life’s passion — exploring genital discharges, corpse contamination and leprosy. However, the study of biblical purity laws yielded for me a profound appreciation for the beauty and wisdom of our tradition.
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Rabbi Akiva’s Adult Bar-Mitzvah
Jun 21, 2003 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
One of the most compelling new rituals in the Conservative synagogue is the adult bat–mitzvah. The impulse is egalitarian, the result religious empowerment. The women who participate enjoyed no bat–mitzvah ceremony in their youth. Years later they seek to fill the void. Usually in small groups of up to a dozen, they study with their rabbi and cantor for a period of at least two years. The practice is so widespread today that the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism has produced a carefully articulated curriculum to enhance the meaningfulness of the experience. Learning to read Hebrew is required. Biblically based yet religiously encompassing, the study period culminates in the preparation of a specific parashah and haftarah to be chanted in the synagogue on a Shabbat morning. There is definitely comfort in numbers. Doing the bat–mitzvah as a group lessens the tension of performing in public. Each participant must master only a part of the whole.
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Learning From Our Ancestor’s Struggles
Nov 22, 2002 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Vayetzei
I cannot read Parashat Va-Yetze dispassionately. The struggle between two sisters for the love of the same man, the back and forth attempt to win his affections by bearing more and more children, and the visible jealousy and pain that each one of them experiences, leaves me feeling angry every time I read the story. Particularly galling is Jacob’s reaction to Rachel—the wife whom he loves deeply—when she cannot become pregnant. She has seen her sister Leah bear Jacob three sons (presumably within three years), and can no longer take the pain of being the barren wife. “Give me children, or I shall die” she says to Jacob (Genesis 30:1). And the Torah records his response: “Jacob was incensed at Rachel, and said, “Can I take the place of God (‘hatahat elohim anokhi‘), who has denied you fruit of the womb?”
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The Torah’s Middle Path
Jul 11, 2009 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Pinehas
Is there ever a discernible gap between God’s morality and the Torah, or is the Torah itself our only window into the realm of divine values? Put another way, is it permissible for a reverent Jew to challenge the morality of a law, and to base this challenge on his or her own understanding of justice and thus God’s will?
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It’s Alright to Cry
Dec 7, 2002 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Commentary | Miketz
In the 1970’s football star Roosevelt “Rosey” Grier sang “It’s Alright to Cry” on the landmark record album “Free to Be You and Me,” produced by Marlo Thomas. The former New York Giants defensive tackle told us, in the Carol Hall song, that “crying gets the sad out of you. It’s all right to cry; it might make you feel better.” Feminism had arrived in America, and men — including football stars with feminine nicknames – were permitted, even encouraged, to show their emotions and cry.
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Authentic Judaism
Apr 28, 2012 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Metzora | Tazria
Many modern Jews have declared the opening verses of this week’s Torah portion not just arcane, but misogynist. Indeed, the laws regarding postpartum impurity emerge from a priestly world of sacrifices and distinctions that seems distant today. Our ancient Sages, however, radically reinterpreted that passage and the creation of humanity in Genesis with playful translations that provide an opening for insights into the origins of gender.
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