Submitted by rabbi on

This week we are introduced to Yaakov and Esav, twin brothers, children of Isaac and Rebecca, who are already at odds in their mother's womb. The Torah tells us that Rebecca suffered from their strange in utero hijinks - the Rabbis posit a fetal Esav trying to get out of the womb in order to go and worship idols, while Yaakov wanted to go learn Torah in a Yeshiva. Immediately after their birth, we are told that Esav, the first-born, was a man who knew how to hunt, a man of the outdoors, while Yaakov was a simple man, a stay-at-home, "dwelling in tents".

Forgiveness, and Everyone's Essential Otherness

Submitted by rabbi on

During this time of year, the period before and during the High Holidays, there is a custom in some Jewish communities to ask forgiveness from everyone you know for any wrong you may have done them. The formula goes something like this: 'if I have done anything to harm you, will you please forgive me'. The notion of asking for forgiveness from someone you have wronged, either physically, financially, or through insult or slight, is an ancient one. It appears in the Talmud and is enshrined in all the great halachic codes, from Maimonides to the Shulchan Aruch.

The Challenge of the Torah's Text

Submitted by rabbi on

According to Rabbinic tradition, the holiday of Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. The commandments are prefaced by the following simple verse: "And God spoke all of these words, saying:" This is exactly what one would have by way of introduction to the words dictated by God to Moshe and the Jewish people. However, the commentaries notice an unnecessary word: had the verse left out the word "all", and just said "And God spoke these words, saying:", we would have assumed that he spoke all of them.

The Binding of Isaac: Morality and Commandment

Submitted by rabbi on

One of the central themes of Rosh ha-Shanah is, of course, the blowing of the shofar. Although the Torah is not that clear about what instrument we are actually meant to  use to sound a blast on this day, tradition mandates a ram's horn. The reason for this is that we are thereby reminded, and, at the same time, we remind God, of the akedah - the binding of Isaac - in which Abraham fulfills God's commandment to offer up his beloved son as a sacrifice, only to be stopped at the last moment, and have a  ram substituted in his son's stead.

Love, Success, and Happiness

Submitted by rabbi on

It is customary during the period of Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur to ask forgiveness of friends and acquaintances - either because you know you have wronged them, or simply on the off-chance that you might have. The halacha teaches us that although sins between man and God are forgiven, once repented, on Yom Kippur, sins between you and your fellow man or woman are only forgiven if you make restitution, when relevant, and ask - and receive - forgiveness.

One Nation, Dispersed and Divided: Unity in Difference

Submitted by rabbi on

When discussing the holiday of Purim, people often focus on two verses. The first tells us how Haman suggests to King Ahashverosh that he kill all the Jews in his empire:
 
"And Haman said to King Ahashverosh, There is one nation dispersed and divided among the nations in all the provinces of your kingdom and their laws are different from those of all other nations and they do not keep the king's laws, and it is of no benefit to the king to tolerate them."
 

The Creation of the First "Other"

Submitted by rabbi on

Since Hegel introduced it, the concept of the "Other" - the notion that individuals and groups are, to a large degree, defined by their interaction with and understanding of those outside of and unlike themselves - the Other - has been central to the work of many philosophers (including many Jewish ones, such as Buber and Levinas), psychologists, social scientists, and ethicists. In Hegel's original presentation of the notion of the Other, he used a kind of parable, in which two people meet.

Back to the Garden: Eden, Feminism, and Worker's Rights

Submitted by rabbi on


In the first of the two portions we will read this week, Nitzavim, we find a section which is known as the parsha of teshuva - repentance. Although not all commentators agree (Rashi and Maimonides don't), Nachmanides (also known as the Ramban; Spain, Israel, 1194-1270) sees the verses as a commandment, demanding of us that we repent. I use the word "we" purposely, as the kind of repentance discussed here is not that of the individual but, rather, that of the nation, and takes place on the national  level:

Property is Theft. Or Not

Submitted by rabbi on

When I was a kid, back in the sixties, there were two great, popular, anarchistic, anti-capitalist slogans: "Steal This Book", the title of a work by Abbie Hoffman which, not surprisingly, didn't sell so well, and the title of this Dvar Torah: "Property is Theft". Coined (if you'll pardon the expression) by French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1840 (thank you, Wikipedia), in the sixties we understood it as a protest against the very notion of ownership, its inherent and historical inequalities and excesses.

"Let Us Set a King Over Us, Like All the Nations Around Us": The Torah's Ambivalent Attitude towards Monarchy

Submitted by rabbi on

The parsha, called Shoftim - Judges - has a lot of material about government: judges, court cases, rules of testimony, etc. One of the really fascinating sections deals with the executive branch of government - the king. The relevant verses go like this:

Pages