16 Aug 2017

Direct Path Project, Judaic Topics
Eight times in Parashat Re’eh we read of “the place where God will choose to establish His name”. This is a formulation so unusual that it would attract notice if encountered once. Finding it eight times in one parashah demands attention. The making of an image of God, as we know, is prohibited. And in this parashah the Israelites are even commanded to destroy all of the physical r...
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14 Aug 2017

Judaic Topics
Deuteronomy 8:10 reads in Hebrew: “v’achalta v’savata u’verachta et Adonai Elohecha al ha’aretz ha’tovah asher natan lach.” This verse is the proof text for the commandment to offer thanks (blessing) after a meal. That blessing is known as Birkat Ha’Mazon. It is often said that all translation is midrash and, because of its many structural ambiguities, translation from Hebrew of...
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01 Jun 2017

Ethics Project, Judaic Topics
As I write this, the Jewish Festival of Shavuot is about to begin. The Festival is rooted in a celebration of the springtime grain harvest but has also become the time Jews recall and commemorate the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. It is customary to read the Book of Ruth during synagogue services on Shavuot. The custom is an old one, being mentioned in a non-canonical Talmudic work...
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19 May 2017

Ethics Project, Judaic Topics
Parashat Behar contains the commandment of the jubilee year introduced, famously, with the verse inscribed on the Liberty Bell. ¹⁰ And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family... ¹³ In this year of ...
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20 Apr 2017

Judaic Topics
On the Shabbat that falls within the Festival of Passover it is customary to read a portion of biblical text from the book of Exodus; Chapter 33 verse 12 through Chapter 34 verse 26. Its general connection to the holiday is clear: it contains specific mention of and commandments related to Passover. But it also contains an interesting textual anomaly. The initial letter nun in 34:7...
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13 Apr 2017

Judaic Topics
The philosopher Immanuel Kant, best known for his theory of the Categorical Imperative, concluded that: “In the moral judgement of action we refer the consequences produced to the agent who produced them. Unlike the intentional or the negligent, the unforeseeable and unintended are never blamed. Moral judgement is directed, not to the effects of an action, but to the good or bad inten...
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04 Apr 2017

Ethics Project, Judaic Topics
It is often said that the laws of ritual sacrifice that dominate the early chapters of the book of Leviticus (or VaYikra in Hebrew), are among the most difficult to relate to in our day. That is largely because of our discomfort with the idea of animal sacrifice (even though not all sacrifices are of animals). If we ignore for the moment the issue of what is to be sacrificed and focus...
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03 Apr 2017

Judaic Topics
The central book of the Five Books of Moses was originally known as Torat Kohanim, or the Law of Priests because of its concentration on the ritual activities of the Levitical priests. That it is unique in many respects as a document that can stand on its own in literary, legal and ritual senses is without question. But my thought while studying the text this year was not about its se...
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17 Mar 2017

Judaic Topics
The centerpiece of Parashat Ki Tisa is the episode of the golden calf; the egel zahav that is formed (in some way) by Aaron at the insistence of (some of) the people when Moses was “late” in descending from his encounter with God. The sense one gets when reading the story is that Moses had to have been quite late in his return; late enough to cause a great deal of anxiety among those ...
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13 Feb 2017

Bones of Israel, Judaic Topics
Introduction There are some moments in time that are so powerful, so consequential, that they seem to crystallize, to become matter, to ossify. Time becomes bone. Seven such bone-like moments (and only seven) are found in the Hebrew Bible when it is read in the Hebrew. Those moments are so consequential in human history and in the history of the Jewish people that they are described in...
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