91快活林

Who Wrote The Ten Commandments?

Feb 26, 2016 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Ki Tissa

Where does our Torah come from? Did all the words of the Torah come from heaven, so that the Torah is a perfect divine work? If that is the case, then the tradition the Torah inaugurates is one that human beings should accept in its entirety without introducing any changes. Or is the Torah itself the result of human-divine collaboration? If that is the case, the tradition the Torah inaugurates may allow some change, at least by those Jews of each generation who accept the Torah and live by its commandments.

Bronze Bull, Golden Calf

Feb 26, 2016 By Tim Daniel Bernard | Commentary | Ki Tissa

The metal bovine with a peculiar magnetism that is known as the Golden Calf (Exod. 32) brings to mind Arturo Di Modica鈥檚 Charging Bull (1989). A potent Financial District icon, it exerts a remarkable pull on passersby (on its you can see the crowd so often around the statue). According to , it was designed as a 鈥渟ymbol of virility and courage鈥� and 鈥渢he perfect antidote to the Wall Street crash of 1986,鈥� but it was also created without the invitation of the Wall Street community and was promptly removed from its original location in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

The Clothes Make the Man

Feb 19, 2016 By Rachel Smith | Commentary | Tetzavveh

[The] unlikely alliance of diverse and superficially incompatible musical traditions, mysteriously accomplished under punk, found ratification in an equally eclectic clothing style which reproduced the same kind of cacophony on the visual level.
鈥�Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, 26

Garments of Light

Feb 12, 2016 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Tetzavveh

Last week, we read God鈥檚 orders to Moses for the construction of the Tabernacle and its accoutrements. This week, our parashah continues on the subject of the Tabernacle and the preparations for starting the sacrificial cult, focusing on the Tabernacle鈥檚 personnel: the priests鈥攑articularly their vestments and the rituals for the priests鈥� consecration. These subjects will return, for after a week devoted largely to the story of the Golden Calf, the Torah will repeat the account of the Tabernacle nearly verbatim, not in the form of instructions for things to be made but as a narrative of their making.

Including the Broken

Feb 12, 2016 By Tobi Kahn | Commentary | Terumah

Arks in contemporary sanctuaries are spiritual descendants of the Ark whose construction and purpose is described in this week鈥檚 parashah. The ark above was created for Congregation Ohr Shalom鈥揟he Summit Jewish Community Center, in Summit, New Jersey.

Knowing the Feelings of the Stranger

Feb 5, 2016 By Marc Gary | Commentary | Mishpatim

This week鈥檚 parashah comprises a multitude of ordinances, providing an embarrassment of riches upon which to comment. Capital punishment, abortion, workers鈥� rights鈥攖o name just a few of the issues suggested by the parashah鈥攐ffer ample grist for the commentator鈥檚 mill. Yet in this political year, with all of its focus on immigration, refugees, and minority rights, it would seem almost churlish to avoid addressing one of the key themes of the Torah reading: the treatment of theger (stranger).

The Spirit and the Letter

Feb 5, 2016 By Yonatan Y. Brafman | Commentary | Mishpatim

After the heights of the revelation at Sinai, Parashat Mishpatim settles down to more mundane topics, including a lengthy discussion of torts. Perhaps motivated by this sudden change of altitude, Nahmanides interprets these details as expansions on the Ten Commandments, such as the prohibitions on coveting and theft: 鈥淔or if a man does not know the laws of the house and field or other possessions, he might think that they belong to him and thus covet them and take them for himself鈥�.

Whose Revelation Is It, Anyway?

Jan 29, 2016 By Stephen P. Garfinkel | Commentary | Yitro

Parashat Yitro is a Torah reading of monumental ideas, foundational concepts, and widely-recognized importance. By all measures, this week鈥檚 portion must be considered a highlight of the entire Torah, since it includes no less (and a lot more!) than the Ten Commandments. This seems to be the right place to explore questions such as these: what did the actual revelation (Exodus 20) include? What were God鈥檚 commandments? Why were these statements singled out, especially given the amount of law scattered throughout the Torah? What gives these brief pronouncements their distinctive importance? 

Nothing Is Enough

Jan 29, 2016 By Alisa Braun | Commentary | Yitro

sitting amid your litter, feet buried
by accumulated jars of buttons,
glasses lost beneath a decade of bank statements
and funny poems.

The obligation to honor your father and your mother (Exodus 20:12) is never simple, but it鈥檚 especially complicated when relations between parent and child are strained. In her moving poem 鈥淢other,鈥� Alicia Ostriker gives voice to the ethical challenge of caring for her mother when the conflicts of the past loom large.

A New Dayeinu

Jan 22, 2016 By Gerald Cohen | Commentary | Beshallah

As we progress through the cycle of Torah readings, we come to associate certain stories with a particular time of year: the creation story in early fall, Joseph and his brothers later in that season, the revolt of Korah in the summer. The story of this week鈥檚 Torah reading, however, has a double life in the course of the year: we associate it with the winter when we read the parashah in the cycle, but it also becomes the focus of our spring Pesah celebration in a few months. 

What Next? A Free People Finds Its Way

Jan 22, 2016 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Beshallah

From the air Eretz Mitzrayim, 鈥渢he narrow land鈥� of Egypt, reveals itself as a vast expanse of sand and stone broken only by the twisting dark line of the Nile. I saw this first hand as a student in 1985, . On either side of the great river, a thin strip of green extends for a few kilometers to the east and west. The Nile looks like a mighty green cobra whose tail points at the first cataract near Sudan, and whose broad triangular head is the delta fanning out to strike the Mediterranean Sea.

The Power of Paradox for the Religious Life

Jan 15, 2016 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Bo

There are a few texts that have helped me get through dark and difficult periods in my religious life, first amongst them being several paragraphs by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik buried in a footnote in his essay Halakhic Man. At another stage of my life long since gone, I yearned for a simple faith in God. I yearned for a transcendent framework that might help me feel closer to a God that too many times felt too far away. I had believed that a sense of wholeness and integration were possible goals for the religious life.

Discovering Love at Dawn

Jan 15, 2016 By Benjamin Resnick | Commentary | Bo

The photograph above鈥攎y last before becoming a parent鈥攚as taken early in the morning on January 7, 2015, the coldest day of a very young year. In my imagination, Jonah was born just after, as the sun was rising over the city. In reality, he was not. He was born at 11:11a.m., when the sun was already high in the sky. But, like the Doe of the Morning, I remember him coming at dawn.

Words Fail Me

Jan 8, 2016 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Va'era

This common idiom鈥攕o casually tossed off in a moment of surprise鈥攅xpresses a deep truth. Words do indeed fail us, sometimes to tragic effect. 

That is the way the Zohar (the foundational text of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism) understands our exile in Egypt: as the exile of speech, a failure of words. In this reading, the breakdown of speech is both cause and effect of our enslavement, while healing and redeeming speech鈥攆inding our voice鈥攊s both the process and hallmark of redemption. 

God-naming

Jan 8, 2016 By Reuven Greenvald | Commentary | Va'era

鈥淎nd God spoke to Moshe, and [God] said to him: I am YHVH. I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzhak, and to Ya鈥檃kov as El Shaddai, but by my name YHVH I was not known to them鈥� (Exodus 6:2鈥�3).

When God shifts from using the ancient El Shaddai (usually translated as 鈥淕od Almighty鈥�) to YHVH, meaning, 鈥淚 will be what I will be,鈥� the divine-human relationship becomes more intimate.  

Hope and the Unknown

Jan 2, 2016 By Rabbi Abigail Treu | Commentary | Shemot

As legend has it, my great-grandfather quit school after the eighth grade. Apparently this decision had little to do with academics: my Grandpa Harry, 锄鈥漧, was a smart man who went on to become a successful furrier with his own business in Manhattan. No, apparently it had everything to do with social pressure. As legend has it, he walked into school on the first day of the ninth grade, realized that no one at his new school knew him, and walked out.

The Landscape of Revelation

Jan 2, 2016 By Eitan Fishbane | Commentary | Shemot

“Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. . .The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?鈥�”

Blessings From Love

Dec 25, 2015 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Vayehi

Given all that鈥檚 come before in Genesis, the Torah鈥檚 notice that Israel鈥檚 days are nearing their end brings dread. This stems not from fear of death, but a dread of blessing. The passing of a patriarch means that a scene of generational blessing is imminent.

Mourning for Joseph

Dec 25, 2015 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Vayehi

Joseph and Zulaykha was written by Ja虅mi虅, a Persian poet and adherent of the mystical tradition of Islam (Sufism). It is based on the biblical story of Joseph and the wife of the Egyptian courtier, Potiphar (she is known as Zulaykha in Muslim tradition).

A Tale of Two Dreamers

Dec 18, 2015 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Vayiggash

Shortly after Jacob arrives in Egypt Joseph鈥攗ndoubtedly eager to introduce his father and his patron to each other鈥攁rranges an audience with Pharaoh for his father. Following the time honored traditions of polite conversation, Pharaoh asks a prosaic question: 鈥淗ow many are the years of your life?鈥�