27 Sep 2024

Judaic Topics
It is in your mouth, and in your heart - and in the oven of Akhnai Parashat Nitzavim In this week’s Torah portion, there is a brief but powerful passage that always attracts attention. This is the text of Deuteronomy 30:11–14: For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, nor is it too far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go u...
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29 Aug 2024

Judaic Topics
Happiness is not experienced before entry into the promised land That surprised me - and I spend a lot of my time studying those texts. I recently looked at every use of the Hebrew word meaning “love” in the first five books of the bible. I published that here on August 27. I then wondered what the same sort of analysis of the Hebrew word for “happy” might show. I think it is equa...
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27 Aug 2024

Ethics Project, Judaic Topics
Where is the Love in the Five Books of Moses? The Hebrew word for love, from the root aleph-heh-vet, or ahav, is not found in the Book of Numbers. There is no love in the wilderness! Where love is found in the other four books, its message is often unexpected. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out the concentration of uses of the love in the Book of Deuteronomy.[1] A closer look at a...
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28 Jul 2024

Judaic Topics
Numbers 25 – Israel at Shittim and the Pinchas Episode In Numbers 25 the Israelites are in Shittim, which is the last stop on their journey through the desert. They are led there into both idolatry and illicit sexual activity by the “daughters of Moab.” Apparently, this is the doing of the prophet Balaam, whose attempts to curse the Israelites had been thwarted by God earlier, in the ac...
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15 Jul 2024

Judaic Topics
The Fiery Snakes of Numbers 21:5-9 Practical magic or retrospective justification?   The Torah portion called Chukkat ( Numbers 19:1–22:1) is full of oddities but perhaps none is more unusual than the account of the fiery snakes in Numbers 21:5–9. The incident occurs in the 40th year of the Israelites wandering in the desert, after the deaths of Miriam and Aaron, and after the ...
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03 Jul 2024

Judaic Topics
The Bible Discourages Territorial Expansion Judaism is not a territorially expansionist religion. It is different in that respect from either Islam or Christianity. Judaism is not and has not been a religion of conquest, expansion, or proselytism. The Hebrews who were delivered from Egyptian slavery 3500 years ago elbowed their way into the territory of the “seven nations” that occup...
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28 Jun 2024

Judaic Topics
A Thought on Parashat Be'ha'alotcha Ignoring the Biblical Editor   Finalizing the Biblical Text We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls, from texts found in other desert locations, from the Cairo Geniza, and from improved analytical techniques, that the text of the Hebrew Bible was essentially finalized within a century, or so, of the turn of the era. That is, about 99% of the tex...
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14 Jun 2024

Judaic Topics
A Survey of Civil versus Religious Authority in Jewish Law Dina de-Malkhuta Dina from the Mishna to the Shulchan Aruch [Note: This was prepared to inform a discussion held on Leil Shavuot 5784] Background The issue of civil versus religious authority first arose when the Jewish people became subject to the laws of Babylonia after the fall of the First Temple. The prophet Jeremia...
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05 May 2024

Judaic Topics
The Enigmatic Man of Time The first section of Acharei Mot deals with the physical rituals of the Yom Kippur observance. The seriousness of the subject is clearly signaled by a reminder of what happened to the eldest sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, who were killed for improperly offering alien fire before the Lord (Lev 10:1). Aaron is told to take two he-goats to the entrance of the ...
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19 Apr 2024

Judaic Topics
Some Thoughts on Tzara'at A metzorah is a person who is afflicted with tzara’at, a skin condition with specific physical symptoms. It causes the skin to become scaly in patches that are more than skin deep. The hair in those patches turns white. The typical English translation of tzara’at as “leprosy” is incorrect and unfortunate. The condition is not similar to leprosy as we know it. T...
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