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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12 Apr 2017

Ethics Project
I’ve been studying the work of some of the more influential Enlightenment-era philosophers lately. Brilliant thinkers, linguists, logicians; they still arrive at conclusions that are seemingly inescapable while inescapably flawed in my view. Why is that? How can it be? A few thoughts: The fundamental purpose of language is to communicate, but language communicates because it discri...
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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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14 Mar 2017

Ethics Project
If we restrict the question of "doing" or "not doing" to acts in the physical realm, as we've suggested, a critical distinction between the two can be drawn. It is (for practical purposes) always in my power to refrain from purposely acting. No agreement or connection between us is needed for me to act towards you in accordance with the Silver Rule. My forbearance does not need your k...
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09 Mar 2017

Ethics Project
If we look at a variety of definitions of the term “ethic” or “ethics” the first definition provided most often relates to action. The second is typically related to the moral code or set of values from which the action derives. In Part 2 we concluded that in terms of the Ethic of Reciprocity the critical issue is “do or don’t do”. In part, we are driven to that conclusion by the name...
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01 Mar 2017

Ethics Project
In both Jewish and Christian traditions, commentary on the Ethic of Reciprocity treats two quite different statements as essentially interchangeable: 1. You shall love your neighbor (or fellow) as yourself, and 2. Do (or don’t do) unto others…. Sometimes the “you shall love” statement is identified being the Ethic. Sometimes it is the “Do unto” statement. Does it matter? I th...
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23 Feb 2017

Ethics Project
I've been interested for a long time in the implications of the two principal statements of the Ethic of Reciprocity. The Golden Rule is usually stated as: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In western culture it is usually said to be based on the injunction in Leviticus 19:18: (and again in verse 34) "...Love your neighbor as yourself..." Or in the Chris...
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