Tag: god
-
Each of us a Pillar
Our Torah reading for this Shabbat begins with Moses gathering the People of Israel and proclaiming, “You stand this day, all of you, before the ETERNAL your God… to enter into the covenant with the Eternal, your God.” What follows—although not described explicitly in the Torah—is a ceremony reaffirming the covenant that God made with…
-
When the Torah Re-Wrote the Rules for Eating Meat
During the forty years of Israel’s journey through the wilderness, the only meat the Israelites consumed was meat that had been sanctified and offered at the altar. Every animal slaughtered was part of a sacrificial rite, its portions divided among God, the priests, and the family who brought the offering. Eating meat was therefore an…
-
Step by Step
Our Parsha begins, “When you go out to war against your enemies…” Chassidic commentators note that the verse is grammatically in the singular. They interpret this to mean that there is no greater enemy for any individual than the “Yetzer Ha-rah” – the “evil inclination” — which tempts us to sin. The verse therefore comes…
-
Appoint Judges and Constables at Your Gates
Our parasha opens with the Torah instructing the Israelites to appoint magistrates and constables at the gates of every city. (Deuteronomy 16:18) Rashi explains that the magistrates judge matters of law, while the constables enforce the magistrate’s decisions— “with a stick or a strap”—until the recalcitrant party accepts the ruling. The author of Shnei Luchot…
-
God Have Mercy
Our parasha this week speaks about the mitzvah of taking up arms against an Israelite city that has become so spiritually corrupt that all its citizens worship idols. (Deuteronomy 13:13-17) The Israelites are commanded to destroy such a city and put its inhabitants to death. If the Israelites follow this commandment, and the soldiers do…
-
Understanding Jacob’s Name
As we read in the Book of Genesis, (25:19–26) our matriarch Rivka gives birth to twins. The first to emerge is covered with hair, and the Torah tells us, “They named him Esau,” a play on the Hebrew word se’ar, meaning “hair.” The second child appears grasping his brother’s heel, and he is named Yaakov…
-
Finding Ones Voice
This week I share a teaching from The Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905), one of the most influential Hasidic masters of the late 19th century. He comments on the very first verse of the Book of Deuteronomy, our parsha hashavuah, our Torah portion for this week: “These are the words that Moshe…
-
Transforming Darkness to Light
This week’s thought for Shabbat is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Philp Lazowski, who passed away on June 18 at the age of 96. Rabbi Lazowski was a childhood survivor of the Holocaust. He immigrated to this country with his father and brother after the war and was ordained as a rabbi in 1962.…
-
A Judaism without Israel?
In his great legal code, the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides praises the discipline of silence: “One should always cultivate silence and refrain from speaking, except about matters of knowledge or things necessary for one’s physical welfare. It was said that Rav, the disciple of our saintly teacher Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, never uttered an idle word in…
Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 