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31 08, 2012

Parashat Ki Tetze

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2012-08-31T00:11:29-04:00August 31, 2012|

by Rabbi Isaac Mann

Parashat Ki Tetze is replete with laws and regulations, some of which are found elsewhere in the Torah and some of which are partially or completely new. It would appear that the section towards the end of the parashah (Deut. 25:13-16) that deals with honest weights and measures is of the former type. The Torah here specifies that one may not have two types of weighing stones in one’s pouch – a large one and a small one (even gedolah u’ketanah) – nor may one have two types of ephahs (an ephah is an ancient Hebrew measure) in one’s home – a large one and a small one (ephah gedolah u’ketanah). These items were used for weighing and measuring merchandise that was bought and sold. But rather one must have only an honest stone (even shelemah va-tzedek) and an honest ephah (ephah shelemah va-tzedek).

As Rashi explains, quoting the Sifre Read More >

24 08, 2012

Parashat Shoftim

By ahsilver|2012-08-24T16:13:01-04:00August 24, 2012|

By Rabbi Judith Edelstein

Within the last few weeks I, and most likely many of you, have been barraged with email messages asking for donations to the presidential campaign. Initially I read the messages with a skeptical eye, planning to contribute a minimal amount at some future date. However, after viewing notes of alarm in the most recent subject lines, I began to panic. Can my small contribution possibly help any candidate to win against the behemoth fundraising machines in which individuals are contributing tens of millions of dollars, I wondered.

Nonetheless, despite my better instincts and my loathing for the way in which campaigns are financed in the United States, believing that the government should pay for them to create an even playing field for all potential candidates, not just those connected to wealth, I broke down and made a modest donation. After all what if my candidate loses because I was cheap? Read More >

16 08, 2012

Parashat Re’eh

By ahsilver|2012-08-16T23:12:55-04:00August 16, 2012|

Expanding Spiritual Consciousness
By Rabbi Bob Freedman

In Parashat Va’ethanan we are told that even when we are exiles scattered among peoples who worship gods of wood and stone, “If you search there for YHVH your God you will find God, if you seek with all your heart and all your soul” (4:29). One can seek God in any place, it seems, even the most unlikely.

However, Deuteronomy also demands the strict centralization of worship into one place. The ruling appears for the first time in our parashah but is repeated throughout the book. Verse 12:2 stipulates the obliteration of worship places scattered throughout the country. Referring to worship described in 12:2-3 that happened “on high mountains, hills, or under luxuriant trees,” 12:4 rules “Do not worship YHVH your God in this way.” Rather, we are directed (12:5, 11 and subsequently) to make our offerings only at the place where God chooses l’shaken et Read More >

9 08, 2012

Parashat Ekev

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2012-08-09T10:50:55-04:00August 9, 2012|

Gratitude to God, Source of Our Wealth

By Rabbi Len Levin

“Beware lest your heart grow haughty…and you say to yourselves, ‘My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me.’ Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to get wealth…” (Deuteronomy 8:14-18).

On first sight, the portion Ekev-like most of the first eleven and last six chapters of Deuteronomy-appears purely sermonic in character. A sermon offers ethical inspiration and goals that are commendable to strive for.Â But we draw a vital distinction between ethics and law.Â Ethics teaches what is commendable but to some degree optional; law lays down what is obligatory.Â In classic Jewish parlance, ethics is in the realm of agada, law is coterminous with halakha.

But is the distinction so hard and fast?Â The medieval work Sefer Ha-Hinnukh comprises a discussion of the 613 commandments of the Torah Read More >

2 08, 2012

Parashat Vaethanan

By ahsilver|2012-08-02T15:47:07-04:00August 2, 2012|

By Rabbi Dorit Edut

“Sh’ma Yisrael – Listen O Israel…” Moses recites these lines in this week’s Torah portion at the end of his life. For us, these are usually the first Hebrew words we learn, and we are taught to say them twice daily, morning and evening, on holidays, special occasions, and even before death. This affirmation emphasizes ‘listening’ as we declare that God is ONE. To whom are we making this declaration? And why emphasize listening?

Rabbi David Hartman, in his book A Living Covenant (1985, The Free Press, pp. 164-165)says that by saying the Sh’ma we are actually recreating the Sinai experience for ourselves – listening for that still small voice of God. We tune out the distractions of our world and focus on the question which Moses emphasized and that God asks us everyday: Are we ready to become a partner with God in this world, willing to commit to Read More >

26 07, 2012

Parashat D’varim

By ahsilver|2012-07-26T13:17:50-04:00July 26, 2012|

By Rabbi Kaya Stern-Kaufman

This week’s Torah portionÂ “ D’varimÂ “ opens the book of Deuteronomy, throughout which Moses delivers an exhaustive farewell speech to the people of Israel, recounting their history, reviewing many of the laws given at Sinai and adding new laws for a future life in the promised land. The portion begins with the words Eleh ha-d’varim, meaning: these are the words, that Moses spoke. From this opening statement is derived the name for the fifth book of TorahÂ “ D’varim /Deuteronomy.

Many Sages and rabbis in our tradition point out that when Moses was first initiated into the role of God’s emissary to Pharaoh, he resisted the task, claiming Lo ish d’varim anochiÂ “ “I am not a man of words.“ And yet, forty years later Moses has indeed become a man of words. In D’varim Rabba (a tenth-century collection of midrash compiled in the tenth century from much earlier material), the Rabbis explain Read More >

22 09, 2011

Parashat Nitzavim-VaYelekh

By ahsilver|2011-09-22T10:23:07-04:00September 22, 2011|

By Rabbi Robert Freedman

Two phrases vie for the honor of being the most important in the Torah, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and “Humanity was made in the divine image.” Humbly I’d like to nominate another for one of the top ten. The verse is, “For the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart to do it” (Deuteronomy 30:14). No other verse in Torah offers as strong reassuring certainty that we need not be confused or despairing about where to find life’s instruction manual.

At one time Moses protested that he was not a man of words, that for him speech was difficult and his lips were not fluent. But forty years later he preached the words of Deuteronomy. Throughout a full day he held forth, concluding by saying that the thing, the commandment, was not too far away or too difficult, “rather it is in your Read More >

14 09, 2011

Parashat Ki Tavo

By ahsilver|2011-09-14T12:39:38-04:00September 14, 2011|

By Rabbi Jaron Matlow

Lately I have been focusing on Theodicy, the problem of evil in the world. Over the last several years, I have experienced a number of health issues that left me on total disability. In Parashat Ekev, we are told that if we follow God s Torah, God œwill remove all sickness from you (Deut. 7:15). God states further œI am your Healer (Exodus 15:26). So naturally I ask myself the question, œIf I m suffering all these things, am I being punished, and given the suffering of others, are they being punished? Have we not followed Torah and Halakha sufficiently?

Our Parashah, Ki Tavo, is noted for the Tokhehot, the warnings and curses, if we don t follow Torah. In it we find Yak kha YHVH bishhin Mitzrayim uvat horim uvagarav uvehares asher lo tukhal l heirafei. Yak kha YHVH b shiga on u v ivaron u v timhon leivav, œGod will strike you with Read More >

8 09, 2011

Parashat Ki Tetze

By ahsilver|2011-09-08T12:53:31-04:00September 8, 2011|

September 11^th: Remembering to Forget, Forgetting to Remember

By Rabbi Regina L. Sandler-Phillips

“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, in your going-out from Egypt….erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens; do not forget!” (Deuteronomy 25:17, 19).

As we approach the 10^th anniversary of the tragedies that shook our city, our nation and our world, the final words of this week’s Torah portion are stark: Evil can be personified, and Amalek âˆ’ the personification of evil throughout the ages âˆ’ must be destroyed.

Yet questions present themselves. How do we “Remember” to “erase…memory”? If memory is erased, how can we “not forget”? And how do we understand exactly “what Amalek did”?

In the original narrative, we are told only that “Amalek came and fought with Israel” (Exodus 17:8). As the story is retold in this week’s portion, we learn of Amalek that “he tailed you, all the weakened-ones behind you; and you, weary Read More >

6 09, 2011

Parashat Shoftim

By ahsilver|2011-09-06T11:50:37-04:00September 6, 2011|

Ki ata ba el-ha’aretz, asher Adonai Elohekha notein lekha-lo tilmad la’asot, keto’avot hagoyim haheim, “When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations” (Deut 18:9).

In Parashat Shoftim, the land of which Moses speaks is the Promised Land, and his warning is specified in subsequent verses. We are to stay away from human sacrificing, divination, soothsayers, enchanters, sorcerers, charmers, wizards, and necromancers. There are no shortcuts and no special intermediaries.

Moses then continues his teaching: Tamim tihyeh, im Adonai Elohekha,”Thou shalt be whole-hearted with the Lord thy God” (Deut. 18:13). We are to be “whole-hearted” with Adonai our God. The Hertz commentary (p.827) cites Rashi’s interpretation of verse 13: “Walk with Him whole-heartedly and hope in Him. Pry not into the veiled future, but accept whatever lot befalls you. Then will you be His people and His Read More >

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

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