Violence and the Sacred Judaism is less a philosophical system than a field of tensions – between universalism and particularism, for example, or exile and redemption, priests and prophets, cyclical and linear time and so on. Rarely is this more in evidence than in the conflicting statements within Judaism about sacrifices, and nowhere more sharply […]
Between Destiny and Chance The third book of the Torah is known in English as “Leviticus,” a word deriving from Greek and Latin, meaning, “pertaining to the Levites.” This reflects the fact that in Judaism the priests – descendants of Aaron – were from the tribe of Levi, and that the ancient rabbinic name for […]
Three Types of Community A long drama had taken place. Moses had led the people from slavery to the beginning of the road to freedom. The people themselves had witnessed G-d at Mount Sinai, the only time in all history when an entire people became the recipients of revelation. Then came the disappearance of Moses […]
Two Types of Religious Encounter Framing the epic events of this week’s sedra are two objects – the two sets of tablets, the first given before, the second after, the sin of the golden calf. Of the first, we read: The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of G-d, engraved […]
Prophet and Priest The sedra of Tetsaveh, as commentators have noted, has one unusual feature. It is the only sedra from the beginning of Shemot to the end of Devarim that does not contain the name of Moses. Several interpretations have been offered. The Vilna Gaon suggests that it is related to the fact that […]
Building Builders As soon as we read the opening lines of Terumah we begin the massive shift from the intense drama of the exodus with its signs and wonders and epic events, to the long, detailed narrative of how the Israelites constructed the Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary that they carried with them through the desert. […]
In the Details On the opening phrase of Mishpatim – “And these are the laws you are to set before them” – Rashi comments, “And these are the laws” – Wherever uses the word “these” it signals a discontinuity with what has been stated previously. Wherever it uses the term “and these” it signals a […]
The Politics of Revelation The revelation at Mount Sinai – the central episode not only of the parshah of Yitro, but of Judaism as a whole – was unique in the religious history of mankind. Other faiths (Christianity and Islam) have claimed to be religions of revelation, but in both cases the revelation of which they spoke […]
To be a Leader of the Jewish People That day, God saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians… The Israelites saw the great power God had displayed against the Egyptians, and the people were in awe of God. They believed in God and in His servant Moses. Moses and the Israelites then sang this […]
