The Torah readings this week and last are exceedingly difficult ones for us to read at this time of calamity in Israel. In last week’s Torah reading, Lech Lecha, God told Abraham lech lecha, Go! Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, from your father’s home, to the land I will show you.” And that land, of course, is Israel. It feels like Abraham barely gets to the land of Israel when his nephew Lot is taken captive, and Abraham frees his nephew with a small army of 318 armed and trained men. And then in this week’s Torah reading, Vayera, God asks Abraham to make the ultimate ..read more

Saving lives is the supreme Jewish value. We are told we can violate almost any commandment in order to save a life. We can eat a ham sandwich, steal, or violate Shabbat in order to save a life. The only exceptions are murdering someone else, sexual immorality, or public idol worship. This week’s Torah reading, Emor, contains a reiteration of the commandment forbidding murder. We are told: וְאִ֕ישׁ כִּ֥י יַכֶּ֖ה כׇּל־נֶ֣פֶשׁ אָדָ֑ם מ֖וֹת יוּמָֽת׃ If a person kills any human being, that person shall be put to death.  And, of course, the prohibition on murder is also one of the Ten Comman ..read more

The Torah was a revolutionary document in its day. 3,000 years ago, kings were absolute monarchs. They not only made the law, they were the law. Absolute monarchies have become rare, but they still exist today. The sultans of Brunei and Oman are both absolute monarchs with all of the legislative, executive, and judicial powers concentrated in the hands of one man. The Torah was a wildly innovative document because it put limits on the power of the king. The ancient Israelite kings were not absolute monarchs: they were required to follow the rules of the Torah. Ancient Israel was a constitution ..read more

Despite cold and wet weather, 80,000 Israelis turned out for a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, and thousands more, including two of my daughters, joined a protest outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem. There are many things about the new government they could have been protesting. They could have been protesting proposed changes to the Law of Return, that could make Conservative and Reform converts ineligible for aliyah. They could have been protesting the appointment of homophobic ministers. A recording was recently released where Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich s ..read more

The dangers of artificial intelligence have been a topic of much discussion and debate in recent years. In Jewish literature, one example of the dangers of AI can be seen in the story of the golem. According to Jewish folklore, a golem is an artificial being created from clay and brought to life through the use of magic. In many versions of the story, the golem is created by a rabbi to protect the Jewish community from persecution. However, the golem eventually turns on its creator and begins to wreak havoc, causing destruction and death before ultimately being stopped. The story of the golem ..read more

If there is a group debating an important matter, who should speak first? The oldest most experienced people in the group? Or the youngest most junior people? I think that intuitively most people would say the most experienced people. They are likelier to have the right answer. The junior people can speak up if they have something to add that the senior people may not have thought have. That’s not necessarily the right answer though. This week’s Torah reading Shoftim, contains a set of laws that in many ways form a constitution of sorts for the Israelite nation as they are getting prepared to ..read more

Hayom harat olam. Those are words we will recite many times over the course of Rosh Hashanah. Our machzor translates the phrase as “Today the world stands as at birth.” So if it’s the birthday of the world, that would lead most of us to think it must be commemorating the first day of creation, “In the beginning,” when God said, “Let there be light.” But that’s not the case. The rabbis tell us that the first day of creation was the 25th of Elul, which was this past Wednesday. What was created today was people. A more accurate translation of hayom harat olam would be “Today the world was co ..read more

We are now in the Hebrew month of Elul, a time when the tradition charges us with examining our deeds, preparing ourselves for the great Day of Judgment coming on Rosh Hashanah. As part of this process we are called on to judge ourselves, find where we may have been lacking over the past year. Which, for most people, is a change of pace, since we’re usually far more busy judging others than judging ourselves. In the process of judging, we “weigh” various factors. This week’s Torah reading Ki Tetze, includes a commandment about how we are to weigh things: “You must have full and just weights a ..read more

There’s a story about a Jewish atheist who went to visit the famed Great Heretic of Prague. He shows up at the house at the appointed hour on Friday night, only to have someone shush him while they light Shabbos candles.  They sit down at the table for a meal and the Great Heretic himself makes kiddush, washes his hands, and recites the motzi over the bread. The atheist is dumbfounded. “What’s going on here? You’re the Great Heretic of Prague, a man who’s written books and given lectures that there is no God. But you obey the Shabbat commandments?” “Of course,” the host replied. “I’m a he ..read more

What’s the appropriate punishment for someone who engages in “vigilante justice,” taking matters into his own hand when he sees something wrong being done? The wrong may have been public and clear, but we still don’t allow people to act as judge, jury, and executioner. There are procedures to be followed. All of which makes Pinhas’ reward for being a vigilante puzzling. At the end of last week’s Torah reading, the men of Israel were having licentious sex with Midianite women, who were pulling them not only into sexual immorality but into idol worship. Zimri ben Salu, a leader of his tribe was ..read more