In his swan song Moses salutes God as “the Rock – his deeds are perfect” (Deuteronomy 32:4). RaShI, the premiere medieval commentator, takes this phrase to mean that although God is omnipotent and, thus, He can do whatever he wants, violators of His will are not...
Deuteronomy
Facing Life’s End – VaYelekh 5783
The medieval commentators are in disagreement. When Moses declares that “I cannot come and go” (Deuteronomy 31:2), Rabbi Ovadiah Seforno comments that Moses’ declaration is an admission that in old age (and Moses was 120 years-old) any and all movement is hard....
Self-Assurance – Nitzavim 5782
Before he dies, Moses assures the people Israel that “Surely the instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond your reach” (Deuteronomy 30:11). He furthers assures them that “It is not in the heavens, that you should say,...
Immediately, If Not Sooner – Ki Tavo 5782
In one of his final addresses to the assembled people of Israel, Moses tells them: “When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, you shall take of every first fruit of the soil” and bring it to the...
The Brutality of Warfare – Ki Tetze 5782
Perhaps no verse in the Torah has inflamed the sensibilities of modern readers as Deuteronomy 25:19 that calls upon the Israelites to erase every last Amalekite. True, the Amalekites were cruel and brutal when they attacked the most vulnerable of Israelites following...
Filtering Sensory Input – Shoftim 5782
British philosophy of the eighteenth century was characterized by an ongoing dispute between the rationalists and the sentimentalists. Rationalists believed that human judgment and morality is mostly a function of reason. Sentimentalists held that human judgment and...
For a Pig, It’s Kosher – Re’eh 5782
One of the most influential authorities at the end of the nineteenth century was Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin (1816-1893), known by his acronym, NeTziV. As a prominent Lithuanian religious authority, people came to him with all kinds of questions, from ritual...
Bread Is More Than the Staff of Life – Ekev 5782
One of the premiere codifiers of the medieval period, Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, known as the Ba’al Ha-Turim (1269–1343), sees in the wording of the Torah instructions on how to perform a Jewish ritual. The Torah (Deuteronomy 8:8) describes the Land of Israel as a land...
Adding and Subtracting – Va-ethanan 5782
The Torah insists that nothing may be added to it and nothing must be taken away (Deuteronomy 4:2). That nothing ought to be taken away is clear. That would be rejecting the integrity of God’s word. But why not add to the Torah? It is this question that is addressed...
Ensuring Authority – Devarim 5782
When it comes to lengthy sentences, there are none that compares to one in Molly Bloom’s soliloquy in James Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses. The sentence contains 3,687 words. It was the record holder until recently. Lucy Ellman's 2019 book Ducks, Newburyport, is more...