The ancient rabbis hold several fundamental assumptions about the Torah. First and foremost is the assumption that the Torah is the inerrant word of the living and perfect God. Accordingly, the Torah must be without error. The logic is clear and simple. Since God...
In a provocative New York Times article (July 18, 2020), columnist David Brooks distinguished between liberalism and what he called “personalism.” Liberalism, as it emerged in the nineteenth century, was based on the idea of personal autonomy and individualism and...
If there is an overarching theme to Aviyah Kirshner’s recent book The Grammar of God is that the Hebrew language and Biblical syntax is rich in meaning. Those who are able to decode the original scriptural text are rewarded. An illustration of why this is true comes...
Political philosophers are divided. Some, like Plato in his Laws and Jean Jacques Rousseau, both in his Social Contract and his Discourse, held that the earliest human societies were peaceful and cooperative. There was little competition since resources were...
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was wrong. We do have more to fear than fear itself, at least as the classical commentators derive from the Torah. Consider the role of the chaplain of the Israelite armed forces. Before going into battle it was his task to grant exemptions...
The Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon Zalman (Kremer), who lived from 1720 to 1797, was among the most revered Jewish scholars of the early modern period. He was reputed to have learned by heart the entire Bible by the age of four. But as much as he was acclaimed...
Rabbi Moses Schreiber, known as the Hatam Sofer, connects the opening words of the Torah portion with Avot 1:4 where Yosi ben Yo’ezer teaches about the Sages: “sit in the dust of their feet and drink up their words thirstily.” The practice in the days of Rabbi...
Moses worries. He worries that one day in the future the Israelites might forget what they witnessed at Mt. Sinai and, being led astray by their baser desires, ignore the Torah they were given (Deuteronomy 4:9). So Moses stresses that they must inform their children...
The Midrash (Devarim Rabbah, Parashah 1) assumes that the word “devarim” does not refer to ordinary words but to words of rebuke. Even with this assumption, Rabbi Aha, the son of Rabbi Hanina (Section 4), notes that a question still lingers. Moses speaks the “devarim”...
The Talmud (Pesahim 36b) discusses the schedule for reciting the confessional upon bringing first fruits to the Temple. When first fruits are brought to the Temple from Shavu’ot until Sukkot, the farmer recites the confessional. This period of the year is the normal...