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How Angels Make Us Better People

Nov 20, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Vayetzei

I’ve never thought much about mal’akhim (literally, angels), and I wonder if Jacob had thought about them either, before the encounter that took place when he departed the Land of Israel in flight from his brother’s wrath.

Could “All” Be in Vain? A Liturgical Response to Ecclesiastes

Nov 14, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Sukkot

The opening words of the book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) have troubled those who read the Bible for a very long time, and remain a challenge—ancient, but still provocative. “Havel havalim, . . . hakol havel” (In vain, in vain, . . . it is all futility) (Eccles. 1, 2). Last week we began to look at the passage “mah anu meh chayyeinu” found in the preliminary service (daily and Shabbat), and I noted the extraordinary feature of this “prayer”—the questions included within the text (Who are we? What is our life? etc.). If we think of prayer as addressed to God, it is remarkable to find within this prayer that we ourselves are questioned. The final words of the paragraph (in the Ashkenazic version) bring us face to face with the troubling opening of Ecclesiastes: “ki hakol havel.”(“because everything is futile” or “because everything is in vain”).

Wellsprings of Hope

Nov 14, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Toledot

As famine envelops the Land of Israel, Isaac seeks refuge in the territory of the Philistines.

Finding Our Way (and God’s) in the World

Nov 13, 2012 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Toledot

What do you make of our matriarch Rebecca? Certainly she is the boldest and most independent of the mothers. Yet Rebecca’s strength has dreadful consequences.

The Power of Words

Nov 7, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah

Where Sarah and Ishmael seem to fade from the scene, Abraham actively prepares for his death. The details of the burial of Sarah and finding a wife for Isaac that occupy the parashah rest in stark contrast to the death narratives of both Abraham’s wife and firstborn son.

From Suspense to Sensitivity

Nov 7, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah

Immediately after the drama of the binding of Isaac, we read Parashat Hayyei Sarah. Why the juxtaposition of these two parashiyot?

“Who Are We?” A “Prayer” That Asks Questions (Part 1)

Nov 7, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

Many of us are accustomed to the idea that the “prayers” we find in the siddur will be filled with praises for God or with requests. In the first paragraph of our core prayer, the ‘Amidah, we praise God as “ha’el hagadol hagibbor vehanora” (the great, mighty and awesome God), and then continue a little further with requests for wisdom, health, good harvest, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, peace—and that our prayer be heard. There are, of course, many further examples in the pslams, in rabbinic texts, and in the great medieval poems.

A Prayer in the Face of the Storm

Oct 31, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

“Prayer invites God’s presence to suffuse our spirits; God’s will to prevail in our lives. Prayer might not bring water to parched fields, nor mend a broken bridge, nor rebuild a ruined city. But prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, rebuild a weakened will.” —Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman

Planting Trees, Planting Hesed

Oct 31, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayera

Just after the expulsion of Hagar and immediately before the binding of Isaac, a curious and somewhat cryptic episode appears in Genesis 21.

Prolepsis: How the Bible Tells Us the Future

Oct 31, 2012 By David Marcus | Commentary | Vayera

Regular screen watchers know that if in an opening scene the camera pans in on a detail like a dagger or a bicycle, then that detail—the dagger or the bicycle—will somehow have an important role to play later on in the movie. Known as foreshadowing, this cinematic technique has its parallel in literature in the rhetorical device known as prolepsis, which indicates a future event that is presumed to have occurred.

A Palace in Flames

Oct 27, 2012 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Lekh Lekha

What inspires one to leave home, to embrace mystery, to seek insight into the nature of our world?

Abram’s Trek, a Journey of Generations

Oct 24, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Lekh Lekha

At the opening of this week’s parashah, Abram, the nascent visionary and patriarch of the Israelites, is given the divine command to separate from all that is known and familiar.

Trusting the Journey

Oct 24, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Lekh Lekha

Like many of the richest parts of the Torah, the opening lines of Parashat Lekh Lekha are fraught with ambiguity: “The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you’” (Gen. 12:1).

Psalm 30: Dedication of the “Inner Temple”

Oct 17, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

Psalm 30 has the enigmatic introduction, “A Psalm of David for hannukat habayit—the dedication of the Temple”; enigmatic because David never built or saw the Temple. It was his dream, but a dream unrealized in his lifetime and brought to reality by his son, Solomon. So we wonder how it came to be that we have a song (psalm) ascribed to David for an occasion he could not have seen, and we also wonder why this psalm became a part of traditional Jewish liturgy, always recited at the end of the preliminary blessings, followed by the mourners’ kaddish (see, for example, the Rabbinical Assembly’s Siddur Sim Shalom, page 14).

A Tiny Point of Hope

Oct 17, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Noah

Unrelenting human wickedness leads to the collapse of humanity and the world.

Daydreaming Out the Window

Oct 17, 2012 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Noah

The ark’s window bothered the Rabbis. It is a technical problem: in Genesis 8:6, Noah “opened the window (chalon) of the ark that he had made,” but in the very thorough account of the construction of the ark earlier in the parashah, no window was ever made. “What window?” the Rabbis wonder.

The Myths of Creation

Oct 12, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Bereishit

With the celebration of this coming Shabbat, we return to the beginning—specifically, to the narrative of Creation.

Who’s the Hero and Who’s the Villain?

Oct 10, 2012 By Richard Kalmin | Commentary | Bereishit

To state things up front, my claim is that Adam and Eve did not just undergo a fall, but also a significant rise; to make that claim, I’m going to argue that two of the main characters, the snake and God, have often been misunderstood. The snake has gotten a bum rap, and God has usually gotten off much too easily.

My Lips, My Mouth, My Heart

Oct 10, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary

With the cycle of Festivals behind us, and approaching the Torah portion Parashat Bereishit (“In the beginning . . . ”), it is fitting to look at the very beginning of the core text of our liturgy—the ‘Amidah or tefillah. We turn to this ordered sequence of blessings in every Jewish service, whether with a community or praying privately. The structure and history of the ‘Amidah open enormous areas of reflection—to which this column will turn quite frequently—but here let us look at the phrase that comes, so to speak, even before the beginning. The words “Adonai sefatai tiftach ufi yagid tehilatekha” (God open my lips and my mouth will declare Your praise) are from Psalm 51:17, and are printed in just about every version of the siddur (in smaller type) just before the opening of the ‘Amidah (see for example the Shabbat/Festival siddur of the Rabbinical Assembly on pages 35, 115, 156).