Loving Kindness in the Torah
Nov 6, 1999 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
We don’t pick spouses for our children anymore. But if we did, what trait would we single out as the best indicator of a happy marriage?
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The Torah’s Slip of the Tongue
Nov 25, 2000 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
There’s a certain delight in catching a person in a “slip of the tongue”, a so-called “Freudian slip”. Unintentionally, the person speaking has let us into his inner thoughts and revealed a concealed, sometimes profound, perception. In our Torah portion this week, we seem to be privy to just such a slip of the tongue – or slip of the text, in this instance – and it leads us to profound insights about the nature of human relationships.
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The Torah’s First Love
Nov 2, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
A newspaper reader knows from the headline what the topic of the article will be. Not so with the Torah. The title of each parashah is its first significant word; whether that word tells what will follow is somewhat up to chance. In Parashat No·ah, the title does tells us who will be the central focus of the narrative. In this week’s parashah, the title Hayyei Sarah seems to be irrelevant, misleading and yet, perhaps, fraught with meaning.
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“A Righteous Person Knows the Needs of His Beast.”
Nov 6, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
This week’s parashah presents us with the first instance of a dating service.
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The Meaning of the Shalshelet
Nov 22, 2003 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
In 1981, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) published The Torah: A Modern Commentary, admirably edited by Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut. The first of the denominational commentaries, it combined an unflinchingly scholarly perspective with a reverence for traditional readings. Conspicuously absent, from the Hebrew text, however, was the trope, the musical notations by which the Torah is chanted in the synagogue. The omission reflected Reform practice: in most Reform synagogues where the Torah is read, it is literally read and not chanted. But the omission triggered a storm of criticism and the UAHC quickly put out a second edition that included the trope.
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Dawkins and a Deeper Level of Faith
Nov 18, 2006 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
In his introduction, Richard Dawkins articulates his goal in writing The God Delusion: “If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down” (5).
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The Distance to God
Sep 14, 2009 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Hayyei Sarah
Uncertainty presents one of the greatest psychological challenges we face in life. The ancient Rabbis addressed ambiguities in the Torah and in life by seeking wisdom from connections between those worlds. This midrash reveals how they understood prayer as a cathartic response to the travails that test our faith and how such an outpouring can transform our reality.
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To Dispense Love
Oct 30, 2010 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Hayyei Sarah
Sometimes our Torah─the Torah I teach, anyway─is very abstract. Sometimes, though, I feel called back to the basics. This midrash is one of those calls.
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