With fifty-three mitzvot, 24 positive and 29 negative, Parashat Mishpatim is aptly named. Doubly so, in fact, since the word “mishpatim” can mean both “rules,” and “sentences,” and most of the rules are issued in brief units of a sentence or two. A striking feature of these rules is their apodictic nature. That is, they are for the most…
It Takes Two Takes: Yitro 5775
אַחַת דִּבֶּר אֱלֹהִים שְׁתַּיִם־זוּ שָׁמָעְתִּי Psalm 62 is a paean to divine power, culminating with the tantalizingly opaque statement, “One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that strength is but God’s, and Yours, Master, is kindness, for You require a man by his deeds” (trans. Robert Alter). What does it mean that…
Sweetening the Bitter Waters: VaYishlah 5776
Between the split sea and the fiery mountain, Israel is a wounded, frightened people. True, they have been emancipated from four centuries of enslavement, but they are not entirely free. Like many who have endured trauma, they are prone to extreme reactions, rejoicing with song at the sea, but exploding with bitter complaints and accusations just…
Exodus, Movement of the People: Bo 5775
It is no coincidence that the first mitzvot addressed to Israel come in Shmot, Chapter 12, the same chapter in which the exodus officially begins. Verse 28 says that Israel, “walked and performed as the Lord had commanded to Moses and Aaron; so they did.” Early Midrashim note the doubling of verbs and say that the…
Shabbat Va’Era/ MLK Day 5775: What is Suffering Good For?
Early in the outstanding new film Selma, there is a tense meeting set in January 1965 between pastors of the Southern Christian Leadership Council and young organizers from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The students, who have already been organizing locally since 1963, resent the intrusion of national leaders who come to lead protests and…
Reknitting a Frayed Social Fabric: Shemot 5775
[Delivered at Minyan Maat, January 10, 2015 This is a difficult Shabbat. In addition to the painful individual losses in our community, we are in shock and mourning over the dreadful attacks in Paris this week, first at the offices of Charlie Hebdo and then at the Hyper Casher supermarket. There is a sense of the…
The Light of Compassion Shines from Within: Shabbat Hanukkah 5775
Around JTS when we cite Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, we refer to the great twentieth century theologian who fled Europe during the Holocaust and spent his final decades teaching Torah at JTS, writing a remarkable series of books that continue to inspire a diverse array of Jewish and Christian thinkers, and practicing social justice activism…
Jacob’s Refusal to be Comforted: VaYeshev 5775
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks,” is one of Shakespeare’s great lines in Hamlet (Act III, Sc. II). Ironically, the queen’s fervent vow that she would never remarry should her husband die comes across as suspicious, and false. So too whenever we witness a histrionic protestation, somewhere in the back of our mind is the…
Two Camps of Contemporary Jewry: VaYishlah 5775
“And Jacob split the people with him…into two camps…saying ‘if Esau comes upon one camp and smites it, the other camp will be a remnant.’” The ancient sages discerned that Jacob prepared for his fraught fraternal encounter with three strategies—with gifts, with prayer and with battle preparations. He sent generous gifts to placate Esau, he…
Praying for Rain in Bavel
Those who attended Shaharit in WLSS on Wednesday had the treat of hearing Rabbi Joel Roth explain the history of how diaspora Jews settled on Dec. 4/5 for the beginning of the petition for rain, ותן טל ומטר לברכה. It’s a long and complicated story related to the calendrical reform of Pope Gregory XIII in…
Poverty, Race, and Thanksgiving: Vayetze 5775
And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept (Gen. 29:11, R. Alter trans.). Why is Jacob crying? The simplest explanation would seem to be relief. After fleeing in terror from his enraged brother, experiencing strange visions in the night, and vowing anxiously to repay God if he ever makes it home, Jacob has…
Isaac’s Midlife Premonition of Death: Toledot 5775
Did you ever notice the strange thing that Isaac says to Esau in sending his elder son out to hunt for his blessing? Isaac has gone blind in his old age, but what troubles him most is uncertainty about his death. He said, behold, I have aged, and I know not the day of my death (27:2). He…
Rabbi Danny Nevins 