Shabbat Hazon is one of only three Shabbatot known primarily for its haftarah—the others being Nahamu next week and Shuvah during the ten days. Our haftarah from Isaiah 1 culminates the three weeks of admonition (תלתא דפורענותא) and sets the stage for tonight’s reading of Eikhah. To understand this transition and its contemporary significance we…
Category: 5 Deuteronomy דברים
Remember the Children! Nitzavim 5778
The cries of children, and the sobbing of parents, ring in our ears each Rosh Hashanah. The Torah and haftarah readings emphasize the perils faced by sons Ishmael and Isaac, and the terrors experienced by mothers Hagar, Sarah, Hannah, and Rachel. To witness a child in danger evokes a nearly universal response to rush to…
An Understanding Heart: Ki Tavo 5778
Moses presents the people of Israel with a paradox toward the end of the parashah. In 29:1-3, he first states that they have “seen with their own eyes” all the miracles wrought by God on their behalf from the Exodus until this point. But then he states that God did not give them, “a heart…
Children of God: Re’eh 5778
In my more rational moments, I have trouble believing in a personal God and am put off by anthropomorphic imagery. I get it—infinity is impossible to imagine, and so we compare God to more familiar relationships—to a person, to a parent, to a partner. Maimonides broke the naïve experience of the mighty hand of God,…
Faith and Heartbreak in Israel: VaEthanan 5778
Our Torah portion this week is suffused with yearning—Moses yearns for the opportunity to arrive in the Land, knowing full well that this dream has already been denied him. And Moses yearns for his people to live up to their potential, creating a civilization that will be universally admired for its righteous laws. He imagines…
Blessed in Both Directions: Ki Tavo 5777
Sometimes translations can’t help but make a mess of the original. A prime example is Deuteronomy 28:6, which in Hebrew consists of six poetic words: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה בְּבֹאֶךָ וּבָרוּךְ אַתָּה בְּצֵאתֶךָ. JPS requires 15 words to render this in English, “Blessed shall you be in your comings, and blessed shall you be in your goings.”…
Parapets and Public Safety: Ki Tetze 5777
The National Society of Professional Engineers maintains a Code of Ethics which opens with the fundamental canon that engineers shall, “Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public.” Structures, tools and other features of the built environment may be designed with what is known as “operational morality,” meaning that care has been taken…
Doing Right and Good, Denouncing Evil: Re’eh 5777
There is no shortage of specific laws in the book of Deuteronomy—41 mitzvot are found in Parashat Re’eh alone. Yet this book also uses a more general instruction when it offers variants of the expression: “Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord” (6:18, 12:28, et al). This is the opposite…
Returning from Exile, Accompanied by the Divine: Nitzavim 5777
Chapter 30 of Deuteronomy returns to themes explored back in Chapter 4—alienation from God, exile, and then return. Exile as presented here is both physical and spiritual in nature. This passage reflects a period after the northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen, and the southern kingdom was imperiled (though Ramban voices the traditional view…
A New Meat to Eat? Re’eh 5776
All summer I have been thinking about meat. No, it is not just the smell of BBQ, but it has been my research project to investigate the status of cultured meat for the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. I have almost completed the first draft of this responsum, though it seems that each day…
Eyes on the Prized Land: Ekev 5776
Everyone wants our attention, and technology has made it both easier and more difficult to focus on what is truly important. Facebook keeps nudging me about the birthdays of people I haven’t spoken with in years, if ever, and there is no escape from the latest escapades of our politicians. Disasters cluster and clamor for…
Amalek Inside–Zakhor 5776
It is considered a mitzvah this Shabbat for every Jew to “remember what Amalek did to you,” to blot out the memory of Amalek, and not to forget. This mitzvah is easily fulfilled by listening to the maftir reading in synagogue on the Shabbat before Purim, but it is not at all easy to understand the…
Rabbi Danny Nevins 