I recently read Roz Chast’s memoir about the senescence and death of her parents entitled, “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?” The title refers to her parents’ strident refusal, even in their mid-90s, to discuss their failing bodies and to prepare for the inevitable. The book is a brutally honest memoir by their daughter…
Category: 5 Deuteronomy דברים
Exile from the Land, and from the Earth: Nitzavim/Vayelekh 5774
Yearning to enter and inhabit the land is the great desire that suffuses Deuteronomy; fear of exile is the dark counterpart that lurks insistently by its side. Midrash Sifre (Ekev, piska 43) says that, “exile is equal to all other afflictions.” Indeed, the experience of exile has been the all-too-real nightmare of Israel, though paradoxically,…
Ki Tavo 5774: A Mezuzah for all the World to See
Chapter 27 of Deuteronomy describes various rituals to mark the future entrance of Israel into the promised land, including the plastering of stones and inscription of “these words of Torah” upon them. I imagine these stones as a type of national mezuzah marking the entrance to the land. Still, much about this mitzvah is unclear….
A Safe Home for Escaped Slaves and Refugees: Ki Tetze 5774
In a summer dominated by the battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and also between Russian-backed separatists and the government in Eastern Ukraine, the violent expansion of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, and by racial unrest here in America, one dramatic story that received less attention in…
Doubled Prophecy, Double Significance: Shoftim 5774
Word repetition is one of the most common tools used in Biblical texts to add emphasis to a point, but it also provides interpreters with the opportunity to add layers of meaning to the text. This makes the process of reading Torah interactive and the experience of revealing new facets of meaning available to any…
Reimagining God: Ekev 5774
On the surface, Parashat Ekev is about what kind of people God expects that Israel will become. We read that Israel’s God “demands” many things—reverence, love, obedience and devotion. Israel is warned of the afflictions of affluence—ingratitude and materialism, and is reminded of the many benefactions that God has bestowed upon them since the days…
Abstract Love? Nitzavim/Va-Yelekh 5773
Is it possible to love an abstraction? To love the idea of someone or something? I don’t think so. An abstract idea may be compelling or attractive, but a powerful emotion such as love requires both immediacy and reciprocity. Each of those conditions can be qualified; you can love someone who is not currently close…
Rabbi Danny Nevins 