“Rashi’s Judaism” is certainly warm and comforting. But it is also disappointing to people who accept modern science as a route to truth, who reject superstition, who believe that all human beings are actually created in the image of God. “Rashi’s Judaism” is challenging for people who accept the values of liberal democracy.
To raise a Tzadik, parents must themselves live by the values they wish to convey to their children. Otherwise, the children will quickly realize that the parents are not sincere, not truthful, not worthy of emulation. What’s true of parents and children is also true of rabbis, teachers, and everyone else who wishes to impact on others. Good role models help generate good followers. Bad role models generate negative results.
Devarim Rabba places Isaiah alongside Moses as the greatest of the prophets (2:4). Isaiah has a central standing among the prophets of Israel and it is noteworthy that the most common epithet for God that Isaiah uses is K’dosh Yisrael “The Holy One of Israel” (Is 1:4). According to Isaiah and most of the other classical prophets, holiness is articulated in terms of social justice and political ethics.
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God could have created Adam from precious metals, from stardust, or from pure spirit but chose rather to use dust of the ground. From dust we learn humility...but also self-respect.
This week’s Parasha is entitled “Hayyei Sarah,” the life of Sarah; yet it focuses on her death and burial. A Talmudic teaching has it that the righteous are called living even after they have died. Memorial plaques and gravestones testify to the lives of those who have passed away. But they also have the capacity to inspire the living, to evoke memories, to link the generations.
The unprecedented pogrom of November 9-10, 1938 in Germany has passed into history as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). Violent attacks on Jews and Judaism throughout the Reich and in the recently annexed Sudetenland began on November 8 and continued until November 11 in Hannover and the free city of Danzig, which had not then been incorporated into the Reich.
The first and the twentieth centuries were tumultuous times for Jews: the destruction of the Temple and the beginnings of exile on the one hand; the Holocaust and the foundation of the State of Israel on the other. The major common denominator is the rupture of a long status quo and the need to adapt to new circumstances.
With the Fall season underway, Rabbi Hayyim Angel returns to a robust schedule of Adult Education classes.
On Tuesday, September 16, from 8:00-9:00 pm Eastern Time, Rabbi Hayyim Angel will teach a Zoom class on Jeremiah chapter 31, the Haftarah for the Second Day of Rosh HaShanah. This class is sponsored by Ben Porat Yosef Yeshiva Day School of Paramus, New Jersey. It is free and open to the public.
Rabbi Hayyim Angel introduces a new column on the weekly Torah reading. He invites us not only to study sacred text but to listen to the many voices through which Torah has been understood across the generations. We will explore the parashah through paired perspectives: the classical teachings of our Sages and the medieval exegetes alongside literary and historical insights from modern scholarship.