Category Archives: Torah
How Deep? How High?
How much do I love you? I’ll tell you no lie. How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? Irving Berlin wrote the song, How Deep Is the Ocean? in 1932. It consists mainly of rhetorical questions that point … Continue reading
Forgetting Reminds Me…
The national election created in me a deep sense that I wanted to meet and speak with more of my neighbors. In my busy-ness, it’s easy to walk past the community of the every-day. That seems wrong to me now. … Continue reading
Posted in Names, Parshat HaShavuah, Torah
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The Binding Of God
To my mind’s eye, Rabbi Berechiah appeared stoop-shouldered and mournful on Rosh Hashanah as he listened to the Torah reader recite Genesis 22, The Binding of Isaac. Berechiah, a 4th century sage of the land of Israel, was pained by … Continue reading
The Deepening And Expanding Torah
After Mount Sinai, the Mishnah says, height was no longer the measure of Torah; depth and breadth became Torah’s new and useful dimensions: Moses received Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua who transmitted it to the elders; from … Continue reading
Posted in Mishnah, Poetry, Torah
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Where The House Once Was
It’s hard to imagine Torah scholars having such a furious argument that they ripped a Torah scroll. But… It happened, did it not, in the synagogue of Tiberias over the issue of a doorstop that had a knob on the … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Talmud, Torah
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More Moment Than Mountain
Ancient legends say that great mountains contended to be the site where God would reveal the Torah. But God did not have loftiness in mind: Mount Tabor and Mount Carmel presented themselves with pride as wide as the world saying: … Continue reading
Between the Mountain and the Moment
The last words of the Ten Commandments resound from Sinai and the narrative of revelation continues: All the people saw the thunder and the lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, … Continue reading
Posted in Holidays, Midrash, Poetry, Torah
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Sufficient Meaning?
The Torah’s written words are not sufficient. It is the reading of the word and not the word alone that produces meaning. Meaning appears when timely experiences enter into conversation with the timeless text. Rashi, the great commentator, gives an … Continue reading
Posted in Midrash, Parshat HaShavuah, Poetry, Torah
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Abraham, the Son: The Image Maker and Image Breaker
There is an ancient story about Abraham smashing all the idols in his father’s shop to prove that the idols were only statues, not gods. As a child, I always thought that this story was in the Torah, so often … Continue reading
Posted in Parshat HaShavuah, Poetry, Torah
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Sicha - Continuing the Conversation 