philosophy

Shabbat Shalom and welcome to Judeo Talk. This week we return to the beginning of the Five Books of Moses, having read the concluding passages of the Tanakh in the past two weeks. Rather than continuing to pursue direct biblical exegesis every week on this blog, I feel that it would be appropriate to explore the importance of applying the lessons of Torah to our modern lives. So, every week I will be inviting you to think about how some element of Torah can manifest in your daily existence by analyzing the words, themes and history of particular passages, some from the parsha, some from the haftarah and some from other sources like the psalms or other supplementary texts. This week we will be looking at one of the larger meanings of the creation story as well as the haftarah from Isaiah that accompanies the first portion of the Tanakh.

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Shabbat Shalom and welcome to Judeo Talk. The Torah portion for this week is Parsha Ha'azinu, Deuteronomy 32:1-32:52.

This week, we read from the penultimate parsha in the Tanakh, the Five Books of Moses. Ha'azinu is a poem, the second to last poem he ever recited. It is, without a doubt, a piece meant to literally put the fear of God in his people. But we can't look at the verse of Ha'azinu as a stand-alone piece. Indeed, the last thing Moses ever does before he dies in next week's parsha is speak a blessing over the Israelites. Anyone who has spent a decent amount of time studying Torah should know that this order of events is significant. The fear is not the last word, but the blessing. Read more

Shabbat Shalom and welcome to Judeo Talk. The Torah portion for this week is Parsha Ki Tavo, Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8.

Ki Tavo is one of the most well-known parshiot in the rabbinic tradition and certainly one of the most oft-quoted. This is the parsha of Blessings and Curses, a great litany of the ills that will befall those who do wrong and the benefits following those who keep the mitzvot. I have personally heard those passages read and interpreted by several rabbis, yet I've never heard one reading that I feel captures the true essence of what this parsha is trying to say, or for that matter how it goes about saying it.

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Shabbat Shalom and welcome to Judeo Talk. The Torah portion for this week is Parsha Ki Teitzei, Deuteronomy 20:10-25:19.

There is a seemingly unassuming passage at the end of Ki Teitzei that forbids the use of "diverse weights", which is to say tools with which to cheat people in business. Whether in measuring grain, grapes or gold, everything must be honest and fair. That's what this entire parsha is really about. It is concerned with what the culture at that time viewed as justice and propriety.

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