The mitzvot of Shmittah and Yovel set out a complete program of social and religious life that encompasses respect for others, for the the land, and for God. Israel’s right to live in peace and prosperity in its own land is conditional on its building a model society, which provides a safety blanket for its weakest members. We aren’t just told to have compassion on those who are down on their luck; we are legally mandated to act toward them as we would toward our closest family.
Recent Posts
First Fruits of Spring: The April Jewish Book Carnival
What better time than Springtime to get out into nature with a good book? To get you started, here are some recommendations from around the Jewish blogosphere.
Returning has a publication date!
Returning will be published on 4 September of this year, which corresponds to the 24th of Elul. A Tuesday, neatly dividing the week between between Parashat Ki Tavo, which many see as prophesying the Shoah, and Parashat Nitzavim, which describes the Ingathering of Exiles. And no, it wasn’t planned that way; the timing was pure serendipity.
Jewish Thought
Weapons & Norms: an Israeli perspective on U.S. gun violence
We in Israel live in a country with wars raging on all sides, with failed states collapsing into a primordial stew of hatred and nihilism all around us, with suicidal regimes seeking nuclear weapons in order to carry out their expressed goals of obliterating us. We know about death and we know about weapons of war, but we don’t fetishize them. How is it that Americans are so willing to arm the enemy within for the sake of security?
The Law of the King: individual commandment or national constitution?
The Law of the King, in the Book of Deuteronomy sets out the rules for a constitutional monarchy for the nation of Israel. For over a thousand years, kings were judged by how well they followed its precepts. But in the writings of the later prophets, the Law of the King became a signpost to a political and economic revolution.
Truth, Compromise, and Meta-Halakhah
The Talmud manages to do what few legal systems even attempt: it integrates psychological and moral issues seamlessly with normative legal guidelines. But to appreciate the full extent of this integration, it’s important to pay attention to something that is too often left out of today’s Gemara classes: the aggadah.
Parashat HaShavua
Parashat Yitro: Covenant and Peoplehood
The receiving of the Torah marks the official incorporation of Am Yisrael—the final step in the transition from disparate individuals with a common kinship and history into a people, bound to each other by irrevocable decree. And yet, there is some question of whether the Covenant was a voluntary agreement.
Parashat VaYigash: history and transformation
In our parasha, we first hear Ya’akov’s sons referred to as “Bnei Yisrael”—the sons of Israel, rather than “Yoseph’s brothers”. While Yoseph’s brothers may make individual choices and mistakes and Ya’akov’s sons may decide for the family, it is Bnei Yisrael who represent the entire Jewish nation—past, present, and future. It is by that designation that they take their first step into what will soon become Egyptian slavery and subsequent nationhood. What brings about this first nominal hint of history in the making? To answer that, we need to go back two parshiot, to the incident of Tamar and Yehuda.
Parshat Miketz: The Fractal Nature of Destiny
While the story of Ya’akov was a story of deceit, the story of Yoseph is a story of tests—wheels within wheels, and intrigue within intrigue. It can be easy to miss the most subtle test of all—that of Yoseph himself. Yoseph is the prototype assimilated Jew—the Jew who rises to the top by dint of clear thinking and hard work, but who has to jettison his connections to his past to do so. Can he reclaim his identity before it is to late?
Book Reviews
Book Musings – The Body of Faith: God in the People Israel by Michael Wyschogrod
What does it mean when we say that human beings were created “in the image of God”. While some of the foremost Jewish philosophers, in particular the Rambam, saw Tselem Elohim as referring to the human capacity of reason, Michael Wyschogrod disagrees. His ideas tally in surprising ways with modern neuroscience.
Book Snippet: The Prophetic Faith
Among the books I’ll be using for the discussions in Havrutah with a One-Eyed Cat is Martin Buber’s The Prophetic Faith. Buber speaks of the relationship between prophecy and free choice. As he makes clear, individuals, civilizations, and species all hang by the thread of a decision by one person. And that one person is all of us.
Eliezer Berkovits on Halakhic truth in a world of uncertainty
As I make my way through the stack of books that will go into the writing of my next book, probably the one that I return to most is Eliezer Berkovits’ classic Not in Heaven. Rabbi Berkovits argues for the application of human reason in deciding Halakhah, but not for the reasons commonly believed!
Havruta with a One-Eyed Cat
Credit, Hope, and the Law of Conservation of Good
What does extending credit have to do with the evolution of sentient life? And what does either concept have to do with karma and conservation laws? The answer depends on whether your interlocutor is a cat.
Of Property Law & Mortality: Pixel on Bava Batra 29a
With a single line of commentary, a discussion in the Talmud about property law suddenly becomes a glimpse into time, eternity, and mortality. And what better discussion partner for such things than a cat?
Pessachim 10a and Quantum Uncertainty
Pessachim 10a deals with questions of doubt and the limitations of knowledge. Trust a one-eyed cat to explain how these questions are answered by quantum mechanics.
