Episodes
Tuesday Jan 28, 2020
Tuesday Jan 28, 2020
Judaism has long been in a theological crisis. Under the shadow of classical Christian supernaturalism and American evangelicalism, most Jews tell me they don't believe in God because they believe in scientific explanations of Biblical narrative instead. In this sermon, I take this on directly, arguing that the Torah juxtaposes the revelation of God's name as God's essence (in Exodus chapter 6) and the 10 plagues to make a theological point that most of us would agree with: God's essence is the interconnectedness of everything natural and human. The "scientific" explanation of the plagues (which I draw from a 2019 Time Magazine article by Olivia Waxman) is the demonstration of God's essence as the interconnectedness of all natural and human systems, and the massive chain reactions that occur when we throw them out of balance. (In Kabbalah, Moses's revelation was of God's essence as Tiferet, ultimate balance.) The hardening of hearts --not atheism-- is actually the very definition of avoiding connection to God because our normal mindset is to only see one effect from one cause, rather than radical disruption of systems. (For example, we might see one toxic spill leading to one or two bad effects, rather than leading us to see the chain reaction to the endocrine system disruption of millions of people, which itself leads by chain reaction to massive upheaval in our natural-human systems. The reaction, like the plagues, goes on and on, but we are resistant to see it. Our hearts are hard because we don't want to follow the chain of effects beyond one or two.) Please note that I extensively use the articulation of this from a short essay by Bill Shackman from the Conservative Yeshiva's Torah Sparks.
Sunday Jan 19, 2020
The Failing Language of Masculinity, For Moses and For Today
Sunday Jan 19, 2020
Sunday Jan 19, 2020
Moses, having been raised by a team of women, "goes out" to experience the world of men when he becomes a teenager. He experiences fighting and injustice, and when he looks "to and fro" to see if any man is going to do anything about it, sees that no "man" is willing to step up. So he steps up himself. He then sees two Hebrew men fighting, one the aggressor and the other the victim, and he tries to engage them in conversation to stop the behavior. But like a male locker room, rather than talk at all, they (even the victim!) threaten him. The world of men does not allow for a conversation about abuse, dehumanization, and changed behavior. So he must flee to Midian, where he then "rises up" in action to stop a group of young men from harrassing young women. Though clearly 1) Moses knows what justice is, and 2) Moses is not afraid of action, just a few verses later 3) Moses says he is incapable of articulating either in words. (This might indicate what the revelation of Sinai will be, by the way.) This is remarkably similar to the recent book of Peggy Orenstein, who argues that young men today 1) know how they should be treating the world of women, 2) know what actions are the right ones, but 3) lack any language for explaining it all, for explaining what it means to be in the world of men (especially in any positive sense), and why they won't "rise up" in their lockerrooms or social groups to stop other boys from spreading offensive pornographic memes, sharing misogynist jokes, or encouraging conquests of women. Such young men would have to risk their social capital, and even when willing to, don't have the language to persuade against the self-images of masculinity. Like the Hebrew men threatening Moses for even beginning a conversation about their wrong, abusive behavior, Moses goes out to the world of men, sees the problems (including the treatment of women), but then tells God he would never be able to articulate true masculinity or the need for changed behavior in the world of men.
Thursday Jan 09, 2020
The Selfie and Your Halakhic Display
Thursday Jan 09, 2020
Thursday Jan 09, 2020
The Rabbis argue whether the first part of the Joseph saga displays Joseph's arrogance or whether he has no such intent. I relate this to the act of taking a selfie, or posting successes and photos on social media... so similar to the Rabbis' concern that Joseph puts too much attention into his personal appearance and promise. I then conduct an obscure halakhic exercise: how do the legal codes understand "the right way to have an aliyah to the Torah?" The Halakhic concern is that while a person who closes the scroll during their blessing might just be following the custom they learned growing up --since the majority of halakhic opinions is to leave the scroll open-- it sure looks like yoharah, a public display of one's higher personal piety. Are we conscious of what we are doing with our customs, with our social media posts... are we at risk, as the Rabbis worry, of thinking we are "just posting" how we do things (which is really an act of NOT thinking), when we may be harboring the ambiguous, semi-conscious preciousness of the selfie?
Friday Jan 03, 2020
Friday Jan 03, 2020
Using Shai Held's excellent article on the Rabbinic interpretation of the Tower of Babel as the builders having a mindless unanimity of thought, I ask us to consider the kind of Social Media Activism that Barack Obama recently criticized as the phenomenon the Rabbis were exactly worried about.