Episodes
Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
The Book of Numbers is about the failure of "community" in the wilderness. After all the community building of the Exodus, of Mount Sinai, of familial and tribal ties, of building the Mishkan, of the inspiring blueprint for a new society in a land of milk and honey, of Moshe's leadership, of being in God's physical presence, of communal ritual feasting and celebration... none of it has worked, which, when you think about it, is absolutely amazing! In this dvar Torah, I give my answer as to why by looking at the common issue of the Miriam/Cushite incident, the 12 Spies catastrophe, and the Korach rebellion. The word "religion" is based on the word "religio" -- bonds. What is the bond that holds people together in community? It's not belief, it's a certain kind of emunah, a kind of faith that normally is translated as "trust." Trust is built through face to face communication, not shared experiences or shared beliefs. The lack of it is breaking apart society today, and we may not be able to turn back the clock. It's what's missing in the kind of "friendship" a new generation is experiencing. The Industrial Age is passing to the "No Face to Face Communication Age."
Wednesday Jun 24, 2020
Wednesday Jun 24, 2020
Psalm 23 is usually read as about a dead person getting to go through the valley of death and then live in God's house, but I read it, like the Mourner's Kaddish, as about a living person who goes through the experience of having a loved one die and transforms one's life from being in the depths to rising up to a life of living in this life in God's house, at the table in front of one's foes. I demonstrate this with two poems by Langston Hughes on how he, and all of us, will be part of a movement to change America so he sits at the table in God's house in front of those who would not let him sit there before. It's the positivity bias of Caleb and Joshua, of seeing a future that one makes happen. The key to it all is that faith in God, and faith in oneself in bringing about God's purposes, are practically indistinguishable according to Torah. You bring about living in God's house. We all need to do that with America.
Monday Jun 15, 2020
Monday Jun 15, 2020
The first verse of Numbers chapter 12 famously has Miriam "speaking against Moses on account of the Cushite woman he married." Though I most often hear people say that this means that Miriam was a racist who is complaining that Moses married a foreign black woman (either Tsipporah or a second wife), that is NOT the traditional understanding of the Rabbis. it's the opposite: Miriam is standing up on behalf of her black sister-in-law. Still, the commentaries are frustrating. I rehearse Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, and the Bekhor Shor medieval interpretations as they could be read as full of enlightenment for us now, or as cringe-worthy -- just as Miriam's statement in the first place. And it's in that fact that we derive our lesson.