Judaism for the Thinking Person

Adam's, not Eve's, Fault: The False Golden Age of Women Knowing Their Place

In a time when so many of us are under pressure --  working night and day, taking care of the generation under us and the generation above us, watching our debts rise and the prospects of our children fade-- of course the solutions offered by those eager to capitalize on our anxiety is to call for a return to some Golden Age where those ones supposedly to blame for our problems because they didn't keep to their station are fenced out, and we are once again on top. The problem with this is that often those Golden Ages never existed:  they are a fabrication about the past by those who want power.  One such Golden Age that is offered up as "Traditional Judaism" is the one where women stayed in the home, having babies, and didn't seek to compete for control of the public realm with men, one where they leave Torah study to others.  When I was speaking about this recently, one congregant said, "Look, Rabbi, I support egalitarianism, that's why I'm a Conservative Jew, but I also am deeply respectful of the Orthodox who are preserving Judaism the way it was."  Only problem?  The limitations on women are not the Judaism that was, but come from a modern reactionism that is recent.  In the Shulkhan Arukh Code of Jewish Law (early 1500's), women read from the Torah.  In the Talmud, women prayed our liturgy, and were not limited as they are in Ultra-Orthodoxy today to reading just Psalms.  The earliest evidence for a separation mechitzah between men and women is found in the post-Talmudic medieval period in Muslim countries, adopting it from Islam.  ["Traditional Judaism" should be understood as Biblical and Rabbinic Judaism, covering roughly 1200 BCE-1500 CE, not later emendations.] This "Golden Age" where "men and women knew their traditional Jewish roles" is a dangerous fiction, and dates mostly to the late Medieval period, and especially the 1800's, when laws and customs were ADDED [in violation of the Torah's rule that one may not add laws] in order to create these gender roles in a tradition that had been a champion of women's equality.  In my sermon on Parashat Bereishit (Genesis), I compare the situation to the original blaming of women [especially in early Christian commentaries] for the world's problems --Eve being the weak link the Serpent tricks, and then she gives Adam to eat-- and instead locate the "sin" in Adam's adding an illegal fence around the tree to prevent her from touching it, a rule God never gave but meant, apparently, for her own good.  The coincidence this week was divine:  a photograph of our Simchat Torah celebration, with a woman carrying the Torah scroll, was met with a comment from an Orthodox woman that "the rabbi of your congregation should know that a woman is forbidden from touching a Torah scroll!"   Really?  That's news to our legal codes:

"All who are impure, even women who are menstruating, and even a non-Jew, may hold a Torah scroll and read from it, for words of Torah are not susceptible to impurity, provided that the holder's hands are not physically soiled or dirty.  [If they are, then] they must wash their hands and then they may touch it."  Laws of Torah Scrolls, 10:8, R. Moses Maimonides (c. 1180)

Do One Thing Different: Why We Immediately Build a Sukkah following High Holidays

It's hard as a Jew not to be surprised, yet again, that we are building a sukkah mere hours following the intense period of introspection, prayer, self-examination, repair of relationships, internal inventories, repentance, forgiveness, and new year's resolutions that run from the beginning of the month of Elul all the way through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  Yes, we do it every year, but it still comes a shock.  With Yom Kippur barely over, we are engaged in the building of a sukkah.  Why?  Does it serve some deep spiritual purpose?  In this 8 minute teaching, I use Bill O'Hanlon's famous book, "Do One Thing Different: Ten Simple Ways to Change Your Life" to elucidate this deep spiritual purpose, the purpose of making it possible to actually fulfill the vows and resolutions made during the High Holidays, even when that path seems hard to get on directly.  Often the indirect change approach is the most effective.

The Same Old Story of a Demagogue's Insecurity in Exodus Chapter One

Don't blink or you'll miss it:  two simple verses that help begin the Book of Exodus tell a story as ancient as our people and as recent as the nightly news tonight.  What do Trump and Putin have in common with the "new king" who "arose over Egypt"?  The wheels of history turn but the song remains the same.  From Torah Study on October 16th.

3-Minute Teaching on How to Focus for High Holidays

I tease out a teaching that Harold Kushner does using Erikson to focus us on how to use Tefilliah (introspective prayer) to guide us forward onto a path with God (teshuvah) rather than get hung up on the wrong thoughts.  Then Sharna sings a gorgeous "Adon Selichot."

Feeling it All as The Sheep and the Flock: Entering the High Holidays moment of individual judgment within a religion of collective judgment

The ten days of awe, of Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, characterize a special annual spirituality of healing relationships in one's life [making amends "between human beings"] culminating in a 25 hour introspective period  [making amends "between the individual and God"] of intense prayer on Yom Kippur whereby we face God collectively as a flock and individually as a soul.  What's the difference between this and all prayer?  If we are a religion of collective judgment --whether as a People or as a Species-- as our Prophets stress, how do we relate to L'Eil Orech Din, the great prayer that says this is our annual moment of being singled out, each sheep from among the flock, for individual inspection by God?  How does the ego trick us into avoiding the point of that individual moment of confession so that we cling to "I did the best I could, the rest is others' issues"? Through Teshuvah (getting back to the path ahead on which I walk with God), Tsedakah (acts of righteousness), and Tefillah (intense prayer/introspection) we re-energize ourselves, alter our consciousness, and "avert the severity of the divine decree that we are always unpredictably mortal." (L'eil  Orech Din)

What is Biblical Prophecy Really? Could Moses have been hanging with aliens or hallucinating? What does Carl Sagan have to do with it?

In this extended class, I discuss the origins of Biblical prophesy, historically and contextually, and we ask ourselves about the very nature of Revelation.  Was it dictation from the sky?  Was it ancient aliens?  Was it hallucination?  Why were light beams shooting out of Moses' head?  And I also mention the relevance of the Carl Sagan book (and best movie about religion of all time) "Contact."  To quote Matthew Mcconaughey in that movie, "Hey hey hey... it was God!"

Prophecy Replaced by Legalism? Halakhah and the Tao

While Judaism may not have much doctrine, one statement that operates doctrinally is the Rabbinic statement that prophecy ended after the Biblical prophets.  Since then, we have the Jewish legal system producing "halakhah" (laws) to guide us instead of revelation producing halakhah.  Legalism replacing inspired revelation?  How is that supposed to work?  I discuss the notion of halakhah and the important principle of halakhic pluralism. 

What is the Jewish view of Original Sin and the Fall of Man?

Do Jews believe that Adam (and Eve's) "sin" in the Garden of Eden constitutes "Original Sin" and their punishment the "Fall of Man?"  In this 45 minute presentation, I cover some vital Jewish concepts.  First, I clarify one of the great confusions that results in "lost in English translation" in all of Bible studies.  This confusion is that the Hebrew word "cheit," translated into English as "sin" in English translations of the Torah, is NOT the same concept as the word "sin" that appears in Paul's writings (particularly the Epistle to the Romans) in the Christian New Testament, where his concept of sin comes from the Hebrew phrase "yetser ha-ra."  To put the matter bluntly, Paul was arguing that our evil inclination defines us as humans, and only an act of God's saving grace (though a rebirth in Christ) could change our fallen state.  For Jews, however, "sin" is something other than a state of our humanity or even human will, and reading Torah texts through Paul's eyes produces massive error, apples and oranges.  On the other hand, Judaism does have a lot to say about "yetser ha-ra," our selfish will, namely that while it drives us in many ways, it can easily be balanced by selfless instincts when channeled into mitzvot, or holiness, where it provides the PASSION in its moderation and channeling in marriage, in business, in education, and in merriment. 

Spiritual Prep during Elul: What are the "Vows" absolved on "Kol Nidrei (All Vows)?"

The entire month of Elul is a time of daily preparation for Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.  In this brief podcast, we look at how we can begin spiritual preparation for Yom Kippur, which begins with "Kol Nidrei," which means "All Vows" -- vows that are absolved by the Heavenly Court.  What are these vows?  Is it something ancient?  What does this have to do with my spirituality?  Actually, this ancient idea, which was a core of Torah and Temple spirituality, is EXTREMELY relevant to how all human beings operate spiritually, and our awareness of what we do already helps us focus on how to raise ourselves spiritually so we can arrive fully prepared for the Heavenly Court. 

Are the Torah stories history, revelation, invented fantasy, morality tales, or something else?