Hebrew Bible

Tanakh — read closely, read against the grain, read for now.

Two Roads of Love

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“Love the Lord your God with your entire mind, personality, and capability” is no small thing, yet crucially, the road of this love is meant to be easy.

We are to be lenient and accommodating in matters dealing with God.

God gets nothing from our arduous effort, and if our arduous effort is directed towards the instrument and not the outcome, then we get nothing from it.

“Love your fellow as yourself” is no big thing, yet in truth, the road of this love is meant to challenge us for life.

We are to be strict and demanding in matters dealing with other people.

Every human being is a living ikon of the Divine, in actuality or in potentia – God has no image made of wood, stone, or metal, but one of flesh, blood, and mind. In our holy treatment of other people – in taking an elevated approach to other people – we discover, honor, and further reveal that image, in them and – crucially – in ourselves.

At home, at work, in the street, on the bus.

In Jerusalem, London, Tehran, Beirut, or Bethlehem.

It’s not easy.

It’s not supposed to be.

It’s where the real growth is.

—

In truth, the first road is reached via the second. Try relating to a stranger – or someone who annoys you – as a living ikon of the infinite Creator of the entire kosmos, and see what it does for your love of God.

A Mother’s Milk

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A thought on Kashruth:

“FWIW the judges on the national court extended the basic concept of not cooking a goat in its mother’s milk, which inverts the view of the surrounding culture on what is valuable and effective, to include any (kasher) animal and any (kasher) animal’s milk. What started in a specific historically-conditioned situation, become a more universal expression of the idea that a mother’s milk should be used for life, not death, and especially not death for personal benefit. The historical evolution of the law reflects the evolving sensibilities of those who observe the law.

Of course, that was all back when we had a national court. Without one today, we’re stuck with a law that hasn’t been updated in almost 2000 years. Just liberally interpreted and patched here and there.”

Kosher Rules of Thumb

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Biblical rules for living a kosher life:
– Eat obligate herbivores
– Shun predators, scavengers, and bottom feeders
– Make death painless
– Respect that which gives life

🐄🐑🐐🐓🐟

Go to Yourself

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Go to yourself
From what you were
Told you are
From your father’s
Hopes and dreams
From the limits
Of those around you
To the land that
I will show you
Within your soul
Beyond the horizon
Of your waking world
To the sacred soil
Of your questing heart
Searching for me
Before I called

Go for yourself
Go for your freedom, your beloved, your truth
Cross over the abyss
Between what is and what will be
Cross over the river
Flowing from Hermon
To the land of the rain
Justice sown
Salvation bloomed
Go for your blessing
Of the children of the earth

Get yourself
Abraham
To the land
I promise
You will become
Who you truly are

Zion in the Sources

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Zion is mentioned 196 times in Isaiah. 64 times in Jeremiah. 130 times in the Twelve Prophets. 152 times in Tehillim.

441 times in the Talmuds (374 in the Zohar!)

98 times in the Ashkenazi liturgy. 228 times in the Mizrahi liturgy.

Over 1400 times in the most popular collections of responsa literature.

But yes, the specific term Zionism was coined in 1890 at a time when industrialization and the organization of European nation-states made it possible to realize the age-old dream on a mass scale.

How Many New Years

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Whew. Said the prayers. Blew the shophar. Ate the honey. Let my wife rest through the night.

I showed up, I did my part, I stood with every single being in creation and crowned my King.

Despite everything, Rosh Hashana was, thank God, a success in my little corner of the cosmos.

Barukh Hashem.

Mammash.

But.

As we started the month of Tishri, I opened up Isaiah for the next review. And I returned to the following verses:

“Your new moons and fixed seasons fill Me with loathing; they are become a burden to Me, I cannot endure them.

And when you lift up your hands, I will turn My eyes away from you; though you pray at length, I will not listen. Your hands are stained with crime—

Wash yourselves clean; put your evil doings away from My sight. Cease to do evil;

Learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow.”

These verses made me think.

I thought of the attacks on farmers and shepherds in Yehuda and Shomeron.

I thought of the devastation in Gaza, excessive beyond the needs of self-defense and exploited for corrupt profit.

I thought of the hostages abandoned to Hamas, their families libeled as traitors for demanding accountability.

I thought of the widows and orphans of fallen soldiers and murdered civilians, sacrificed by career politicians clinging to power.

I thought of our society, built on holy ideals and ancient dreams, but that has become tolerant of too much violence against the vulnerable and too much injustice against the innocent.

How many new years will we celebrate while glibly justifying the ultimately unjustifiable?

How can we crown our King when we can not recognize his image and likeness?

What good are my prayers when both the Temple and Gaza lie in ruins?

Beloved, let us return to the covenant of our ancestors and the ways of our King.

We may have gone astray but all is far from lost.

There is still time for us to reconsider our path going forward.

This is the time.

“Come, let us reach an understanding, —says GOD. Be your sins like crimson, they can turn snow-white; be they red as dyed wool, they can become like fleece.”

Egotistical Autocrats

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If there’s anything we learn from the megilla of Esther it’s that egotistical autocrats make poor leaders/allies but good instruments of divine providence.

Stay Frosty Friends 😎

Liberation as Historical Fact

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Most blessings conclude in a participle – describing the Creator as the One who does things.

The subsequent blessing after the Shema concludes with a perfect verb – describing the Creator as the One who liberated Yisrael.

This unique praise of God expresses a fact of history: some 3700 years ago, the Creator intervened in human affairs, and both physically liberated an oppressed nation from within the world’s most powerful empire and spiritually (psycho-socially) liberated them from an oppressive worldview and culture by giving them a new, just Law.

In this blessing, we testify it is true: thus is our history and thus is the Shaper of our history.

It is not a matter of personal aspiration but one of historical inspiration.

Our ancestors were, in fact, liberated and they did, in fact, pass on that liberty to us.

And what will we do with that liberty?

First we kneel in wonder.

Then we stand in the presence of the king, who liberated us.

The Birthright

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The birthright
The voice
The hands
The blessing
The escape
The love
The trick
The work
The feud
The sale
The famine
The slavery
The cries
The memory
The bush
The blood
The frogs
The lice
The swarms
The pestilence
The boils
The hail
The locusts
The darkness
The death
The sea
The passage
The song
The complaint
The food
The rest
The count
The days
The weeks
The purity
The thunder
The lightning
The blast
The fire
The mountain
The revelation
The law
The grace
The covenant

The Land Is Not Ours

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The return to the land of our ancestors.

So much of human history is bound up in disputes over land.

Your land, my land, his land, (rarely) her land.

The territorial imperative indeed runs deep in mammals, especially primates; sometimes we seem no better than gangs of monkeys fighting each other over dwindling patches of forest.

So much of human inequality is bound up in ownership of land.

My land, not yours, doesn’t matter if you need its shelter, water, food – I paid the royal estate for it, so its shelter, water, food, lumber, minerals, oil are mine… You’ll pay me to use them, and I’ll use that money to always have the advantage.

And no small part of human suffering is bound up in exploitation of land.

It’s my land, I’ll do to it what I wilt – control the shelter, poison the water, leach the soil, cut down the trees, pollute the ground and air. Those who did not pay the royal estate be damned. Those who need shelter, water, food, and air be damned. Those who depend on the socio-economic sectors I’ve monopolized through the exclusive exploitation of my land be damned.

It’s my land.

I didn’t create it or design it or raise the hills or flatten the plains or fill the rivers or plant the forests.

But it’s my land.

I can’t pick it up, stuff it in the back of my truck, and drive off with it.

But it’s my land.

I control access to it only by dint of claim, paper, and force of arms.

But it’s my land.

(You’re beginning to see how this works?)

Then along comes the Creator of the land, and says,

“It’s MY land. Forever. You are strangers here.”

And,

“If you want to live on this land – you must follow my rules.”

And,

“Build me a sanctuary, a holy city, a just society, that I may dwell within you.”

Meaning: The land is not ours.

Meaning: The land comes with a promise.

Meaning: The land has a meaning and a purpose.

We take the land for granted, we ignore our covenant, we deny its purpose – we’re out.

Our ancestors sinned and are no more.

But if we treasure and share the land, stay loyal and true to our promise to our Creator and to each other, and build a just, peaceful, and holy society on the land, together in harmony – we can stay.

The return to the land of our ancestors is a return to a right relationship; with our Creator, with each other – with the land.

May we indeed merit to return.