In this review we traverse the terrain of hermeneutics from the literal and linguistic background of Deut 21:14 through the literary and midrashic interpretations onto the metaphor of the hated wife for Israel and finally the mystical interpretation through the eyes of the Alter Rebbe comparing to the Degel Machaneh Ephraim.
King in the Field Parable
We present the original Parable of the King in the Field in Parsha Re'eh of Likutei Sichos of the Alter Rebbe and then the detailed analysis of the short mashal by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The implication of the mashal softens the awe of the Yamim Noraim by claiming accessibility without the trappings and prerequisites demanded on Rosh Hashanah are available as a gift during Elul.
Elul 2024
As we enter ELUL 2024, our hearts heavy and broken due to the crisis in Gaza the words that for the acronym for the month are especially poignant. We enclose below a survey of the literary midrashic and kabbalistic metaphors that make use of the love imagery in the Song of Songs as well as our relationship with the divine.
Sources: Song of Songs 6:3
Spinoza and The Tzimtzum
In this essay I present opinions regarding Spinoza’s concept of pantheism as well as the implication for petitionary prayer.
Is there a connection between acosmism of Habad theology and his idea of pantheism?
The writers below span the spectrum of scholarship form secular to hassidic.
Silence as a Spiritual Roadmap
Silence as a Spiritual Road Map
Following our meditation on the Kol that never ceases we explore the opposite, the silence, the emptiness of the Chalal HaPanui (the vacated space) and the paradoxical finding of the divine"
Further Thoughts on "Answer to Job"
Further Thoughts on "Answer to Job"
As we face the world from Job's vantage we yet again question and struggle with theodicy. This essay is a supplement to Bava Basra 16.
Inner Revelation: ק֥וֹל גָּד֖וֹל וְלֹ֣א יָסָ֑ף
Inner Revelation: ק֥וֹל גָּד֖וֹל וְלֹ֣א יָסָ֑ף
Exploring the text " ולא יסף " חומש דברים פרק ה' פסוק יט' opens up a world of ambivalence as to the very nature of the "voice from Sinai" as a unique event in history or an ongoing voice of revelation that keeps unfolding.
Sources: Deuteronomy 5:19
The World as a Sacred Text or Illusion?
The World as a Sacred Text or Illusion?
In his dramatic claim Reb Zadok HaCohen, below, heard from the Ishbitzer Reb Mordechai Leiner, “That God created a book, and that is the world, and the commentary (on the book), and that is that Torah.”
We will review this claim as well as the notion that the world is sacred secular or both. Does God dwell in the world or beyond the world and how might that affect our experience fo the divine, in plentitude or absence.
Osios Meshunos/Oddities
Deep Dive Ditty: Osios Meshunos/Oddities
Among the clutter of vowel points and cantillation marks that accompany the Hebrew text in printed editions of the Five Books of Moses are a number of places in which strange dots appear above certain words and letters.
They are strange because, unlike the vowel points and cantillation marks, they have no effect on the way anything is pronounced, read, or chanted; remove them, and it wouldn’t make any difference.
And, again unlike the vowel points and cantillation marks, which originated in early medieval times, these dots appear in the hand-copied Torah scrolls that are read from in the synagogue, whose text goes back to antiquity.
My review below explores their history and the way these dots were interpreted once having been canonized in the orthographic tradition of the masoretic text.
מחלקת שהיא לשם שמים
מחלקת שהיא לשם שמים
We explore the famous midrashic description of the machlokes between Korach and Moshe Rabeinu comparing (in Mishnah Avot) with that of Hillel and Shammai.
Along the way the Gra’s comment on that mishnah references the Wars of the Lord poem in Num 21:14 which leads us down a different path.
We then return to chassidic dimensions of machlokes as an inner spiritual journey that somehow mediates between mankind and the Divine and how that applies to our own inner battles.
Ayin Hara
The “evil eye,” ayin harah, is the harmful negative energy that is created when one looks at something with envy or ill feeling.
The idea of an ayin hara is found in many places in the Talmud and Jewish law. For example, we are told not to gaze at a fellow's field of standing grain, lest we damage it with an evil eye, and the custom is not to call two brothers (or father and son) up to the Torah consecutively because of the ayin hara that may come from drawing too much attention to a single family. The evil eye is also the reason why we don’t “count” people.
We deep dive into the history of this notion, whether superstition, cross cultural phenomenon or psychological projection.
Eldad and Medad: What Did They Prophesy?
Eldad and Medad: What Did They Prophesy?
This most enigmatic pericope leaves open more questions than it answers. Who were these two prophets and what was their prophecy. Commentators seem unable to answer these two basic questions. In the following meditation I suggest a contextual solution that provides a spiritual roadmap to those (like them) with a questionable genetic (yichus) or ethical past.
By situating the story close to the parsha of the “inverted nuns”1 I believe the message might well provide support to the splitting between the murmurings.
Inverted Nun's: The Space Between Calamities
Inverted Nun's: The Space Between Calamities
If the Aron was the repository of both the new luchos and the broken luchos, the shards then what is being offered is the shattered souls and lives as well as the hope for a wholesome future.
It was precisely these verses that speak of the travelling Aron that were placed between the calamities to split them, as if to intentionally share with us the deepest Torah, that our avodah MUST include the calamities the shattered broken souls we were as well as what we must endure in the future as part of our service.
The presence of these verses is a comfort that the Aron, the Schechinah is with us in troubled times as much as good times, and we offer both the good the bd and the ugly on the altar of service.
The interjection of these verses out of place is just the opposite and fits with our sense of being out of place in this world and in these times.
Eldad and Medad whose geneology was suspect and who were too shamed to show up in the Sandedrin lottery continue to prophesy and according to the midrash chaseros ve yeseidos their prophesy was precisely the healing presence of the Aron for future generations to realize all is never lost, that the calamities besetting our people and ourselves individually are narratives surrounding the center location of the Ark of the covenant the Aron Bris that centers the hope and longing, the healing within the pain.