History, Scripture, and the Challenge of Modernity

History, Scripture, and the Challenge of Modernity

The central question confronting Jewish intellectual life from the 18th century onward has been how to maintain authentic engagement with rabbinic tradition while responding creatively to the unprecedented challenges of modernity. This question has only intensified in the post-Holocaust era, where traditional theodicies have been shattered and new forms of theological thinking have become necessary. The present study examines three revolutionary Jewish thinkers—the Netziv (Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, 1816-1893), Reb Zadok HaKohen of Lublin (1823-1900), and the Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, 1707-1747)—who pioneered sophisticated approaches to this fundamental tension, creating frameworks that anticipated many contemporary theological concerns.

Erotic Discipline and Halakhik Mastery

Erotic Discipline and Halakhik Mastery

This article examines the tension between the am ha'aretz (unschooled layman) and the talmid chacham (Torah scholar) through the lens of contemporary scholarship on Jewish sexuality, gender dynamics, and the laws of niddah. Drawing on recent developments in the Orthodox community—particularly the emergence of female halakhic advisors (yoatzot halacha)—this analysis reconsiders traditional paradigms of access to knowledge and bodily discipline.

By situating the Talmudic discussions of sexual restraint within broader frameworks of power, knowledge, and embodiment as articulated by scholars like Daniel Boyarin and contemporary feminist Jewish thinkers, this article offers new perspectives on how the dialectic between the am ha'aretz and talmid chacham continues to shape contemporary Jewish sexual ethics and practice.

Darker and Darker

Darker and Darker

In this deep dive ditty I wanted to present the objective scholarship on the biblical text regarding the plague of darkness and the struggle with understanding the two expressions of the curse: “darkness and thick darkness” .

In these essays we will move from the simple meaning of the text, its context, midrashic embellishments, the kabbalistic notions of darkness and its relationship to the darkness before the creation of light and finally the Hassidic expressions of the darkness within the human soul.

Evil Without and Within

Evil Without and Within

In this series I attempted to present the notion evil from a philosophical viewpoint then comparing and contrasting the positions of orthodox theology vs mystical theology in the works of the hassidic masters and the central pivot-that of the notion of Tzmitzum or divine contraction.

The articles below provide the range from rational theodicy to mystical and heretical viewpoints for the origin of evil.

From the Vilna gaon and Rabbi Chayim Mi’Volozhin to the Alter rebbe of Chabad and rebbe Nachman we traverse the entire spectrum of the divine, the personal divine and the problem of evil.

Higher Power vs My Higher Power

Higher Power vs My Higher Power

A companion source of prooftexts for the four part series below.

Two Nations-Two Realities

Two Nations-Two Realities

In struggling with her pregnancy Rivkah believes her fetus is pulled in opposite directions, until she seeks the divine and is told if fact there twins and that they will become two nations.

I have always felt (Reb Shlomo implied the same) that until we fix this unfinished business with the descendants of Esau (Rome/Christianity) the geulah will not arrive.

What does that mean? Especially in a Post Holocaust world where post modernism has called into question the very theological underpinnings of the enlightenment, exposing its theological Christian unacknowledged categories.

I have also felt that Christianity has stolen the very secret of kabbalah (the incarnation of the holy spirit in man) which was then refused for a millennium of Jewish self-definition.

The collection below sets the frame of reference.

Fratricide, Murder, Guilt, and Reprieve

Fratricide, Murder, Guilt, and Reprieve

In the texts and commentaries of the first murder as well as the stories of Lemech’s boasting of his kills, the midrash weaves a deep connection of a sense of justice and punishment.

We will review the commentaries and midrashim as well as other tradition’s view (Patristic) of how the great great grandson inadvertently kills Cain. We will then review psychodynamic theories of Eden fratricide and guilt to harmonize the spiritual and psychodynamic aspects of the biblical myths.

Murder, genocide, and ongoing man’s inhumanity to man is especially pertinent to the current crisis in the holy land, and the connection of the genocide with the Holocaust.

Particularly ironic is Lemech’s wives appeal to Adam with their refusal to have relations with him after killing Cain, and then throw his argument against his own celibacy.

The Beloved and the Hated One

The Beloved and the Hated One

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

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

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

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

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

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.