A Quick Torah Thought

It feels like eons ago - now that we just had our 3rd child (who just woke us up at 4:15 AM, and now as I'm sitting to write something, our oldest, aged 7, has just woken up at 5:20) - but I remember a very nice idea I heard from Richard Joel, the former President of YU at a leadership conference when I was in college.  "Moshe looked to and fro, saw there was no man , and smote the Egyptian." Joel shared a fascinating insight. Moshe looked inwards, saw that he was not yet a man - one who was willing to take leadership and responsibility - and then, realizing that he had to become a man, smote the Egyptian.  I asked him a few years thereafter how he had come to that understanding, and he told me that the verses themselves state that when the two Jews were fighting, and he had said to the wicked one, "Why shall you hit your fellow Jew?" the response in kind was, "Are you going to smite me like you smote the Egyptian?" connoting that in fact there was a w...

 I think that Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski Z"L makes a grave mistake in his interpretation of the verses of Parshat Vayehi (Twerski on Chumash, 2003); it is a mistake that others before him have made, and others will make as well.  Criticism is not a blessing. Even if it's constructive - and even if it's meant to help.  It is an interpretation that's almost become normative, that Yaakov Avinu blessed Reuven for example by spotlighting his impetuosity, or that the former heaped on Shimon and Levi by cursing their wrath.  That is not what the verses share, nor is it what they intended.  Rather, these are the exact words at the encore, at Yaakov's final moments:  All these are the tribes of Israel - twelve - and this is what their father spoke to them and he blessed them; he blessed each according to his appropriate blessing.  Thus, sage advice is not a blessing; it is certainly not a curse, but when you tell a person how he or she can improve it is a kindne...

 There seems to be a fascinating debate between two commentators on this week's Torah portion, Rashi and the Ramban. Rashi goes hand in hand with the medrash , otherwise known as exegesis or rabbinic biblical interpretation.  What's impressive though, is that the Ramban seems to say, "The buck stops here," refusing to accept rabbinic interpretation when it seems to contravene his simple understanding of the text, which is why, more than any other rabbi, the Ramban is the founder, crafter, and mastermind of modern day Jewish thought.  Whoever has read the Ramban on the Torah, perhaps all the more so through his attacks on Rashi, done with the greatest of deference and respect, sees that the Ramban refuses to accept the primacy of the medrash over what he would deem common sense. He worshipped the mind over tradition, seeing in his human and humane ability to understand a text something far greater than conforming to the tradition imparted by his predecessors.  And a s...

Upon reading the narrative of Joseph's interactions with the world at large, something struck me as rather unusual vis a vis the syntax and grammatical composition of many of the biblical verses. Over and over again, although entirely unnecessary - and seemingly repetitive - the Bible, rather than using the pronoun, "him," repeats the name Joseph. I have highlighted three examples from last week's portion.    When Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the ornamented tunic that he   was wearing, and took him and cast him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it (Genesis 37: 23-24).   When Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph up out of the pit. They sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who brought Joseph to Egypt (Genesis 37:28) So Joseph’s master had him put in prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. But even while he was there in prison, the L ORD was with Joseph : He extend...