Be Happy, It’s Adar! How is it possible that we can be commanded to be happy on a given day? That on the first of Adar, two weeks from Purim, we should somehow manage to be joyful? The more we know of life, the more we are saddened. Global communication brings news of a friend’sContinue reading “Shabbat Mishpatim: The Necessary Subversiveness of Delight”
Tag Archives: Mishpatim
Shabbat Mishpatim: Law and Order
The Talmud records that other peoples used to make fun of the Jews, as it was well known in the ancient world already that we had entered into a covenant with HaShem, with all its opportunities and responsibilities, without asking to see the fine print. That was last week; this week, we read many of theContinue reading “Shabbat Mishpatim: Law and Order”
Shabbat Mishpatim/Shabbat Shekalim: True Judgement
A Jewish congregation is formally known as a kehillah kedoshah, a “holy community.” Such a community lives up to its name when all of us within it find ourselves off balance. That seems a strange statement at first glance. Yet it is true: as the Israelites begin to define their lives at the foot of MtContinue reading “Shabbat Mishpatim/Shabbat Shekalim: True Judgement”
Shabbat Mishpatim / Shabbat Shekalim: Community – The Difficulty Is In the Details
Every year we study once again the account of the moment when our people stood at the foot of Mt Sinai, witnessed a revelation, and became a community. Literally a “peak moment,” our commentators teach that this was the only time in all the history of our People of Israel when we were of oneContinue reading “Shabbat Mishpatim / Shabbat Shekalim: Community – The Difficulty Is In the Details”
Shabbat Mishpatim: Equality Before the Law – For All of Us
Last week in parashat Yitro we stood together at Sinai, and entered into the covenant with our G-d as a community, all equally necessary, equally precious. The text itself expresses this in unspecific language: And Moses brought forth the people [et ha’am] out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the nether partContinue reading “Shabbat Mishpatim: Equality Before the Law – For All of Us”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 