Our Elderly When Moses descends Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments and observes the Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf, he throws down the tablets in anger, shattering them. Later, the fragments of those broken tablets are collected and put into the Ark alongside the new Ten Commandments. In a stunning analogy, the Talmud teaches “Show respect to an old man who has forgotten his learning through no fault of his own, for we have learned that the fragments of the old tablets (the Ten Commandments) were kept alongside the new tablets in the Ark of the Covenant (Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 8b). The Talmud teaches that just as the broken tablets were holy and treated with respect, the elderly who become intellectually or emotionally broken are also holy and should be treated with respect. At this time, when our elderly are deeply at risk and susceptible, the message of the Torah and [...]

Great Minds Don’t Always Think Alike The title above was the tagline of an ad campaign promoting one of the world’s most prominent lecture series in the late 1990’s. It’s a brilliant ad and it’s true. It’s also eminently Jewish. The Talmud, Judaism second holiest book after the Torah, is a 63 tractate compendium of Jewish law and lore. With all of its profound insights there are times when it is crystal clear and other times when the rabbinic arguments can be difficult to follow. And yet, the Talmud models an important quality. The Talmud doesn’t only record the final decision on Jewish legal matters. It records the arguments including both the majority and the minority opinion. That’s why when we study Talmud we are privy to many profound thinkers, including those whose arguments were rejected. The Talmud embodied the concept that the ad campaign used some 2000 years later. Great [...]

Bamidbar: The Book of Numbers* The fourth of the five books of the Torah, Bamidbar (“wilderness”), is a book about history and law. It’s the book we read in synagogue this week. The Israelites set out wandering in the desert’s wilderness soon after they are freed from Egypt and the book concludes when we are at the edge of the entrance to the Holy Land, a period of some 38 years. The events are not only described, they are interpreted, as we are reminded that God watches over us during the vicissitudes of our journey. We also learn the stiff price paid for rebellion. As we study the laws of the Sanctuary (the portable holy tabernacle and dwelling place of God’s earthly presence), laws of purity, as well as how to behave civilly, it’s worth remembering all of this was written with the goal of fulfilling the role of the [...]

Consider Reaching Out to Your Sibling In a recent discussion about sibling relationships, our weekly class read a poignant story about Rabbi Michael Gold. Rabbi Gold wrote that he and his younger brother had a bitter fight and for a full year did not speak. During that period, Rabbi Gold learned that his brother lost his job, was behind in mortgage payments and might lose his home. Rabbi Gold and his wife sent his brother money. “Why did I send him the money?” Gold asks. His response is not what I would have expected. He did so out of honor to his parents. He recalled how his father once demonstrated to him that he wanted his boys to take care of one another. Ultimately, Rabbi Gold and his brother reconciled. If you’ve been estranged or even distant from a sibling, this strikes me as a very good time to reach [...]