In the final speeches of Moses certain themes recur that a kind of undertone but crucial cores of being a good Jew and a good person. The two ought to go together. It is clear that he regards the Sinai Revelation as the will of God for His people. The constitution is at the core of Jewish life. But at…
Parsha Va’ethanan
Fire and Sinai/Horeb
Nine times in this speech of Moses, the Torah mentions fire in the context of what happened on Sinai or Horeb, the two names seem interchangeable. Why so much emphasis on fire? Combine this with the Pillar of Fire that symbolized the presence of God, it seems that fire was a metaphor for the experience the people were meant to…
Belief in God
The second time the Ten Commandments are mentioned, at the end of the forty years, there are some minor differences. Such as “Keep the Shabbat” instead of “Remember the Shabbat. “ Or “In order that He will be good to you” which is added in the second version of the command to honor one’s parents. “And do not commit adultery,”…
Shabbat
In the Exodus version of the Ten Principles, Commandments, the reason given for keeping one day a week devoted to God, is because in the creative process of the world God rested on the Seventh Day. Active creativity requires a counterpoint. The physical needs the spiritual to complement it. It is not just a matter of a negative day off…
The Shema
This week’s reading includes the Shema. “Listen Israel, God is your God and there is only One God.” Here we have the very core of Jewish ideas. We do not have complicated theologies telling us in detail how and what to believe, just these very basic general concepts. In the Shema we are asked simply to accept the existential reality…
Different Versions
Why are there different versions of the Ten Principles? Or different versions of what happened on mount Sinai. Who spoke to whom and who heard what is not at all clear. Or repeated stories? Take Shabbat, at one stage we are commanded to “remember.” On another to “keep.” In The song we sing on Friday night, Lecha Dodi, we say…