After the Nazis invaded Belgium in 1940, three of my cousins, ages two, five and nine, were saved by the compassion of Catholic families. Tragically, other family members did not survive as country after country closed its borders to Jewish refugees. When the Nazis were defeated in 1945 a worldwide slogan promised, “never again.” Over the years and most recently, the unbearable suffering of desperate refugees has reminded us that the promise “never again” has faded from memory. We realize now that compassion must be invoked, summoned and rekindled again and again. As nations like Hungary brutally shut their borders, leaders like Pope Francis, the Chief Rabbi of France and the former Chief Rabbi of England have engaged in infusing compassion by appealing for world empathy, concern and caring and urging immediate refugee relief. read more

Among the many blessings in Deuteronomy 28 we read, “God will make you the head, not the tail,” and it is customary in some communities at the meal on the night of Rosh Hashanah to recite this blessing, ending it with the words, “may it be so.”

At first glance it seems that there is an unnecessary repetition in the blessing since it makes perfect sense that the one who would be the head would not be a tail. Yet Ramban saw beyond the redundancy, he emphasized that it is feasible to hold both positions simultaneously. He noted that “it is possible that one would be the head of many nations, yet the tail of one who is higher,” so that one could be the head of wolves and a tail of the lion, “the head of weaker kings yet the tail of a strong one who rules over them”. read more

He was a leader who knew that his days were numbered and he wanted to make sure that his message would survive him and become a people’s legacy. It was not so much that he sought fame because he was already a preeminent leader; he was a liberator when slavery was the social norm, he freed a people when emancipation was unheard of. He was a radical proponent of One God when monotheism was not dominant. He was an exceptional leader, but not a perfect human being; he probably was not attentive to his wife and children, lost his temper, had a hard time delegating, and blamed the whole nation for losing his most precious wish, to enter the holy land. He publicly expressed the grudge he held against them, “because of you, God was incensed with me too, and told me ‘you shall not enter it. Joshua son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter it’” (Deuteronomy 1:37). read more

David Ben-Gurion was an avid and devoted reader of the TANACH throughout his adult life in Israel, and in the process forged an abiding bond between himself and The Book of Books: “Since I had come to this land (Israel) I was shaped primarily by the TANACH. Here, in Eretz Yisrael, I had for the first time understood it in all its depth, and was influenced by it more than by any other book or literature – Jewish or non-Jewish alike”.

Among his many essays on TANACH and the Torah, Ben-Gurion dedicated a comprehensive essay to the book of Deuteronomy, which he considered unique among the books of Torah. read more

“Moses sent messengers…to the king of Edom.” The first three words in the sentence (Numbers, 20:14) appeared earlier in Torah when Jacob prepared to meet with his brother Esau, “Jacob sent messengers…to his brother Esau…in Edom” (Genesis, 32:?). The text in its choice of words in Parshat Hukat takes us back to that earlier conflict between Jacob and Esau, the twin brothers, and brings to light a complicated relationship of brothers-turned-nations of Israel and Edom, indicating, according to Ramban that “the actions of the fathers are a sign for the children.” read more

Recently, I saw Eytan Fox’ movie, Walk On Water, released in 2005. This Israeli film tells the story of an Israeli Mossad agent’s encounter with a gay German peacenik. The outcome of this encounter is a profound broadening of horizons. Eyal’s experience expands his generic and cavalier macho identity into a broader personality that encompasses his own parents’ Holocaust experience and an awareness of other communities’ persecution narratives that are parallel to his own. In other words, Eyal begins as a one-dimensonal character taken out of context. His journey is a search for context, wherein he finds new life and meaning. Without context, Eyal’s being is shallow and destructive. read more

“Be our eyes” is Moses appeal to his father in law Yitro, asking him to accompany the Israelites on their journey to the promised land. Moses turns to Yitro with a heartfelt plea, “Please do not leave us since you know where we should camp in the desert and you can be our eyes.” This emotional appeal raises the question: why and how could Yitro a Midianite priest be the eyes of the Israelites? (Numbers, 10:29-32).

“To be the eyes” surely means to guide, to direct, but the fact is that the Israelites already had the presence of the pillar of cloud that “would guide them on the road” by day and the pillar of fire to give them light at night (Exodus 10:21-22). If the Israelites already had a day-and-night protective presence why would Moses ask for Yitro’s guidance? read more

“You shall not curse the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind, you shall fear your God, I am God.” (Leviticus 19:14)
“You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old, you shall fear your God, I am God.” (19:32).
“Do not wrong one another, but fear your God for I Adonai am your God” (25:17)
“Do not exact (from the poor) advance or accrued interest, fear your God” (25”36)
“You shall not ruthlessly rule over (the slave), fear your God” (25:43)

The cautionary words “fear your God” appears only five times in Torah, and all five are in Leviticus (19, 25); all outline obligations (mitzvoth) of relations between people, in Hebrew, ben Adam lahavero; more specifically and significantly all spell out the duties and obligations to the powerless, the marginalized, those with disabilities: the deaf, the blind (literally and in the broader sense) the elderly, the stranger, the poor and the slave. read more