Talmud, Zohar, and Midrash
« Previous EntriesBetter Dead than Alive? A Tale from the Haredi Zone
Thursday, May 14th, 2009The ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel never cease to take the Jewish imagination to places where no rabbi has ever gone before. A case in point: One Israeli Haredi rabbi, Dovid Kornreich, thinks that homosexuals are better off dead than alive. In one of his popular blogs (his blogspot is called “A Voice [...]
Why did 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiba die?
Friday, May 1st, 2009Why did 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiba die [1]?
This is a question that has always fascinated me since the days I was a young rabbinical student in Israel. According to rabbinical tradition, it is because R. Akiba’s students failed to display proper respect to one another. Another tradition claims [...]
What does “rabbi” mean and when was the title first introduced?
Friday, March 27th, 2009What does “rabbi” mean, and when was the title “rabbi” first introduced?
This question is much more complex than most people realize. However, antecedents to the term רַב (rab) has some basis the Tanakh, where it denotes “great,” or chief (2 Kgs 18:17; Isa 36:2). Elsewhere the expression rab māg means [...]
The Inconspicuous Messiah
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009As Napoleon marched triumphantly through Europe, the Jews of the ghetto felt joyous by his arrival. Was Napoleon really the Messiah? Many of our ancestors thought so; but again, that was before Napoleon got defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. And then there was Franklin Delano Roosevelt better known to my [...]
Feminine Imagery in the Bible
Saturday, March 14th, 2009In a gender conscious society, people often ask if there are any specific references in the Tanakh and within Jewish tradition where God is depicted in feminine terms. Without going into considerable detail, we will briefly one example:
Similarly, in Isaiah 42:14, the prophet also depicts God’s biocentric passion for justice in feminine terms:
For a long time
I have held my peace,
I have kept still
and restrained myself;
now I will cry out
like a woman in labor,
I will gasp and pant.
Isaiah 42:14
The imagery of God acting as a mother giving birth to her child, portrays a Divine Presence that is present alongside those people who are trying to midwife a new world where human degradation, apathy and suffering no longer exist. This organic depiction of God does not portray the Divine Reality as being extrinsic or unaffected by the harsh presence of evil that is incarnated by malevolent people. The Talmud and the Midrash both describe the unfolding of the Messianic Redemption as the “Hevlay HaMashiach”-the birth-pangs of the Messiah.
According to the Talmud, the Messiah was born on the day of Tisha B’ Av, the Ninth of Av for the number nine symbolizes birth and new life. One of the most popular and intimate rabbinic names for God is Rachmana – “The Merciful One.”
The Hebrew word for “compassion” “rahameem” comes from the Hebrew word “rechem” for “womb.” God’s compassion and mercy are not extrinsic for in a metaphorical sense, we come from God’s womb. The womb is the place where all life is mysteriously conceived, carried and born. Throughout the Talmud and Midrashic literature, the Divine Presence as it is manifested among earthly mortals is called the “Shechinah.” The Talmudic depictions always convey a feminine quality that one does not find in the more traditional masculine metaphors of the Divine.
Etiologies in Genesis 1-3
Friday, March 13th, 2009As the 15th century Jewish thinker, R. Joseph Albo notes, the stories of the Edenic garden are meant to account for the difficulties of life that human beings experience.[1] More often than not, etiologies[2] in the Tanakh correspond to a negative evaluation and many people throughout the ages have read this particular story as a justification for a hierarchy where women are subordinated to men. This is precisely the point of encounter where a modern reader must insist that while etiologies provide explanations for the causes and origins of a social attitude, they should not be read as prescriptions for how the world ought to be. To go one step further, many of these prescriptions characterize a world as it ought NOT to be. Etiological explanations have their limitations, especially when ethical issues are involved; they should never prevent a person or a community from critically reexamining the basis of the etiological explanation’s internal logos. The failure to do so can sometimes lead to disastrous consequences. One example that comes to mind is the use of anesthetics in childbirth. In 1847, Church leaders quoted God’s curse to Eve: “in pain shall you bring forth children.” How could she fulfill the biblical punishment of bearing children in pain while being under the influence of chloroform? One wise doctor countered that scripturally, there was no harm in giving anesthetics to men, because God Himself put Adam into a deep sleep when He extracted his rib. However, the ecclesiastical bodies remained unconvinced when it came to the suffering of women who were in childbirth.[3]
Banning Women from Funerals?
Thursday, March 12th, 2009Q. I read recently in the Jerusalem Post (dated March 12, 2009) about a funeral that took place in the Yavneh cemetery, where the women were prohibited from walking near the graves, and one of the reasons given was because it “damages their wombs.” Another Orthodox woman said, “Due to the high rate of deaths of young people in Yavneh, the community undertook a vow not to approach the grave during a burial - and that would be the tikkun (healing) of Yavneh.”
A woman defending the custom, explained:
We implored the woman from the cemetery. We argued with her and amongst ourselves. In the meantime, some men were already returning from the burial. As they passed near us, they said we could approach the grave now since the burial had been completed. Yet cemetery woman still refused and said, “It is not good for the departed. Don’t you understand? You are sinning against the dead. You are harming his soul” and with that she silenced us. She overwhelmed us. The father of my departed cousin is religious and some of the women said he might want us to obey these shocking orders. We did not want to endanger him or his son in any way in the world to come. So we stopped trying
What is the reason for this peculiar custom? Why is there an association between a woman’s menstruation and death?
A poet’s endorsement of the new Genesis commentary
Sunday, August 17th, 2008Reading Michael’s book, Birth and Rebirth in Genesis, A Timeless Theological Conversation, I am delighted to find that the heart-thoughts of our past conversations have made it to the Rabbi’s tongue. In these pages, he has uncovered the pulse in the book of Genesis; to feel it is to renew the longing which is the precondition for psychological growth; to hear it is to revive the memory of an origin and destination buried in each of us.
The book is a profound exploration of metaphors, symbols and structures in Genesis that embody the design of divine mind projected as source and destination, that through the unfolding of this ever increasing complexity we move toward the recovery of wholeness. Rabbi Samuel does this through an inter-disciplinary approach that calls upon the Biblical scholar’s command of history, tradition and philology, the humanist’s grasp of literary narrative, the application of anthropological/sociological resources of the social scientist, and the analytical psychologist’s understanding of developmental and archetypal patterns. His ability to synthesize the intelligence from these disciplines allows him to distinguish the Jungian archetype of The Shadow, that part of the dark material in the individual and collective psyches that must be integrated rather than projected, from the objective existence of Evil, “which has an ontology all of its own” derived from primordial chaos. He discusses The Fall not as the grand betrayal of God by man, but the true awakening of consciousness that can only proceed from the painful separation from the unconsciousness of Eden.
The Conversion Crisis — Part I
Friday, June 27th, 2008Q. Why are Reform & Conservative rabbis so anxious for new converts? Aren’t they supposed to discourage conversions?
A: Each conversion case must be by definition carefully examined by the merits or demerits of that particular case. I cannot speak for the Reform Movement, but I have worked with both Orthodox and Conservative rabbis on [...]
Being Gay and Orthodox
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008Being Gay and Orthodox (Revised March 25, 2009)
Q: According to the Talmud, one of the 4 questions that God asks a person after he dies is: Did you fulfill your duty in establishing a family?
This topic has been on my mind for a while. I am a 35 year old male. [...]