Torah Commentary
Perashat Emor: The Priest Within
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The idea that morality as a concept and practice is the result of forces of power in society is developed in Foucault and others. Is this definition of power = morality the case in Jewish thought?
Torah Commentary
Seventh Day of Passover: Echoing Songs of Liberation
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The Seventh day of Passover is a holiday, much like the first day. It deals with redemption and also with another stage of the deliverance from Mitzrayim, that of the splitting of the sea which allowed the Israelites to cross, and then returned to its natural state in order to swallow Pharoah’s cavalry, which had been in pursuit of the former slaves.
Torah Commentary
Leviticus: Tazria-Metzora — Holiness at the Surfaces
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Judith Butler, in a recent book, argues that even insinuations present in speech acts alone can already be damaging and destructive to society. The Ben Ish Hai in his Aderet Eliyahu provides a vivid example of how minor translocations of speech and action contain within them the capacity for what I prefer to label as dis-location, that is a movement away from normal place of being with a negative connotation.
Torah Commentary
Leviticus: Perashat Shemini — Food: Incorporation and Inclusion
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In this week’s perasha we encounter a taxonomy of “our own”, the classification of the animals permitted for our consumption, and those forbidden to us.
Torah Commentary
Leviticus: Perashat Tzav — Burning Desires
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This week we will discuss sacrifice and speech. Those of you who are fans of psychoanalysis and are looking for confirmation within Jewish sources, pay careful attention to the opening teaching, with its foreshadowing of parapraxes.
Torah Commentary
Purim
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With Purim, there is no miracle. It takes place in exile, the Jews are a persecuted minority, and a lot of political intrigue is involved.
Torah Commentary
Perashat Vayikra: Consumption and Commodification
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As we begin reading the book of Vayikra, we shift from discussing themes of narrative and liberation to dealing with concepts relating to “holiness,” a term which needs to be so radically redefined in our time that it almost has no meaning.
Torah Commentary
Perashat Vayakhel-Pekudei
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This week’s perasha recounts the repeated (or continued) call to erect the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary built to house the ark and the sacred utensils, after the debacle of the golden calf episode.
Torah Commentary
Exodus: Perashat Ki Tissa (2 essays): Beyond Edifice /The Golden Calf and the Castration Complex
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Two essays: “Beyond Edifice /The Golden Calf” and “the Castration Complex”