Rabbi Sacks writes about the divergence between the interpretations of Judah Halevi and Maimonides. For Maimonides, the basic principle is faith; a realization that there is a “First Being” who brought everything into existence. According to Halevi, the statement “I am the Lord your God…” is preliminary to the commands, explaining why the Israelites should be bound by the will of God.
Rabbi Mack comments on the tendency to retell events based on how we felt about them, including Moshe. She observes that for many of the events that Moshe recalls, God was originally in charge. How else do we account for the variations between Moshe’s recollection and the original narrative?
Jake Nussbaum writes about Masechet Avodah Zara 25a, which attributes 2 biblical verses to the Sefer haYashar. The question that the sages raise is: what exactly is the Sefer haYashar? Rabbi Elazar wrote that it is Devarim, because of verse 6:18 – “so what is upright and good in the sigh of the Lord…”.
Rabbi Sacks observes that tzedek and its derivate tzedakah appear 16 times in Genesis and 18 times in Deuteronomy, and only a few times in the other books. The root has so many shades of meaning that it is practically impossible to translate. It demonstrates the wide range of meaning between legal justice and the right thing to do.
Rabbi Ruskay considers the challenging text that stipulates that a woman’s vow can be nullified by her father or husband; otherwise, if she breaks it then he is culpable. Rather than skipping over it, she “leans into the text”, considering contemporary contexts. For instance, she quotes the question “what happens to our bodies when we encounter a text that challenges us because of who we are”. She observes, “our tradition is bigger than any single passage.”
Sam Berrin Shonkoff tackles the multiple challenges of this double parashah; the sexism of men nullifying women’s promises, genocide of the Midianites, ethnic cleansing of the current inhabitants of Canaan, and questions how we can meaningfully engage with such texts. He writes that we cannot evade, ignore, or whitewash the narrative, but must approach the Torah in its entirety, cultivating true shalem—wholeness in the world.
Rabbi Sacks writes about the tribes of Reuben and Gad, who will be permitted to return to their land on the east side of the Jordan river after the land is conquered, and they will be free of any obligation before God and Israel. Rabbi Sacks’ concern is that instead of being innocent before God, they must also be innocent before Israel. This enhancement has become an ethical axiom of Judaism. Appearances matter.
Rabbi Altshuler considers the narrative of the Israelites cohabiting with the Moabite women: He questions why non-Jewish women are blamed for leading Jewish men into idolatry and why God sees this as something punishable by death. For comparison, he references the writings of Charles Arthaud, of the French colony that would later become Haiti. Dr. Arthaud wrote that all people have a relationship with the Divine, yet he owned a plantation with slaves.
Dr. Sinclair comments on the lack of feminine push-back against the male domination, and the remarkable narrative of the 5 daughters of Tzlofechad. She observes that they are identified by their names, and not by their relationships to men. Secondly, they challenge the accepted social order, and the law of the land. Dr. Sinclair then analyzes the meaning of the root “g-r-ah” — to subtract, to derive meaning from the text.
Rabbi Sacks writes of the poignancy of Moses’ prayer to God to appoint a successor to lead the Jewish people. God then informs Moses that he will also be “gathered to his people as was his brother Aaron.” Rashi interprets this to mean that Moses was somewhat envious of how Aaron died. Rabbi Sacks cites Ktav Sofer, who observed that Aaron knew that his children would follow in his footsteps, yet Moses’ sons would not follow in his own.