A More Perfect Union
One possible approach to the notion of exceptionism is to do something that we Jews are so very good at: love critically.
One possible approach to the notion of exceptionism is to do something that we Jews are so very good at: love critically.
They locked eyes in the darkness and he could faintly make out the contours of her face. Her brown skin, a muted warm glow, framed by her dark tresses and red veil; all colors bled of their vibrancy by the pallid moonlight.
There’s a Dutch saying ‘er op of er onder!’, which translates literally as ‘on top of it or underneath’, meaning that we will either succeed gloriously or fail spectacularly but we need to give it everything we’ve got because the time is now.
The cruelty and mystery of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:1 cannot be understated. Embedded among cultic taboos circumscribing forbidden intimate relations in Parashat Acharei Mot, and juxtaposed with verses exhorting ethical conduct in K’doshim, stands the prohibition against ‘offering up offspring to Molekh’.
Each of us is waging a war, fighting a battle. Each of us will have to contend with what this all means for our souls as well as our bodies.
Why does God only have four cubits of Halakhah?
By the time I am giving this sermon, our Sedarim will have ended. Still, right now, I am seated at my dining room table, the scents of chicken soup wafting through the kitchen door.
Theology is not merely the futile exercise of debating how many angels dance on the head of a pin. Theology informs our world view and drafts our response to the moral issues of our day.
While science may help lift the veils of our ignorance and solve many mysteries, it does not bleed the mystical from our lived experience.