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Beshalach: The Mouth of Freedom

Mois Navon — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:21:47 +0000

The greatness of man – his dignity and his creativity – is expressed in his freedom of will and in his ability to choose. – Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik Following the tenth plague in Egypt the Jewish people went free; yet it was not until they crossed the sea that they achieved true freedom. A hint [...]

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Bo: The Tongue of a Dog teaches all of Egypt

Mois Navon — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:02:15 +0000

“The foundation of religion is not the affirmation that God is, but that God is concerned with man and the world” – Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits The Exodus from Egypt, wrought through the ten plagues, served the twofold purpose of delivering the Jews from their oppression as well as introducing a clear knowledge of God as [...]

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Vaera: The Reluctant Redeemer

Mois Navon — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:18:46 +0000

The most important quality of a prophet, explains Rabbeinu Nissim, after being of perfect mind and moral character, is that of speech. How could it be, he asks, that Moses lacked this most essential trait? Moses, as it were, is in full agreement with Rabbeinu Nissim, using his very argument to decline the position: “I [...]

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Shemot: Between emotional empathy and rational empathy

Mois Navon — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:41:17 +0000

How is one to respond to the suffering, pain and tragedy of another? If this question is of grave import with regard to individuals, its ramifications are magnified exponentially when applied to a nation: How is a leader to respond to crisis or calamity in his nation? At the height of the Jewish people’s affliction [...]

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Vayechi: On Evil Eyes and Rotten Bones

Mois Navon — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 21:48:43 +0000

Joseph’s last will and testament (Genesis 50:24-26), like that of his father’s before him, contains the message of redemption as well as an oath binding his descendents to bury him in the land of Israel. Yet, whereas Jacob said, “carry me out of Egypt”, Joseph said, “carry up my bones out of here.” It is [...]

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Vayigash: Wagons Laden with Meaning

Mois Navon — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 08:54:16 +0000

“[Symbolism] seeks to clothe the Idea in a tangible from … Accordingly, in this art, scenes from nature, human activities, and all other real world phenomena will not be described for their own sake; here, they are perceptible surfaces created to represent their esoteric affinities with the primordial Ideas.” – Jean Moréas, the Symbolist Manifesto. [...]

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Miketz: Hope in Shattered Vessels

Mois Navon — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:14:43 +0000

Living in an imperfect world, broken by troubles and characterized by crisis, begs the question: is there hope of repair? The answer, I suggest, is to be found in ancient Egypt at a time when the world was broken by fierce famine: Now Jacob saw that there was corn (shever) in Egypt, and Jacob said [...]

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Vayeshev: majesty and humility

Mois Navon — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:51:48 +0000

“Man, in Judaism, was created for both victory and defeat – he is both king and saint. He must know how to fight for victory and also how to suffer defeat.” – Rabbi Soloveitchik, “Majesty and Humility” Man, explains Rabbi Soloveitchik, is a dialectical being whose objective is to emulate a dialectical God. On the [...]

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Vayishlach: The Paradox of the Righteous who Suffer

Mois Navon — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:19:20 +0000

The believer in God must account for one thing: the existence of evil; the atheist, however, must account for the existence of everything else. – Milton Steinberg In preparation for his first meeting with Esau, from whom he had fled from some twenty years prior, Jacob sends messengers with the greeting: “I am at peace [...]

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Vayetzei: An Ecstatic Dream-Work

Mois Navon — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 10:17:49 +0000

The most wonderful aspect of revelation, then, is not its content, but its possibility: Not the word of God, but the encounter itself. … not an idea conveyed, but a relationship formed – Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits, God, Man and History. Jacob’s dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder reaching to the heavens is perhaps [...]

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Toldot: The Torah Entire

Mois Navon — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:10:24 +0000

The Halakha, which was given to us from Sinai, … declares that any religiosity which does not lead to determinate actions, firm and clear-cut measures, chiseled and delimited laws and statues, will prove sterile – Rabbi Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man. When God reveals Himself to Isaac with the blessing of the covenant, He tells him that [...]

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Hayei Sarah: The Covenant for Life

Mois Navon — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:36:07 +0000

In a discussion of who has the right to influence Jewish destiny in the land of Israel, Rabbi Herschel Schachter writes that such an individual must essentially obtain of three qualities: he must circumcise his sons as an expression of his commitment to all that the covenant entails,[1] he must reside in the land of [...]

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Vayera: Developing Faith

Mois Navon — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:30:43 +0000

“The man of faith, animated by his great experience, is able to reach a point at which not only his logic of the mind but even his logic of the heart and of the will, everything – even his own “I” awareness – has to give in to an ‘absurd’ commitment” – Rabbi Soloveitchik, “The [...]

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Lech Lecha: The “Great Wealth” of Synthesis

Mois Navon — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:34:23 +0000

In his “Philosophy of History”, Georg Hegel described the course of history as progressing through what is known as the “dialectic triad” – a process wherein an idea or movement – the thesis – meets with opposition – the antithesis – prompting a struggle that develops until a resolution – the synthesis – is reached. [...]

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Noah: On Pleasure, Power and Purpose

Mois Navon — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 13:45:14 +0000

In an attempt to define what motivates man, Freud proposed that it is “will to pleasure” and Adler opined that it is “will to power”. So fundamental are these drives to the human condition that the Bible highlights them in two seminal narratives: “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” and “The Tower of [...]

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