Now that the dust has begun to settle on the freshly dug grave of Leonard Cohen (1934-2016), and we are hopefully past the hullabaloo, past the media circus which witnessed (in Leonard’s own words) “all the lousy little poets coming round,” we may begin to examine with some sobriety the literary legacy of this celebrated […]
Hallel from Heaven and Hallel from Hell – “Just as the praise of the Holy One ascends to Him from Heaven, so it ascends from Hell.” – (Midrash) What do poet Paul Celan, novelist Aharon Appelfeld, and religious legalist Meshulam Rath share in common? Two things. First, they all emerged from Tchernowitz (today Chernivtsi, Ukraine), capital of […]
By Bezalel Naor In the year 5710/1950, in honor of the tenth of Shevat, the yahrzeit of his paternal grandmother Rebbetzin Rivkah, Rabbi Yosef Yitshak Schneersohn, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, composed and distributed a ma’amar (discourse) to be studied on that day. As Divine Providence would have it, the tenth of Shevat (which fell on a […]
Said Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha: One time I entered to offer incense in the inner sanctum, and I saw Akatriel, Yah, Adonai Tseva’ot sitting upon an exalted throne, and He said to me, “Ishmael, my son, bless me.” I said to Him: “May it be Your will that Your compassion conquer Your wrath; and Your […]
There is no generation that does not take an ounce of the deed of the Calf. (Midrash Rabbah) Or as the great French Bible commentator Rashi paraphrased: “There is no calamity that befalls Israel that is not partial payment for the sin of the Calf” (Exodus 32:34). To what were the sages of Israel alluding? […]
Four Liberating Strategies By Bezalel Naor In the non-Jewish world, the second of the Five Books of Moses is referred to as “Exodus.” Scholars tell us that this name derived once upon a time from Jewish sages; the Hebrew “Yetsi’at Mitsrayim” was translated into Greek: Exodus. The medieval Spanish commentator Nahmanides does in fact refer […]
Thoughts on Rav Kook’s 80th Yahrzeit, 3 Ellul 5775/August 17-18, 2015: Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook (1865-1935) served as the first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Erets Israel. He was a preeminent Talmudist and Halachist, as well as mystic and poet. Revered as the seer of the rebirth of Israel in its land, Rav Kook had a […]
Israel’s Reaffirmation of Vows If one reads the narrative of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai purely through the Biblical lens, unaided by Rabbinic commentary, the acceptance of the Torah on the part of Israel appears to be totally volitional. The shorter version of Israel’s formal acceptance reads: “The entire people responded together […]
In 1917, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), a surrealist writer living in Prague, published in Martin Buber’s Zionist journal, Der Jude, a short story entitled “Jackals and Arabs.” The plot of the story is rather simple; the meaning—like that of most of Kafka’s works—continues to mystify readers to this day. A European gentleman camped in the desert […]
Rav Kook and Rav Shlomo Elyashev (“Leshem”) (1841-1926) The Hebrew word “Kabbalah” means literally “receiving” or “reception.” Implicit is the idea that authentic Jewish mysticism is a received tradition, into which one must be initiated by a bona fide master. Rav Kook’s rebbe in Kabbalah was none other than Rabbi Shelomo Ben Hayim Haikel Elyashev […]