Political Extremism in Hebron
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschNovember 9, 1996Theme: IsraelOur parasha opens with the death of Sarah at the age of 127. Later in the parasha, when Abraham will breathe his last "at a...
View ArticleA Bold Exegetical Gambit
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschDecember 2, 1995Theme: Jewish ThoughtWhy does Jacob abandon the security of his parents home in Beer-sheba? The obvious answer is to flee from the wrath of...
View ArticleJudaism and the Afterlife
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschJanuary 6, 1996Theme: Jewish ThoughtThe title of this week's parasha is full of irony. The word "va-yehi -and he (i.e. Jacob) lived" (as the word...
View ArticleA Hardened Heart
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschJanuary 20, 1996Theme: Jewish Thought"To harden the heart" is a figure of speech that goes back to the book of Exodus. Associated with Pharaoh's defiance...
View ArticleMemory: Judaism's Lifeblood
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschMarch 2, 1996Theme: History My father died 14 years ago. This week I will observe his Yahrzeit once again. The date of a Yahrzeit is determined by the day...
View ArticleTorah in the Face of Tragedy
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschMarch 9, 1996Theme: GodThe month of Adar has hardly been a herald of joy for our people this year, as it traditionally is. At best we can observe Purim in...
View ArticleTo Be Heard Is To Be Helped
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschMarch 23, 1996Theme: Jewish ThoughtTranslations conceal as much as they convey. A translator may choose to bring the original to his reader or the reader...
View ArticleHow We Acquire Our Names
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschMay 18, 1996Theme: Life CycleI am not the same person I was last year when we read the book of Numbers in the synagogue. The changes in my life reveal...
View ArticleWho was Nethanel ben Zuar?
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschJune 1, 1996Theme: HistoryYou will indulge me, I hope, if I stay with the minor biblical figure of Nethanel son of Zuar, leader of the tribe of Issachar,...
View ArticleThere Are No Shortcuts
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschJune 8, 1996Theme: Jewish ThoughtThe nation Moses brought out of Egypt shared neither his vision nor faith. Miracles did not quash its murmuring against...
View ArticleWealth and Ego
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschJune 22, 1996Theme: Jewish ThoughtOur parasha this week bears and perpetuates the name of Korah, the arch rebel against Moses's leadership. But Korah and...
View ArticleJewish Time
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschJuly 13, 1996Theme: Conservative JudaismThe tantalizingly fragmented book of Numbers closes with a new generation of Israelites, born and bred in the...
View ArticleOur Capacity for Evil, Our Capacity for Good
Collection: Torah CommentaryDr. Ismar SchorschJuly 27, 1996Theme: AmericaOn the first anniversary of the bomb blast which erased 168 lives in the Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995,...
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