Hear Oh Israel!: From The Wilderness To Jerusalem
Hear Oh Israel!: From The Wilderness To Jerusalem
Hear Oh Israel!: From The Wilderness To Jerusalem
ISRAEL!: FROM
THE WILDERNESS
TO JERUSALEM”
EXODUS
PHAROAH
~ Nahum Sarna
~Rabbi Joseph
Telushkin (Jewish
Literacy)
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
1: MONOTHEISM
• Is it a commandment to believe?
“God will punish only those who persist in committing the same
evils as did their parents and other ancestors. Angry as most
Jews might be when they encounter an antisémite, most will be
even more enraged if they learn that the antisémite is German
and a descendant of an S.S. officer.”
~Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
3: THE NAME
Interpreted two ways:
… In the creation story, the seventh day is the only day that
God sanctifies (Genesis 2:3).
5: HONOUR PARENTS
“Honor means that a child must give him [his father, here
representative of both parents] food and drink, clothe and cover
him, and lead him in and out [when the parents are old and need
a helping hand]…. Revere means that a child must neither stand
nor sit in his [parents’] place, nor contradict his words, nor tip the
scale against him [by siding with his parents’ opponents in a
dispute”
~Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 31b.
6: DO NOT MURDER
“a common man will not covet the queen, who is so removed from
him socially that it will never enter the man’s head that he might
take her away from the king. Ibn Ezra counsels that God has
instructed us that our neighbour’s wife is as forbidden to us as is
the queen. Just as the common man will not spend hours
fantasizing how he will win over the queen, so too must we not
spend wasted hours imagining how we will win over our
neighbour’s spouse. That person is forbidden to us.”
~ Rabbi Joseph Telushkin on Ibn Ezra (medieval commentator)
SACRIFICE & THE SACRED
CALENDAR: LEVITICUS
JEWISH UNDERSTANDING OF ANCIENT SACRIFICE
OFFERING TO ATTAIN GOD’S
FORGIVENESS
First Temple (~ 950 B.C.E.):
atone
sacrifices offered to
for violating Torah
laws
From 90 CE onward (after the
second temple destroyed):
acts of loving-
kindness supersede
sacrifices as the preferred
way of attaining God’s
forgiveness.
TIME OF OFFERING
Today :
Prayer services offered every
morning (~shacharit) and
afternoon (~mincha) to
commemorate these daily
Temple offerings.
“studying of Torah is
a greater act than
bringing daily sacrifices”
(Babylonian Talmud, Mecjillah
3b).
OFFERING IN KIND
From animals and grain:
• peace offerings (ch 3),
• sin offerings (ch 4),
• guilt offerings (5:14–26)
• meal offerings (ch 2 and
6:7–16),
• thanksgiving offerings To Prayers (in the Siddur) for:
(7:11–15).
Peace
Forgiveness
Meals
Thanksgiving
THE JEWISH LITURGICAL CALENDAR
Passover (Pesach)
Shavuot
Rosh ha-Shanah
Sukkot
HEAR, OH ISRAEL!
TZAVA’A : “ETHICAL WILL”
ethical
Torah’s
commands
THE RABBIS ON
SHEMA
You shall love the Lord your God
Talmudic Rabbis: “[This
means that you should]
cause God to become loved
through you. One who
studies the Law, serves
Torah scholars, is honest in
his dealings and speaks
gently with people, what do
people say of him? ‘This
man who studies Torah—
how pleasant are his ways,
how becoming are his
deeds’” (Babylonian Talmud,
Yoma 86a).
TEFILLIN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uezimCF8JDg
MEZUZAH
REFLECTION
TEFILLIN AND MEZUZAH: DO YOU THINK
THEY ARE TOO LITERAL OR ARE THEY
HIGHLY SYMBOLIC?